It's usually not a good thing when an interview ends in bloodshed, but an exception will be made for Ward Just, who was still nursing his wounds from a battle with a wicker basket when this reporter left his West Tisbury home one morning this week.

Donning their favorite clothes and backpacks full of new pens and notebooks with corners still perfectly crisp, some 2,350 students will begin a new school year this week at the Island\'s seven public schools. Before the first bell, they will shut off their iPods, put their cell phones on silent and turn their full attention to their new teachers - and old friends, perhaps unseen since summer began.

Donning their favorite clothes and backpacks full of new pens and notebooks with corners still perfectly crisp, some 2,350 students will begin a new school year this week at the Island's seven public schools. Before the first bell, they will shut off their iPods, put their cell phones on silent and turn their full attention to their new teachers - and old friends, perhaps unseen since summer began.

Most Vineyarders think of Labor Day weekend as the final push before the cathartic cleansing that comes with the departure of summer visitors. And now that it is over, business owners have a chance to catch their breath and evaluate how summer business fared. So far evaluations are mixed.

Like the Summer Weather, Business Had Bumpy Ride, Landing Softly Labor Day

By JIM HICKEY

Most Vineyarders think of Labor Day weekend as the final push before the cathartic cleansing that comes with the departure of summer visitors. And now that it is over, business owners have a chance to catch their breath and evaluate how summer business fared. So far evaluations are mixed.

Roughly three decades ago a country lawyer from Maine unearthed a forgotten 18th-century federal law and sparked a series of large Indian land claims that led to federal recognition for a number of tribes throughout the Northeast, including the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).