The lobster fishery in the waters around Martha's Vineyard has collapsed. Today a new minimum size for lobsters goes into effect. The increase, a tiny fraction of an inch, it is being imposed in an effort to protect juvenile lobsters. Another increase will take place on July 1, but many fisheries experts concede these steps are too late, the horse is already out of the barn.

Oak Bluffs Police Receive Overtime Pay

By CHRIS BURRELL

Oak Bluffs police officers are about to receive the kind of windfall most employees only dream of - getting paid for hours never worked.

Acting decisively on a grievance filed by the police union back in September 2001, an arbitrator last month ruled that former police chief Joseph Carter wrongly bypassed regular police officers when it came to filling overtime shifts.

Five years ago, Kim Angell found herself one step away from being a welfare mom.

"My husband disappeared. I had no job, three children under the age of six, and it was January," Ms. Angell said this week. "I had no money to pay my mortgage, let alone child care."

Island Education Leaders Fear Budget Cut Layoffs

By CHRIS BURRELL

Bracing for the possibility of even deeper cuts to state aid for schools, Island school leaders now say they must consider laying off teachers and trimming both academic and extra-curricular programs.

The dire forecast came this week in reaction to Gov. Mitt Romney's proposed budget, which included significant cutbacks to the Vineyard's two regional school districts - up-Island and the high school.

MVC Election Wins Approval

State House Compromise Clears Path for Special Vote in May on a Petition in Oak Bluffs to Secede from Commission

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

After a week of back-room politics on Beacon Hill that left one Cape and Islands legislator openly fuming at what he called "outside muscle," a petition by the town of Oak Bluffs to withdraw from the Martha's Vineyard Commission is now set to come before voters at a special election in the middle of May.

The election will be held on May 13.

Iraq Countdown Separates Young Vineyard Family

By MANDY LOCKE

Seventeen hours before Jared Meader joined his comrades in Western Massachusetts, he sipped a whiskey sour, chatted with his buddies from the sheriff's department and helped his daughter, Hailey, grab a Cheeto just beyond the reach of her two-year-old arms.