Dukes County News

Karen Booraem, a decorator and the owner of Interiors by Decorating Den in Harwich, recently won two international design awards at her company's annual design and market conference in San Diego.

When the telephone rings at suppertime it may be a telemarketer. Or it may be a professional fund-raiser looking for money for a local police or sheriff's organization.

That's how long it took to find Beryl Frey on Wednesday, June 24, thanks to a remarkable program that uses electronic gadgetry to find missing people.

Ravaging of the river herring population by midwater trawlers and an absence of round-the-clock environmental police protection were the hot topics at a meeting between Cape and Islands Rep.

In April 2005 the Steamship Authority filed a complaint in Dukes County Superior Court against the town of Falmouth to block the Vineyard's mainland port community from imposing new licensing fees and regulations on boatline parking lots.

Tisbury selectmen consider new stop sign on Main St. The Tisbury selectmen bowed out of the Katharine Cornell Theatre for their meeting Tuesday night and met at the Tisbury Senior Center instead.

Once again, the Steamship Authority will avoid paying the town of Falmouth a surcharge on its parking spaces.

After nearly three years of legal struggle with Edgartown's zoning board of appeals , the Cozy Hearth Community Corporation recently won the second round, this time in court.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health Monday confirmed the first case of H1N1 influenza on Martha's Vineyard.

A woman in her early 40s was hospitalized for two nights last week with a confirmed case of H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, Martha's Vineyard Hospital chief executive officer Timothy Walsh confirmed late yesterday.

Having failed once to close the books on fiscal 2009, Aquinnah tried again last night to achieve the quorum needed to convene a special town meeting .

Authorities have confirmed 86 new cases of swine flu in Massachusetts, raising the total to 940 since the outbreak began in April.

A decade ago, justice on Martha's Vineyard consisted of two options. If you broke the law, a judge could send you to jail, or hand you over to the office of probation.

The Dukes County Health Council's Youth Task Force will host a program Monday, June 8, to discuss social host liability, the legal term that describes the criminal and civil liabilities that apply when a host furnishes alcohol to a guest.

The Animal Shelter of Martha's Vineyard is up and running, funded by $32,700 in donations since the group was formed two months ago.

Each day at the Dukes County Courthouse, dramas small and large play out in the courtroom, as the court officers, probation officers, attorneys, and judges play their roles and hammer out justice on a small Island.

Faced with a budget deficit for the current and next fiscal years that could total $1 million or more combined, Oak Bluffs officials are bracing for hard choices likely to include a special town meeting to slash spending as well as laying off some town employees.

Although clouded by the recession - and a little rain - the Island's Memorial Day weekend activities nonetheless provided a traditional mix of respectful remembrance and pre-summer celebration.

GRIZZLY BEAR'S MUSIC sounds like a Windows Media Player visualization pattern set on random looks: a continuous flow of brilliant colors that grows and shrinks, mesmerizes and baffles, and, occasionally, can give you a headache over long intervals.

Hope for an ailing Island commercial fishery was on the menu at the Home Port restaurant in Menemsha Wednesday night, along with some hearty chowder and fresh herb-crusted swordfish.