When a powerful northeast storm barreled through the Atlantic seaboard and most everyone else complained or hid inside, Coast Guard Station Menemsha embraced it.

Martha’s Vineyard is set to become a laboratory for social change, as a broad coalition of Islanders prepares to launch a public health campaign aimed at combating the abuse of alcohol and drugs.

Carolyn Ryan, assistant managing editor at the New York Times and former metro editor at the Boston Globe, has spent most of her professional life leading newsrooms.

Funding for design work on a new fire station and EMS building, and improvements in Menemsha harbor are set to come before Chilmark voters at a special town meeting Monday night.