John H. Kennedy
By JOHN H. KENNEDY
Edward W. (Peter) Vincent Jr., a well-known Edgartown attorney and longtime community leader who has served on an array of town and Island boards, was ordered by a district court judge last week to serve 100 hours of community service and two years probation after he admitted to sufficient facts on larceny charges involving two real estate transactions he handled.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to launch a statewide inquiry into drunken driving acquittal rates by judges drew mixed reviews this week from Edgartown district court’s first justice and questions from the Cape and Islands district attorney.
The state’s highest court has appointed Jack Cinquegrana, a former federal prosecutor and president of the Boston Bar Association, to examine acquittal rates in Massachusetts district courts when a defendant asks for a judge, rather than a jury, to determine guilt or innocence at trial.
The number of drunken driving cases filed in the Island’s district court has dropped significantly over the past few years, even outpacing a statewide downward trend.
According to figures obtained from the state Office of the Commissioner of Probation, drunken driving arraignments in Edgartown district court last year fell nearly 24 per cent — to 126 arraignments — from the previous year, and 38 per cent since 2008.
As hundreds of West Tisbury residents, including selectmen and moderator, awaited the beginning of the annual town meeting, Daniel Waters stood up to recite, not a prayer but a poem written especially for the occasion.
Tonight the gym is filled with chairs
In which our town will sit
Our democratic derrieres
And chew the fat a bit.
‘It seems we did this just last week,’
We comment with a groan;
Yet measured by our own physique,
Like most of us, Steven Rattner knew little about the automobile industry when in early 2009 he accepted the unenviable task of helping craft a government rescue plan for Detroit’s automakers.
But unlike most of us, Mr. Rattner knew more than a little about finance and profitable companies. And as President Obama’s former “car czar,” he has produced a readable book about the experience in Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.
To the newly arrived hacker on the Island, Mink Meadows sounds like some kind of luxury fur farm. But Vineyard golfers know better.
For 75 years now, the Mink Meadows Golf Club has welcomed players who appreciate its layout, condition and laid-back culture. The nine-hole track on West Chop — just a drive and a wedge from Lake Tashmoo — has hosted everyone from U.S. presidents and captains of industry to farmers and trades people.