By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2014) — Welcome to May Day, everyone, and that would seem to be an appropriate message for taxpayers and ordinary citizens to send as The Suits and Special Interests continue to team up against them. Only one outlet stands for The […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary LATE, LATE WORD: DON’T TELL ANYONE, BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW! The Boring Broadsheet is caught once again asleep, so THE PLANET shall break it. A meeting is scheduled today at at 10 a.m. city hall that could decide the fate of William Monterosso, the embattled […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2014) — It was the redoubtable Joe Pinhead, one of THE PLANET‘s most astute, formidable, and scrupulous correspondents, who pointed out the supreme irony. On the night our Right Honorable Good Friends of the Pittsfield City Council unanimously approved Mayor Dan […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014) — Soon, we may have an exciting announcement for all the readers and inhabitants of THE PLANET. Stay tuned. The substance of this announcement is still in the talking phase, with syllables exchanged and field trips made. It is that […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, APRIL 25-27, 2014) — What happens when The Empty Suit subsumes Lady Light Weight? No, this is not a question for Albert Einstein or anyone connected with quantum physics. You need not consult the theologians or the philosophers. Rather, it is a matter more for the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2014) — First off, gang, after hearing from and consulting various authorities (city clerk’s office, former council president Kevin Sherman, self-appointed parliamentarians, and an attorney or two) it’s still very much an unanswered question THE PLANET raised (what, you think The […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2014) — As you likely know by now, councilor Lisa Tully of Ward 1 changed her vote on the bus borrowing measure, which passed on an 8-2-1 vote. At the end of this column, we shall publish the statement Tully sent THE […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ADD 1: We are posting this a half hour before tonight’s city council meeting is gaveled to order. We just got a phone call from a source who says he heard from another party who talked to Ward 1 councilor Lisa Tully. It’s third-hand, but the sources […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2018) — Hey, it’s Patriot’s Day, that lame excuse the Commonwealth uses to give public employees a paid day off courtesy of taxpayers. Let’s see. Working up a rough heading on that, we take the state’s $37 billion budget. THE PLANET conservatively […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, EASTER WEEKEND, APRIL 18-20, 2014) — In honor of Good Friday, there will be no “regular” edition of THE PLANET. Instead, we will present a brief look ahead to next week. May we take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a Happy […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2014) — Tuesday, we ventured to city hall to see who would fess up to the apparent mess created at Berkshire Works by the necessarily enforced suspension, with pay, of Mayor Dan Bianchi‘s chosen one, the fair-haired William Monterosso. First, let’s […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014) — THE PLANET continues now with one of the most important stories affecting Pittsfield at this time: the vote on school buses. Millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake. Interestingly, it’s been a story both distorted and underreported by the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2014) — What’s going on at Berkshire Works? Sources there and elsewhere say the “new” executive director, on the job for less than three months, is already on leave — with pay, of course. The charges? Multiple allegations of sexual harassment. […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary [ED NOTE: What’s up at Berkshire Works? Has the “new” executive director, William Monterosso, been placed on paid leave after multiple accusations of sexual harassment were reported to Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi and city personnel director John DeAngelo? That’s what reliable sources are alleging. You will recall […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentaries (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, APRIL 11-13, 2014) — First, let us share a bit of “You Can Take It To The Bank” news, the kind that only THE PLANET seems to be able to learn. A well-placed source tells us that a new director of The […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary ED. NOTE: Before we begin our regularly scheduled column, THE PLANET needs to weigh in on yet more odd doings by our Right Honorable Good Friends on the city council, who Tuesday night looked overwhelmed and overmatched in the confusion that followed the 7-3-1 vote on borrowing […]
