While widespread disapproval with the direction of the country threatens to unseat the Republican-controlled Congress in the nationwide election next week, growing unhappiness with Dukes County government on the Island has created an opportunity for Vineyard voters to bring about change on the regional level.

Returning Home to West Tisbury with Sunny Outlook on Farming

By IAN FEIN

Emily Fischer feels privileged to have grown up as she has - on her family's Flat Point Farm in West Tisbury - among sheep, chickens and bales of hay spread out over more than 100 acres fronting Tisbury Great Pond.

"I look around the farm some days and think, ‘Anybody should be so lucky to be me,' " Ms. Fischer said.

Oak Bluffs Innkeeper Challenges Commission Decision in Court

By IAN FEIN

A Dukes County superior court judge yesterday heard arguments in a one-day trial that explored the limits of commercial expansion in an eclectic residential neighborhood of Oak Bluffs.

Town resident Jack E. Robinson Sr. is challenging the Martha's Vineyard Commission denial of a proposed 10-bedroom expansion to his inn and tennis center on New York avenue. The commission reviewed the project in the summer of 2005 as a development of regional impact (DRI).

Regional Formula Set for Discussion

State Education Officials Travel Here for Public Meeting on Anticipated Changes in District Assessments

By IAN FEIN

With selectmen across the Vineyard weighing in on expected changes to the way their towns pay for the regional school districts, education officials from Boston will travel to the Island next week to field questions about the state-driven shift.

Pentagon officials are calling for additional studies to determine whether the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound would impair a crucial missile

Following a category two hurricane or a 50-year coastal storm, Beach Road and Eastville avenue would likely be buried under water, and the only rem