GREAT HONOR FOR STATE, CITY: SPJ’s ‘BLACK HOLE’ AWARD
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 24-6, 2026) — Let’s see. By THE PLANET‘s count, we have more-or-less 50 states in the union. Care to guess which one stands alone as the only state that exempts the governor’s office, the legislature (both houses), and the judiciary from public records law? You read that right. In this state, all three branches of government can hide any documents from citizen taxpayers.
Give up?
Here’s a hint: If you live in Berkshire County, you live in that state.
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Dan Valenti kicks off his NE book tour for Sanity Made Simple in Pittsfield … 2 p.m. Saturday 4/25, Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Stop by, get a free book, and meet the author!
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We see this unhealthy pattern of secrecy in every level of corrupt government in the Commonwealth. Gov. Maura “Openly Lesbian” Healey continues to bury hundreds of entries to the state’s ICE Misconduct Portal, where anyone can share what they know about illegals grifting on your dime. As for the courts and legislature, where’s the audit of the State House that voters overwhelmingly approved (72%) in 2024? Stuffed by the do-nothings and no-goods in the house, the senate, and by DEI-AG Andrea Campbell, who has worked tirelessly to block the audit.
———- ooo ———-
At the local level … you kidding? There aren’t enough photons in THE PLANET‘s computers to list all the violations. Let’s exemplify with the city’s refusal to release to “independent” report on the corruption and slime in city schools — even though that report was conducted and sanitized by two retired judges with strong local connections to The Suits. Professional courtesy.
SANITY MADE SIMPLE: Aphorisms, Epigrams, and Other Parsed Phrases, is available now at amazon.com or at any Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Just $14.95 for the paperback, $4.95 for the e-book. Your purchase will help support a Pittsfield-based small business.
We could also include this omertà the settlement of Victoria May’s lawsuit against Pittsfield’s Mayor “Openly Gay” Lumpy and the Pittsfield Co-Op Bank. The sides reach agreement at the end of March. There was no announcement, but THE PLANET‘s spies dug out the notice in the court records.
That official Bitchfield continues to hide its misdeeds proves the old saying about shit running downhill. In fact, the gutters direct the smelly stuff directly in the corner office, council chambers, and school committee sessions.
———- ooo ———-
THE PLANET didn’t realize the Bay State’s singular place in the Sunshine Hall of Shame until we got word courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), a group we first joined on Oct. 17, 1974. SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee presented its “Black Hole” award to Massachusetts. The committee cited MA “for
deficiencies in the state’s public records law, including broad exemptions, weak enforcement mechanisms, and persistent delays that limit access to government information. Despite a legal framework that purports to guarantee access to public records, Massachusetts [leaves] significant portions of the state government shielded from public scrutiny.”
The SPJ report noted:
- Requests for public records are typically delayed or ignored altogether
- Officials routinely ignore statutory deadlines
- High costs throw a wet blanket on attempts to pry public records lose
- Enforcement mechanisms for public-records violation are virtually nonexistent
- Seekers of public records must often seek redress through the courts, a costly, time-consuming process.
- Compliance is inconsistent and unreliable
- There’s almost no central oversight or accountability.
You can take all seven of these complaints, and you have an accurate picture of city government under Two Pete’s & Dumpster.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
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“Secrecy: The freedom dreamed about by tyrants” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
Copyright (c) 2026 By Dan Valenti, PLANET VALENTI and EUROPOLIS MANAGEMENT. All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed in the comment section or in the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not necessarily endorsed by the operators of this website. PLANET VALENTI assumes no responsibility for such views and opinions, and it reserves the right to remove or edit any comment, including but not limited to those that violate the website’s Rules of Conduct and its editorial policies. Those who leave comments own all the responsibilities that are or can be attached to those comments, be they rhetorical, semantic, or legal. Such commentators remain solely responsible for what they post and shall be and remain solely accountable for their words. PLANET VALENTI shall not be held responsible for the consequences that may result from any posted comment or outside opinion or commentary as provided in, but not limited to, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and this website’s terms of service. We serve as a marketplace of ideas, without prejudice and available to all. All users of this site — including readers, commentators, contributors, or anyone else — hereby agree to these conditions by virtue of this notice and their use of/participation in this site. When PLANET VALENTI ends with the words “The Usual Disclaimer,” that phrase shall be understood to refer to the full text of this disclaimer.
April 23, 2026
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
Governor Maura Healey always likes to blame Donald Trump for many of Massachusetts’ economic problems. In return, her critics call her “misguided Maura” due to her own public record of severe state funding cuts to social programs.
Earl and the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics all support record-breaking municipal operating budgets, while always asking for increases in state administered, federal funding: which is what State Aid is, which will NOT solve Pittsfield’s financial crises.
Where is PAC Man Richie Neal when it comes to the diminished federal funding that the state government needs and administers in Boston? Answer: He is probably on K Street in the Swamp always filling up his campaign coffers with millions of corporate dollars that have little to nothing to do with his mostly rural Western Massachusetts Congressional District.
State Representatives Leigh Davis, Tricia Farley-Bouvier, and John Barrett III are all do-nothings in Boston. State Senator Paul Mark is a BIG rubber stamp in Boston.
The Berkshires’ former state lawmakers enrich themselves in Massachusetts politics. Dan Bosley is a greedy lobbyist in Boston. Peter Larkin is a GE lobbyist. Nuciforo is all about BIG insurance companies in Boston and the state’s lucrative marijuana industry.
Despite the systemic secrecy and corruption in Boston, we all know full well what is going on in Massachusetts politics.
The state and local career politicians are all do-nothings, symbolize rubber stamps, like to blame Donald Trump while they themselves severely cut state funding for social programs, enrich themselves as greedy and GE lobbyists, serve as a corrupt financial lawyer in Boston and millionaire marijuana businessman, and support record-breaking Pittsfield operating budgets while asking for increases in State Aid that does nothing to solve Pittsfield’s financial crises.
The Massachusetts State Government should NOT be this bad, but this is what happens when a group of one political (Democratic) party insiders treat grassroots and bipartisan democracy like their ATM, doormat, and worse.
“Pay to Play” politics leaves the fictional Kapanski family with a very high tax bill!
Best wishes,
Jon Melle
P.S. When I have $100 left over at the end of the month, it is still a lot of money to me. I wish that the government would invest in people and communities, but I am happy with the $100 bill because I know better than to dream about having an good and honest politician represent someone like me in the Halls of Money and Power.
Don’t lie Jonny. You’d break that $100 into 50 $1 bills and go berserk at the thunder down under peep show run against your cousin Mayor Pete and you can fire cufflinks and get the pot money back from Andy you always complain about. This would be a true brokeback mountain Hatfield and McCoys mayoral battle.
Do you understand how wealthy millionaire Nuciforo really is compared to the distressed economy in Pittsfield?
Nuciforo is a landlord and owns multiple buildings in Boston and Pittsfield, which means that he collects many thousands of dollars per month in rent from his tenants.
Nuciforo is a disgraced politician in Boston because in the mid-2000’s-decade, he double-dipped as the State Senate Chairman of the chamber’s Finance Committee, while at the same time, he served as a corporate Attorney for Boston’s BIG banks and insurance companies.
Nuciforo still has a law office in Boston’s Financial District whereby he serves BIG insurance companies there.
Nuciforo co-founded Berkshire Roots marijuana company, which has sold millions of dollars in pot products.
Nuciforo lives in a one-million-dollar mansion in Pittsfield’s elitist Gated Community neighborhood only 0.3 miles from former Mayor Linda Tyer and her CPA 3rd husband Barry Clairmont.
Nuciforo also resides in an upscale residence in Boston.
In 2024, during Mayor Peter Marchetti’s first year in City Hall, Nuciforo received a pot permits settlement check from the City of Pittsfield (Mass.) in the amount of $341,000 after he filed a lawsuit in Berkshire Superior Court during then Mayor Linda Tyer’s final year in City Hall.
Please note that there were several other marijuana companies located in Pittsfield that also received pot permits settlement checks from the city in 2024.
I am “Jon Melle the have-NOT”. I am at the opposite end of the financial spectrum from millionaire Nuciforo.
Nuciforo:Millionaire::Jon Melle:have-NOT who is from Pittsfield (Mass.)
April 26, 2026
Re: Governor Maura Healey’s record against transparency in the Massachusetts state government
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I am very disappointed in Governor Maura Healey for her record against transparency in the Massachusetts state government.
Please read the following news article.
https://dankennedy.net/2026/04/25/gov-healey-wants-to-remove-public-access-to-vital-records-so-were-giving-her-a-muzzle-award-her-third/
I am also disappointed in Governor Maura Healey for her severe cuts in state funding for social programs in Massachusetts, as well as the underfunding of state aid to local government in Massachusetts.
While I have lived in Southern New Hampshire for the past 22 years, being from Western Massachusetts, which is mostly rural, run by provincial political insiders who are sometimes corrupt and live in one-million-dollar mansions in gated communities, with the small cities the millionaires reside in with distressed economies with severe economic inequality, failed public school districts that are rated Level 5, and so on, I know all too well that state cuts to local aid, social services, and public education have a devastating impact on local residents and small businesses in regions such as the beautiful Berkshires.
It proves to me that there is nobody in Boston, as well as Concord, NH, as well as the Swamp, who represents “Jon Melle the have-NOT” who is from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Today, I questioned my writings and post criticizing you, blogger Dan Valenti, for your criticisms of Governor Maura Healey. I also questioned my letters to New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte over her 2024 campaign’s negative attacks on Massachusetts.
I will send this letter to Governor Maura Healey today, but I am sad to do so. She has done a lot of good things, too. I just do not understand why she is favoring the career politicians over the people.
Best wishes,
Jon Melle
So have you left the Democrat, I Love criminals and violence, Party yet? Our has your brainwashed brain not been able to break free from the indoctrination? Seems you swing from one side to the other side alot.
All of this means that Massachusetts government can get away with a lot and it does as we see everyday. Hiding the corruption in the schools is disgusting and it helps to hide their liberal agenda of indoctrination. Lizzie Warren thinks she can do whatever she wants with taxpayer money and with the lack of transparency we don’t know what she is funding.
Hey c’mon Dan, can’t you at least get the plural of photon correct? Your credibility suffers! Delete this!
You may sleep easy tonight, JP. The rouge apostrophe has been assigned to Eggy land.
And of course you misspelled rogue on purpose…how am I to sleep at night? Thanks for the JP vs the JERRY. Though it is your distinctly personalized editorial style, I (we) don’t like being yelled at!
Courtesy of AI:
In A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, the title character’s dialogue is written in all capital letters to visually represent his unique, high-pitched, and nasal voice, which is described as a “permanent scream” or a “screech”.
JERRY
THE PLANET has an opening for proofreader. $2.10 an hour and all the Silver Age Superman comics you can read. Apply here. You seem like a bright lad. IT’d be a good way to get your foot in the door. Love ya, kid.
*sigh*
Since childhood I have always heard our state called Taxachusetts, for about 10 years or more it is Crapachusetts. The whole state is full of crappy elected officials.
One part of your post really hit me. Mayor Lumpy reached an agreement in March with Victoria May! This totally explains why Mayor Lumpy treated Ciarra Batory like a piece of crap on live TV at the School Committee meeting in early April. He knew he could get away with it. He couldn’t even behave for a full month. His behavior at that meeting reminded me of a toddler throwing a tantrum. Recently I also viewed this behavior during an interview on It’s Pittsfield Tonight. The host asked some very straight forward informative questions but in doing so he hit the “Mayor Lumpy, HOW DARE YOU GO AGAINST ME NERVE”, out comes the bright red face and the uncontrolled temper and words. This uncontrolled temper would be laughable if it didn’t affect the hardworking taxpayers of Shitsfield. Didn’t realize, as Mayor Lumpy, in HIS words “first openly gay mayor” would have such hissy fits, now we all know, but a bit too late.
Merry you always tell it like it is. But when you have the planet saying he loves Mayor Pete and the door is always open? Who gives a shit. This Mayor is as terrible as he was a council President. Look at his protege Pee Pee he was replaced by a dumpster.
And look at the Cardoigh, Kufflinks. Who would ever vote them for a position?
Pittsfield is getting a new stadium and another new not cheap SPLASH PAD for one of its parks. no worries about the budget or taxpayers ability to keep up with the spendamonium.
Jamie Dimon warns 8 risks are building like tectonic plates beneath the US economy — and a financial earthquake could be next
When Pittsfield has the 2nd highest Commercial Tax Rate in Massachusetts; Holyoke is 1st….
When Pittsfield spends tens of millions of dollars more per fiscal year than its peer small cities….
When Pittsfield’s municipal debts plus unfunded liabilities are said to be close to $1 billion….
Then the fictional Kapanski family is Pittsfield’s ATM, doormat, and worse.
Earl and the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics pounds, pummels, pulverizes, punishes people’s purses.
Soon, they will unveil their record-breaking fiscal year 2027 municipal budget that is said to be up to one-quarter of one-billion-dollars, which begins in a 2-months and 1-week’s time on July 01, 2026.
Nah. Crazy Trump has it covered. Pat and fritz will soon address this concern and make sense of it all. Don’t forget to give them both multiple thumbs up.
All the tech giants announcing sweeping layoffs in 2026
Dina Lampiasi is really improved as a city councilor Dan. I apologize if I made her initial tenure difficult. But she has shined the last year. She needs to be more independent in her thoughts and work for only the taxpayer. Dump those who aren’t inclined to be self absorbed in their own personalities. Start with Muffin head Marchetti Dumpster andWhite.
How can someone be really improved but still need to grow independence in thought and devote herself to taxpayers?
Pittsfield schools have an 87 million dollar budget? How much was it 10 years ago and how much is that per student? Does it include bussing and relat4ed bussing costs, maintenance etc?
What is that nonsense commentary at the public health and safety committee talking about?….diversity and murders of diversity type people she met and engaged in a conversation with? I don’t know her name but she has a purple hairdo,this has nothing to do with public health and safety why is she even the president of the committee or whatever the hell she is or is trying to do. You lost your social climate when your hero d a was beat in the last election. IT’s nonsense.
So sick of the collaborators nonsense.
Dan? Patriots Day. Or a new Collaboration Day.
Let me say this again: That figure doesn’t include the cost of health insurance for school department employees, busing, and maintenance. All three are buried on the city-side ledger. All told, we’re looking at well north of $100 million. Amazing, for a scandal-ridden department whose product degenerates every year.
I’ve been there! Dan is correct. Will we ever understand anything? It looks like we are dummies who will pay for anything if our incompetents
tell us to pay for it. Hang on, you will get more.
Chuck
Nice to hear from you Away. One of my favorites on here all time.
Same with me, MAY!
These are words spoken by one of the last remaining Wise Men. You honor us with your thoughts.
Great read. book by now deceased former major league star pitcher JIM BOUTON…Book title FOUL BALL published circa 1971
About this titleSynopsisThe author describes his efforts to preserve a historic ballpark in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
ReviewsThis former Yankee pitcher, who wrote the sports tell-all template Ball Four, has a self-conscious voice that almost stifles this compelling story of Pittsfield, Mass., residents resisting a new stadium in order to renovate historic Wahconah Park instead. Bouton fancies himself both “pariah” and U.S. marshal, and writes one public official, “we have always tried to be respectful…. Go take a shower.” But he accomplishes his goal of making the oldest minor league ballpark in America a metaphor for business interests run amok whatever the costs politically, environmentally and, yes, financially. When he points to former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s nearly successful (yet minority-view) efforts to build new stadiums for the Mets and the Yankees despite a multibillion-dollar budget gap, Bouton is persuasive. But when Bouton declares his own motives are to “save an old ballpark, make some money, have fun,” he is less so because he seems to delight in all the chicanery. Still, his commitment is beyond question; the book includes not only news accounts and e-mails, but even instant-messaging exchanges. At 354 pages,it’s exhausting, but also heartfelt.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Bouton has been raising hell with the baseball establishment since 1970, when his landmark Ball Four revealed the frat-party side of the grand old game. Now he lines up against the economic lynchpin of pro sports: publicly funded stadiums. Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is the site of venerable Wahconah Park, home to various minor-league teams since 1892. Bouton and most of the area’s citizenry feel the stadium should be repaired, updated, and preserved. The city government, however, along with various business interests, wants to build a new $18 million stadium–at taxpayer expense. This relatively small skirmish is portrayed by Bouton as a microcosm of the publicly funded sports facility battles that have been fought around the country. Typically, taxpayers foot the bill–under the pressure of team abandonment–so owners and players can get rich. Bouton, humor intact and sense of irony sharpened, chronicles the battle between the forces of fiscal responsibility and those who would build the new stadium (on a toxic waste dump). The good guys win this time, as the old ballpark is saved, at least temporarily, but Bouton paints a distinctly disturbing picture of corporate greed and taxpayer exploitation. Interestingly, Bouton’s original publisher pulled out under pressure from pro-stadium business interests, leaving the author to publish his expose himself. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Youse guys need to read it fer yerselfs.
Should be mandatory book report reading for all kids fourth grade and up in Pittsfield schools. What would be really great is if their teachers could read a chapter or two of it each day. They deserve to know in what direction their lives are headed should they choose to stay in Pittsfield.
The way the current and former pol’s of Bitchfield have run the school $ystem and the union$ representing all those workers setup in the $ystem, they won’t change a thing unless they have viable competition to their monopoly. They’re not going to give up their money laundering operation without
a bitter fight.
The media controls all of the nonsense locally and nationally. It is all related to politics, votes and Wall Street. There should be no problems with our economy without this buffoon currently in a vice with this Hormuz strait. His NUMBERS are DOWN.
We are supposed to be an independent country concerning oil -gas. We don’t need the Middle East. We don’t need Israel period. We need to lower the promised lower gas prices,stop the Ukraine war, help our farmers and keep the streets in the U S safe?
Fritz,Pat,Marcus,and all the rest you tried with your s d s it ain’t working anymore. You buffoons were correct,the Democratic Party does suck past and present. I voted for Trump and im Praying this buffoon can turn it around.
And I will give him another month but seriously guys it is what it is.
I to like Away. A good man as well as JohnBY B. Who we lost recently
Give him another month and things will get even worse. WW III anyone?
You can’t sway repub dum drums on here. I’m a den who voted for this buffoon. He is worse than Biden economically.
Hottest Country in the world? We’re 37 trillion in debt and our gas price,inflation and cost of living? is higher than ever.
The economy sux. Thumbs down.
Love your name and the play on the propaganda rag that prints in the Pitts. Obviously your post is supposed to be humorous because if Iran was allowed to have nuclear weapons there would be no need for any goods or gas because they would start a nuclear war. Understand that anyone from the mideast does not think in “civilized manners but in the most basic animal instinct of kill or be killed”
Trump is turning everything around because as he said last night in his speech after the shooting at the Correspondent’s Dinner, he is an impactful president and presidents who make an impact are the ones that everyone goes after because they want to keep the status quo. The media always tries to make it all about the freedom of the press being violated, but that’s not the problem in this country. The problem is that the media doesn’t report the truth. They only report their biased politics and whatever helps to advance their political agenda.
Last night at the Correspondent’s Dinner the media was under attack also because of their terrible reporting of continually comparing Trump to Hitler and getting crazy people to the point where they want to commit murder. Members of the media were really shook up and terrified, but we know they won’t change their ways and report the truth. The media doesn’t understand that freedom of the media is all about telling the truth. One person in the liberal media tweeted out this morning that, “People need to stop trying to murder this president.” Yes, they do and the media needs to do their part in bringing down the temperature in this country by telling the truth and not promoting hysteria.
I saw the president’s remarks live, as they aired. After what had just happened, his remarks were REMARKable. He doesn’t rattle.
Please Dan. He wasn’t even near the action. It would be like you getting a suit at Valenti’s, and the measurements are at the B M C a mile away.
That doesn’t make sense. He’s giving credibility to a nut case to begin with in that statement as the the reason he’s doing a great job. Pat,stop being a buffoon.
Democrats and their addiction to assassination porn.
We need to fire just about every single one of Bitchfield’s current pol’s along with those in city leadership roles and start from scratch. The present infestation is too big to ever expect them to change the current downward trajectory
they have Bitchfield on.
There has been many homeless vagrants abound in our city. Over the years there have particularly been a few to many. A homeless man who probably has been on the police scanner more than Charee or Carl and that would be in the hundreds, was in one day,today, cited for times in less than an hour. The last call was exposing himself on fourth street in front of a child.
Why is it that these types who are in need of Mental Health help allowed by the
P P D daily to go to these calls without any repercussions either way ? The Police have enough issues with traffic and accidents to keep going to calls like trespassing at Cumberland Farms day after day,same people, and sleeping in front of businesses and or exposing themselves to children and pissing on business doorsteps.
I would never shop on North St. The last time I did you could smell urine in front of the establishment.
I’m thinking lumpy loves these homeless and dead beat actors to divert from his high paying non performance job as mayor. And if it is true that lumps case has been settled shame on you Vickie
Well from what I hear the school teachers union president is learning the city system. Seems she sent a Friday vacation email out concerning an illegal(?) electronic vote on the whole middle school issue scheduled for the day before acceptance has to given so the city can move forward. Teachers have not been given any information on how this would impact their jobs. From what I understand any vote like this has to be in person but when has the law or contracts ever stopped the leaders of bitchfield
The sickening thing about the budget is lumpy saving the day by attrition, retirement. Get rid of the stupid assistants to assistants administrators and teachers. Reset teachers. Dumb.