Oak Bluffs selectmen unanimously approved an application to alter the premises over Danny Quinn’s Pub, allowing Mark Wallace to move forward with plans to create a banquet hall facility that could accommodate large events such as weddings, dances and balls.

Selectmen agreed to sign off on an application that will be sent to the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC). Under state law any establishment that serves alcohol is required to make an application to the ABCC any time they make substantive changes to the premises.

Tisbury Flu Vaccinations

Tisbury School students will get H1N1 flu vaccinations today. A clinic took place at the Edgartown School yesterday.

Superintendent Dr. James Weiss has sent notices and forms to parents at all Island schools notifying them that stucent vaccination clinics have begun.

The deadline for return of forms from the Oak Bluffs School and the high school is Nov. 21.

The knock-on effects of the financial crisis continue to manifest themselves in diverse and unforeseen ways. This week they paralyzed the board of governors of the Steamship Authority and forced them to the cost and bother of having to convene a special meeting.

To explain, you must start with one of the giant casualties of the crisis, Bank of America.

You will recall that this bank got into deep trouble a year or so back, first because of sub-prime mortgages and then because of its shotgun marriage to the even-more-troubled Merrill Lynch.

For 60 years the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy championed many liberal causes, from immigration reform to civil rights, but he regarded national health care reform as the cause of his life. After his death in August, many Democrats adopted the slogan “Win one for Teddy,” to revise their party’s flagging efforts for national health care reform.

Ag Fair Is Best in Show

The Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society won four awards including the Best of Show honor at the 2009 Massachusetts Agricultural Fairs’ Association Media Awards competition held this month in Marlborough.

The fair’s poster, by the Vineyard Gazette’s Morgan Lucero, was awarded best of show.

Cronig’s Gets Greener

While building a new deli section in their Vineyard Haven store, Cronig’s Market also has shifted to more biodegradable and compostable items made from corn and bulrush. The gocery store already shifted to different packaging for its meat products; now a new line from Vineyard Haven retailer Eco MV means changes to Cronig’s soup cups, cutlery, unbleached deli sheets, to-go containers, and various other packaging containers for the deli and salad bar.