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On October 31st 1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 struck the ocean with the loss of all on board. The end of the NTSB's final summary reads thusly "The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the EgyptAir flight 990 accident is the airplane's departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs. The reason for the relief first officer's actions was not determined."

Wreck of the The Two Brothers found 600 miles northwest of Honolulu Divers have found the shipwrecked vessel of a doomed sailor who inspired the classic American tale Moby Dick off the coast of Hawaii.When, in 1820, a fierce sperm whale sank George Pollard's first whaling ship — Essex — it captured the imagination of author Herman Melville, who published the book in 1851.And, just three years after his first ship sank, a second whaler captained by Pollard, 30, struck a coral reef during a night storm and sank in shallow water.Marine archaeologists scouring remote atolls 600 miles northwest...

The Nantucket Massachusetts Cape Wind plans to built the first U.S. offshore wind park are blowing some toxic waste to the surface of the broad zeal to create “green” industries. These toxins are not of the materially harmful kind, but consist of all the pretensions at the core of too much human self-indulgence floating around the quagmire of the green energy movement. The planned 130 wind turbine forest covering 24 sq. miles, which is intended to become a symbol of alternative energy on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, could also become an enormous subsidy magnet, sucking $731 million from taxpayers,...

The Nantucket Tea Party will be one of more than a thousand such protest events to be held across the nation on Independence Day. The organizers were all set. They were given permission by the Town’s head of Park and Recreation. After the local paper publicized the event, some members of the Nantucket Park and Recreation Commission decided to forget about the First Amendment. One local official was quoted as saying “we don’t want politics on Main Street.” Apparently the head of Park and Recreation was overruled by the commissioners. The Nantucket Tea Party then got permission to use a...

BOSTON — A federal agency said Friday that the nation’s first offshore wind farm, proposed for the waters off Cape Cod, posed no serious environmental threat, bringing it a major step closer to fruition. Homeowners and boaters on the cape, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, have fought the project for eight years, saying it would hurt wildlife, fishing and tourism and spoil the beauty of Nantucket Sound. Opponents have sued to stop the project, known as Cape Wind, and more challenges are certain, keeping the path to construction bumpy despite what supporters on Friday called a crucial...

Nantucket will curtail its 30-year rodent program, saving dollars and, alas, a few rats, too. Health director Richard Ray said more than money was at issue. The town is worried about liability now that the rats have grown so immune to the poison that the amounts needed to kill them are fatal to pets and other animals. “We’re not getting into the field any longer so we don’t have control to deal with the placement of this stuff,” he said. “We don’t want to see an incident where a family pet gets into this stuff.” High demand for rat eradication...

After Nantucket house party, dog found dead in washing machine July 25, 2008 A Yorkshire Terrier was found dead in a washing machine Wednesday, the day after one of its owners hosted a party at a Nantucket home, police said.

Wind farms are springing up in Midwestern fields, along Appalachian ridgelines, and even in Texas backyards. They're everywhere, it seems, except in the windy coastal waters that lap at some of America's largest, most power-hungry cities. That's partly because the first large-scale effort to harness sea breezes in the U.S. hit resistance from an army led by the rich and famous, waging a not-on-my-beach campaign. For almost eight years the critics have stalled the project, called Cape Wind, which aims to place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound about five miles south of Cape Cod. Yet surprisingly, Cape Wind has largely...

Newsmax.com Ted Kennedy Dumps Fuel into Nantucket Sound Friday, March 14, 2008 9:14 AM Ted Kennedy has called Nantucket Sound near his Massachusetts estate “a national treasure” — but that didn’t stop the senator from having oil dumped from his yacht into its waters. A local photographer spotted an oil slick coming from Kennedy’s yacht Mya as Kennedy and his guests left the vessel in a launch following a race that ended in Hyannis, the Cape Cod Today newspaper reported. The lensman was so shocked that he rowed his dinghy out to question the crew member left aboard the yacht....

Once upon a time, Ted Kennedy could count on his daily dose of veneration. The right wing hated the Massachusetts Democrat, but progressives honored him as a defender of old-school liberalism. In a remarkable turnaround, liberals are now heaping scorn on the 73-year-old senator. Young audiences boo at his name, and the leftish "Daily Show" on Comedy Central makes fun of him. The source of unhappiness is Kennedy's efforts to kill an offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was to be the first such project in the United States and a source of pride to environmentally minded New...

Really funny stuff. http://youtube.com/watch?v=LEaOkhWOZ1A

Jim Gordon May Have an Answer to our Energy Problems An alternative to oil? Check. Completely green? Check. Economical? Check. So why has the entrepreneur been sued, pilloried, and lampooned? From: FastCompany.com | July 2007 | By: Kermit Pattison Jim Gordon has a vision. It moves him so much that he abandoned his chair about an hour ago and paces the corridors and rooms of his Boston offices. He stops at a map of Cape Cod and taps his finger in the middle of Nantucket Sound. He wants you to understand why it's the perfect site for America's first offshore...

NANTUCKET — In response to a request from local police, federal immigration agents conducted a series of early morning raids yesterday searching for illegal immigrants on a list of about 26 "hard targets," most of whom had committed crimes on the island, the Nantucket police said. "This was not a roundup of people here illegally," Police Chief William Pittman said. Of the 18 people arrested, 16 had criminal histories and six had been ordered removed from the country by an immigration judge, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. Two others were picked up because they were in...

They came to Nantucket to mow lawns, clean hotel rooms, and build houses. But while living and working on the island, they became victims of crime. One was stabbed, another beaten, another robbed -- all by immigrants like them living in the island's shadow economy. Usually, such victims, afraid of being deported, spurn police. But this time they cooperated with Nantucket police, who spent months interviewing them and then called federal authorities. Yesterday at 4 a.m., 30 immigration agents landed on Nantucket on a Coast Guard ship, met local police, and raided several houses. By mid morning, they had arrested...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the round up targeted criminals whose convictions make them ineligible to remain in the United States. Sixteen of the 18 people arrested had been convicted of various charges, including drug offenses, assault and battery, possession of a dangerous weapon and larceny, said Paula Grenier, a spokeswoman for ICE in Boston. Six immigrants had final orders of deportation from an immigration judge but had failed to comply with the orders, Grenier said. Two people were illegal immigrants who now face deportation proceedings. "Today’s enforcement action was first and foremost a public safety operation," said Bruce...

BOSTON (AP) -- The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Beryl has made landfall in Nantucket.

Fans of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy have long argued that he has fought the good fight ... But today, he is defending the indefensible: special interest legislation, tucked into a Coast Guard authorization bill, that would give Gov. Mitt Romney the power to veto the proposed Cape Wind energy project, even though it would be in federal waters. The project... more than five miles offshore of Cape Cod. The equivalent of burning 113 million barrels of oil per year. Proponents of Cape Wind say it is an important source of alternative, renewable energy, and it has the backing of such...

CRITICS OF PROPOSED US offshore wind farms have recently lauded efforts to develop deep-water offshore wind energy technologies that would allow wind farms to be built far from shore. They suggest that advances in research and development are proceeding at such a rapid pace that thousands of wind turbines could soon be operating off the northeast coast without encroaching on anyone's view or posing any threat to the environment. Clarification about the current state and potential of deep-water offshore wind energy appears timely. The US Department of Energy estimates the wind energy potential off the United States coast to be...

The infamous environmental group Greenpeace is targeting Sen. Ted Kennedy for opposing a wind farm in the Nantucket Sound because it would interfere with the view from his Hyannisport mansion. Greenpeace is launching a nationwide TV ad campaign against Kennedy, with spots that portray the Massachusetts Democrat as Godzilla. The Cape Cod Times reports: "In the 30-second spot, a cartoon Kennedy looms over the water like a Japanese movie monster, pounding wind turbines as they sprout from the water, and barks, 'I might see them from my mansion on the Cape.'" Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a leading...

Opponents of a plan to build the first offshore U.S. wind farm in Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts were a step closer on Friday to blocking the $900 million project. Negotiators in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate agreed late on Thursday to give Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney the power to block a plan by Cape Wind Associates LLC to put 130 giant wind turbines near the resort islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Backers say the project could generate enough electricity for most of Cape Cod and nearby islands. Opponents include wealthy residents with yachts and shorefront property near...

NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) -- Nantucket joined several other historic tourist towns across the country in approving a measure that would ban chain stores from the island's downtown, a move endorsed by more than 480 residents at a town meeting. The rule would bar any new chains with more than 14 outlets that have standardized menus, trademarks, uniforms or other homogeneous decor from opening downtown. The ban would not affect gas stations, grocery stores, banks and other service providers. "I'm extremely gratified," said independent book seller Wendy Hudson, who proposed the ban. "I guess it feels validating ... people saw the...

Given to environmentalist lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose fight for "green" energy apparently stops as soon as the results might spoil his view. Kennedy penned an irate New York Times op-ed in December, condemning the proposed building of wind turbines around the Nantucket Sound. While Kennedy criss-crosses the country in his jet-fuel-burning private plane stumping for alternative energy sources, he wants an exception for his own backyard. Greenpeace spokesman Chris Miller was not pleased, saying: "It's about a vision for healthy oceans, not the view from the Kennedy compound."

A plan to build what could become the first large offshore wind farm in the United States would be effectively killed by a proposed amendment to a Coast Guard budget bill now making its way through Congress, people on both sides of the issue say. The amendment, offered by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska, would prohibit new offshore wind facilities within 1.5 nautical miles of a shipping lane or a ferry route. That would rule out construction of the installation, proposed for Nantucket Sound. The budget bill awaits action in a House-Senate conference committee. The developer, a private company...

EAST HAMPTON, Long Island The plane that crashed in East Hampton, Long Island over the weekend had been bought in Georgia and was being flown home to Nantucket, Massachussetts. The pilot - 50-year-old William Holdgate of Nantucket was killed in the crash Sunday afternoon in the middle of East Hampton. His family says Holdgate bought the twin-engine Cessna 411 several months ago and had traveled to Georiga to fly it home. Holdgate owned a construction company in Nantucket and had been a pilot for about ten years. An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board says they found a three...

BOSTON --Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is heading for Nantucket with plans for an Aug. 12 fundraiser. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife will spend a week on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket vacationing and attending the fundraiser. Proceeds will go to Hillary Clinton's re-election campaign. The fundraiser will be held at the Nantucket home of Elizabeth Frawley Bagley and Smith W. Bagley. The Bagleys are Democratic activists who have previously hosted the Clintons. Tickets to the event will cost $1,000, The Boston Sunday Globe reported.

Bomb threat strands 170 Nantucket visitors HYANNIS - A bomb threat called in to Hy-Line Cruises Sunday night put a freeze on all ferry travel in and out of Nantucket, stranding at least 170 people on the island while officials scoured vessels and luggage in search of explosives. No evidence of bombs was found in the search and the investigation into the origin of the threat continues today. The call came in to the boat line's Nantucket ticket office at 8 p.m. from an adult male who gave an unspecific threat about a Hy-Line vessel blowing up if it left...

A bomb threat called in to Hyline Cruises Sunday night left dozens of ferry passengers stranded on Nantucket overnight, but daily cruises were expected to resume normal schedules Monday NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that the cruise company reopened its ticket offices Monday and was planning to start selling tickets for the 6:30 a.m. ferry. Many of the people waiting in line to buy tickets were passengers who were stranded when ferry service was canceled Sunday night after a bomb threat was called in about 8 p.m. to HiLine's Nantucket ticket office. The U.S. Coast Guard set up a security...

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who in recent weeks has emerged as the wind energy industry's public enemy No. 1, is also a Nantucket property owner. Alexander, who last month filed legislation that could hobble the emerging wind industry - including the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm - bought a seaside plot on the eastern edge of Nantucket four years ago for $800,000. Alexander and his wife own the half-acre property in Siasconset through a trust, according to a recent Senate filing. They have not built there and today the property is worth $1.25 million, according to the island's tax...

Fishing rules under scrutiny as search for fishermen ends By JAY LINDSAY BOSTON — The Coast Guard on Wednesday called off its search for five fishermen lost at sea when their scallop boat capsized in turbulent waters off Nantucket. [snip] The deaths sparked anger among boat owners and fishermen, who said federal rules which cut fishing days and penalize fishermen who leave fishing grounds early force captains to fish in dangerous weather to take advantage of limited opportunities. "You´re taking the skipper out of the wheelhouse and putting lobbyists and congressmen in the seat, making decisions for you," said Kevin...

Cape Wind Hearings At public hearings on Cape Cod and the Islands this week, Mass Audubon urged the United States Army Corps of Engineers to produce a supplemental draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed Cape Wind project to address key data gaps, particularly in regard to birds, which need to be filled before the document could be considered adequate to move forward to the Final EIS stage. Cape Wind would be the first offshore wind farm in North America and one of the largest in the world, consisting of 130 tower-mounted wind turbines arrayed in a grid over...

Still, the report noted that visual impact from the country's first proposed offshore wind farm would be ''adverse" for some historical areas, such as the Kennedy Compound and the Nantucket Historic District. The project already has weathered opposition from several local and national politicians, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.

"This is citizen participation tonight, and I'm one of them," he (Romney) said, repeating his staunch opposition to Cape Wind Associates' proposal for a wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal. "I've seen wind farms, and they are not pretty. If we want them in Massachusetts, we'll build them, but not here on Nantucket Sound," Romney said at a wind farm hearing at Mattacheese Middle School on Higgins Crowell Road.

WATER VIEWS What with Natalie Jacobson, Pat O'Brien, Bob Arnott, Tim Russert, and The New York Times's COO Janet Robinson already on the island, Nantucket's become quite the in spot for media types. The newest members of the club are Chris Matthews and his TV anchor wife, Kathleen, who just bought a place for $4.35 million. The couple are introduced to the neighbors in the latest issue of the Nantucket Times -- they're on the cover of Bruce Percelay's mag -- and the "Hardball" host even says a few interesting things. About Teresa Heinz Kerry, he remarks, "She's a very...

A 37-year-old New York City man is being held in Rhode Island in connection with the alleged murder of Elizabeth Lochtefeld, 44, at her Hawthorne Lane home Monday. Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe and Nantucket Police Chief William Pittman announced at 11 a.m. Tuesday that an arrest warrant for murder and a fugitive from justice warrant had been filed in Rhode Island to hold Thomas E. Toolan, 37, of 412 West End Ave. in Manhattan, N.Y. in connection with Lochtefeld’s death. Toolan and Lochtefeld had been in a brief relationship, O’Keefe said. Lochtefeld’s body was discovered Monday afternoon...

Windsurfing in the Persian GulfWHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA by Mia T, 9.24.04 Kerry is UNFIT #21: THUMBSUCKER SERIES-BOARDHEAD TO THE RESCUE- (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) "I mean, I was in Safwan. I went there when the signing of the armistice took place at the end of the war." John KerryThe O'Reilly Factor, 2001 ohn Kerry's odd phrasing, above, suggests he was more likely windsurfing in the Persian Gulf than witnessing the signing of the Gulf-War cease fire. (Kerry's prior relevant vote, as well as his tawdry dilettantish tendencies, would tend to support this...

Due to extensive damaged caused by Hurricane Ivan to Pensacola, Fla., the hometown of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, the precision flying team’s scheduled performances at the Nantucket Air Show this weekend have been canceled. At a press conference Friday at the Nantucket Inn, Nantucket Airport Commission Chairman Foley Vaughan announced that all of the Blue Angel’s performances have been canceled, but that the rest of the air show – including aerobatics performances and wingwalking demonstrations – will go on as scheduled. “Due to Hurricane Ivan and the devastating losses suffered in Pensacola, Fla., the Blue Angels have been forced...

Kerry's served on GOP menu as dead duck By Howie Carr Tuesday, August 31, 2004 You're John Kerry and the only liberal puke who's had a worse August than you is William Kennedy Smith. They said it was your election to lose, and you're losing it. You told 'em you were no Dukakis and you're not. As the Bush campaign pulverized him in August 1988, the Duke ran away to Tanglewood. Sixteen years later, you haven't fled to Tanglewood, you've lammed out for Nantucket. And now you're holed up in the $9 million mansion on Hulbert Avenue that your second...

Something to Yak About – Kerry’s Iraq Position Shifts Like ‘Windsurfing Off Nantucket Island’ Saying that John Kerry has treated the issue of the war to oust Saddam Hussein, “like a local sewer project,” the Gentleman from Massachusetts was pummeled in an Oregonian opinion piece penned by Kerry on Iraq documentary viewer and associate editor David Reinhard. “Maybe this is all agonizing nuance and complexity. Or maybe it's all just politics. Whatever the case, it's hardly the clear, consistent and principled presidential leadership we need in wartime,” observes Reinhard. Kerry’s Iraq Plans QuestionedAn item in Friday’s International Herald Tribune correctly...

  The Peter Pan Syndrome   by Robert Mahood     Kerry is UNFIT #21: THUMBSUCKER SERIES-BOARDHEAD TO THE RESCUE- (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)   A typical scenario for this boardhead is to be skimming back and forth across the lake on Misty, my aging Mistral Competition, in a 12 knot breeze gusting to 15. I'm hanging onto a 7.6 rig, riding a gentle natural swell occasionally punctuated by the man-made chop excreted by jet skis and stinkpots. In my adolescent ears are a symphony of boardsailing sounds: the vit, vit, vit of the board,...

Nantucket summer resident Pat Ottenhoff is spending the week in New York City at the Republican National Convention as an intern for the New Jersey Network. In addition to working for the public television station deep within the bowels of Madison Square Garden, he will chronicle for The Inquirer and Mirror the events leading up to and including President George W. Bush’s acceptance of the Republican nomination for president. He will also be keeping a convention diary which he will update periodically throughout the week in this space. This morning at the Crowne Plaza breakfast, the mood among the New...

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) kite surfs off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts July 17, 2004. Kerry is spending the weekend on the small island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts. REUTERS/Brian Snyder US ELECTION

BOSTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) is returning to his summer home on Nantucket for four days before he accepts his party's nomination at the convention. The Massachusetts senator will spend Saturday through Tuesday at the beachfront home owned by his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who is planning to join him for the weekend. Kerry aides said he'll be working on his speech and other preparations for the convention, which begins July 26. Kerry is making his second trip to Nantucket this summer. He also spent Father's Day weekend on the island with his wife...

Apparently Democrats are furious with John Kerry's decision to take off 4 days for rest and to work on his convention speech next week. Kerry has decided to take off all 4 days prior to the convention to rest at one of his mansions in Nantucket. Dem's worry that every day he is not on the road and visible is a plus to Bush who has no plans to take off currently from campaigning.

Something to Yak About – John Kerry’s Priceless WeekendLeave it to a Limousine Liberal to fly around the country in a red, white and blue jetliner preaching about how to help the less fortunate, followed by hang time on Nantucket Island this weekend. If this sounds too wack to be real, you haven’t been keeping up with the John Kerry campaign. Between hob-knobbing with Ted Kennedy, buying parts to fix a flat on his $8,000 bicycle and losing the sick wind for some gnarly kite surfing (bummer, dude…), it’s kind of hard to take the Gentleman from Massachusetts seriously when...

(CNSNews.com) - The Republican National Committee has unveiled a new Internet ad drawing attention to the cost of John Kerry's recent Nantucket vacation. "Our newest Internet ad provides a few snapshots from John Kerry's break at the beach," said Jim Dyke, RNC communications director. The ad, a spoof of Mastercard's "Priceless" campaign, is called "A Very Kerry Weekend." It notes that last week, Sen. Kerry "traveled the country trying to convince Americans that we are living through the Great Depression." Then he ended the week in Nantucket, where a tank of gas for his $700,000 boat costs $647; a new...

NANTUCKET, Mass. (Reuters) - Sometimes a vacation is just a vacation, even if you're Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and you spend the weekend boating, dining out and searching for just the right wind to kite surf in one of America's most exclusive summer playgrounds. If there were any political implications in two days on Nantucket, the Massachusetts senator simply didn't care, aides said on Sunday. It was his first visit to the island since March when he clinched the right to challenge Republican President Bush in the Nov. 2 election. "Let Kerry be Kerry," spokesman David Wade said. "He's...

NANTUCKET, Mass. - After a week of campaigning for the less fortunate, John Kerry (news - web sites) went on vacation with the fabulously wealthy. Kerry is a rich man who promotes the Democratic ideal that government should do more to help the poor. He moves between both worlds, spending the past week traveling to downtrodden places like South-side Columbus, Ohio, and the affluent island playground of Nantucket. Not since President Kennedy have Democrats been prepared to nominate a man of such riches. President Clinton (news - web sites) didn't own a home until he left the White House and...

<p>NANTUCKET -- Islanders are used to living according to the whims of nature. Snowstorms ground airplanes; wind gusts delay boats. But these past two days, when the harbor iced over as far as the eye could see, trapping ferries like flies caught in spider webs, the islanders' connection to the mainland seemed a bit more tenuous. With the two daily weekday freight ferries and three round-trip passenger ferries canceled, fuel and food are not getting in, and people are having a harder time getting out.</p>