Ocean scientists with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discovered a group of previously unknown hydrothermal vents last month, providing researchers with new opportunities to deepen their understanding of this deep-sea phenomenon.

Oak Bluffs voters rejected the controversial light industrial mixed use proposal, Edgartown residents decided to postpone a proposed party bylaw indefinitely, and after a long discussion West Tisbury passed regulations on short-term rentals.

Democracy at the ground level — in a grammar school gym, a town hall and a performing arts center — arrives today when a trio of town meetings opens the political season on the Vineyard.

They gathered at libraries, schools, on the Main streets of towns and in backyards. They huddled on beach chairs, stood at the Aquinnah Cliffs, the Big Bridge and anywhere else that offered prime viewing spots. And in Edgartown, a couple were married at town hall.

Hundreds of people crowded into the regional high school gym Sunday afternoon, filling the bleachers and sidelines for the memorial scholarship basketball tournament in honor of Waylon Madison Sauer.