BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, DEC. 1, 2015) — Let THE PLANET be the first to report this news, from the Pittsfield Police Department. Here is the full text of the Chief Mike Wynn: ——– 000 ——– ****For Immediate Release**** Subject: Officer Jeffrey D. Coco terminated Authored By: […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, NOV. 30, 2015) — Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and … well, you know the rest. This lovely little Lennonesque fantasy works perfectly well for Pittsfield, Mass., except that instead of drifting past “cellophane flowers,” the boat […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25, 2015) — If you are expecting a warm and gushy “These are the things I’m thankful for” column on this day before Thanksgiving, forget it. THE PLANET, you see, is reading a new biography on one of our journalistic heroes, H. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, NOV. 24, 2015) — When a gallon of gas was approaching $4 a gallon, concerns for high prices were rampant. Now that they are the lowest seen in some time, you’d think the worries would be over. Ah, but this is the economy, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, NOV. 23, 2015) — As best THE PLANET could tell, there was not a column inch devoted to it in The Boring Broadsheet. The young, inexperienced hands there probably didn’t know better, and the old hands, counting down the hours, have likely ceased to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, NOV. 20-22, 2015) — Here’s it is, the infamous Photo 39 from the Tyer Victory Party at Hotel On North (HON), election night. As you can see, there’s not much to see: two friends celebrating a hard-fought victory at HON. In Pittsfield, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, NOV. 19, 2015) — A loaded gun found in a middle school is not the type of story you would expect to vanish — if you lived in a city that had a corner office, school committee, and superintendent committed to public safety and […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 18, 2015) — More than 300 of the city’s best paying jobs will vanish from the loss of Sabic Plastics. Nonetheless, the only public questioning of $121 million+ in new borrowing for construction of a new high school the city doesn’t need and cannot […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, NOV. 17, 2015) — French President Francois Hollande gave the speech of his life Monday at the Palace of Versailles in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris. He began with an FDR-like soundbite, appealed for unity, and closed with a rousing pledge to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, NOV. 16, 2015) — In isolation, kingdoms and countries, principalities and territories can live in relative security. Protection becomes primarily an internal responsibility, as it was for the first 49 of 50 millennia of what can by a McCovey stretch be called civilization. Once […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, NOV. 13-15, 2015) — THE PLANET loves playing the contrarian, but never more so than when we can play the part AND be in the right. Such is the case when it comes to the opioid problem in Massachusetts. Governor Baker has […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, NOV. 12, 2015) — One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again but expecting the outcome to change. Pittsfield voters just returned the same school committee to office. If they’re expecting different results, that’s insane. The same six bureaucrats who negotiated […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, NOV. 11, 2015 — Today, THE PLANET salutes veterans. It is their day to receive the honors. It is our day to offer thanks for their sacrifices and service. Hail, heroes and heroines, all. Godspeed. For the day, THE PLANET offers this photograph of my father. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First of Two Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, NOV. 9, 2015) — Laurie Tierney is the wife of developer David Tierney Jr. The Tierneys own a general construction and real estate-development company that has, for whatever reason (and the reasons are not germane to this series), found favor […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, NOV. 6-8, 2015) — At 1:44 a.m. on Sept. 25, a 20-year-old “man” was shot in the foot, he says, as he left Johnny’s Beach Club on Wahconah Street via the back door. According to reports, investigating officers found a .45 caliber shell […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, NOV. 5, 2015) — Allow THE PLANET to share these post-election thoughts, randomly captured at various moments of the day and night, flitting about the senses like the CGI moths from Crimson Peak: Voters returned all six incumbents in the Pittsfield School Committee race. […]
