With cannons firing from three wharves around the harbor, a Navy warbird lacing the sky overhead with trails of white smoke and a piper sending her down to the sea to the tune of Scotland the Brave, the schooner Rebecca was launched from the Tisbury Marine Railway Company late Tuesday afternoon.

Hospital leaders gave themselves a checkup this week, and while no crisis was detected, there was a prescription - for more work.

Tissue samples taken last September from a Chilmark skunk and a Katama rat tested positive for tularemia, the rare disease that infected 15 people on the Island last year, killing one man who did not seek medical attention in time.

In greater numbers than ever before, Islanders are looking for - and finding - the help to get clean and sober.

Skateboarders and their backers have high hopes for a meeting this Tuesday when board members at the Martha's Vineyard Ice Arena are expected to decide whether to lease arena land for use as a skateboard park.