For the second time in his life, Dr. Kenneth Edelin on Tuesday evening stood at the Shearer Cottage in Oak Bluffs plagued by uncertainty. Thirty-two years and six days earlier, a group of Oak Bluffs women had organized a benefit dance at the cottage to help raise funds for the young doctor's legal fees. He had just been convicted of manslaughter for performing a late-term abortion.

Boat Line Reports Summer Traffic Is Up

By MIKE SECCOMBE

If the traffic on Vineyard roads seems worse this summer and the straggling crowds more numerous, it's not an illusion. The most recent figures on ferry traffic prove it.

Numbers released by the Steamship Authority this week show more than 230,000 passengers and almost 40,000 cars were carried for the month of June alone, a six per cent increase in people and almost three per cent increase in cars compared with last June.

Island Plan Series Heads to Final Round With Wednesday Forum on Development

By MIKE SECCOMBE

After 18 months of research and meetings, benign intentions and utopian visions for future of the Vineyard, tomorrow will mark the point, predicted Jim Athearn, where the rubber really hits the road.

Wednesday evening is the final in the series of the Island Plan public forums - the big one, where motherhood intentions meet vested interests: development and growth. The forum begins at 7:30 p.m. in the new agricultural hall in West Tisbury.

Howard Dean Tells Democrats a New Day Is Coming in 2008

By MIKE SECCOMBE

It's scary what political parties know about you. Even Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee concedes that, although he relishes it too.

"We can tell you what magazines you read, what DVDs you watch, which restaurants you go to and what credit cards you use, et cetera, et cetera," he told a crowd gathered for a fundraiser at the East Chop home of Connie Borde last Thursday.

Andrew Woodruff, the owner of Whippoorwill Farm who is best known for bringing community supported agriculture to the Vineyard, is scrambling to put together a group to buy Thimble Farm to block a sale of the farm to a private buyer.

The deadline is August 28 and the outcome is at best uncertain.