Garage Owner Faces Deadline

Oak Bluffs Building Inspector Issues Order for Revised Plan; North Bluff Controversy Buffets Mr. Moujabber

By CHRIS BURRELL

The owner of a controversial three-story garage in Oak Bluffs is now under the gun to file revised architectural plans for the project within the next 13 days, or else face official pressure to demolish the backyard building.

As Political Season Opens, Well-Funded Campaign Targets State Senate Seat

By CHRIS BURRELL

Yard signs are starting to sprout on Island lawns, and fundraisers are in the offing, but the real proof that a hot race is under way for a spot on Beacon Hill came last week: Financial disclosures revealed the war chests and spending of candidates for the state legislature.

The message is clear.

The ashtrays at two private clubs in Oak Bluffs - the Portuguese-American Club and the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall - came off the bar counters and table tops this week and were moved to the front porch.

The last bastions for smokers who liked to light up while hoisting a beer with friends are now smoke-free zones. The Oak Bluffs board of health voted unanimously Tuesday to ban smoking in the two private clubs.

Guiding Lights: New Principals Are on the Job at Two Schools

By CHRIS BURRELL

It's the day before school starts, and these two new principals - on the job just four days - barely have even a few minutes to stop and talk.

But in a short amount of time, Michael Halt and Diane Gandy manage to reveal something about themselves - a worldliness they share from experiences outside the realm of education and a giddiness about where they've landed.

Take Mr. Halt, for starters.

Ripples of Hurricane Frances left a tragic mark on a remote section of Chilmark's south shore Friday afternoon. A rip current is being blamed in the drowning death of a 58-year-old woman from Cambridge who was swimming with a friend.

Gwenneth Knight, a consultant to the Harvard University Art Museums on Indian and Islamic acquisitions, died Saturday after being airlifted to Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston from the Martha's Vineyard Hospital.

Like cracking open a pack of new pencils with the eraser tops still bright pink, the Vineyard school year starts Thursday with a fresh cast - a new bus company, four new administrators and more than a dozen teachers newly hired into Island classrooms.