Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr. is passionate about roots. The Harvard professor, writer and genealogist first started on a family tree as a nine-year-old, after his grandfather’s burial, wanting to know about his connection to his father and grandfather. He’s followed his passion in his professional life, through scholarship and his popular television shows tracing people’s genealogy, and in the personal realm: still working on the family tree, he is trying to find the identity of his great-great-grandfather.

On the morning that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan will be his running mate, Martha’s Vineyard Democrats focused on a more local political decision as they heard from the two candidates they will choose between in the congressional primary on Sept. 6.

A New York woman is facing a cocaine trafficking charge in what Edgartown police are calling one of the biggest drug busts in recent memory late last week. Police said the arrest is connected to a larger operation bringing cocaine to the Vineyard.

On the morning that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan will be his running mate, Martha’s Vineyard Democrats focused on a more local political decision as they heard from the two candidates they will choose between in the congressional primary on Sept. 6.

A New York woman is facing a cocaine trafficking charge in what the Edgartown police chief said was one of the biggest drug busts in recent memory.

Mitefea Kelly, 18, was arraigned Friday morning in Edgartown district court after being arrested Thursday for allegedly carrying more than 270 grams of cocaine.

Islanders seem to voice the complaint nearly as often as they grumble about summer traffic backups at the blinker light and spiking prices at the gas pump:

You can’t find a primary care doctor on the Island.