BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 10, 2021) — It takes a lot, and we mean the wagon wheels positively straining through the mud under a tipsy, Everst-sized load of hay, to surprise THE PLANET. Well, congratulations to our Right Honorable Good Friends on the City Council. They […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 7-9, 2021) — Last weekend, THE PLANET queries all 11 members of the Pittsfield city council, asking them a simple question: Do you favor a forensic audit for the city or not, and why? We heard from eight of our […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 5, 2021) — Ward 1 councilor Helen Moon’s decision not to run for re-election comes as no surprise to THE PLANET. She made her decision because of ill health: The voters got sick of her. Moon issued a statement via social media: […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 3, 2021) — Time once again to clean out the notebook. ‘Not Quite Dead’ — Matthew Tucker, the once- public access coordinator at Pittsfield Community Television and now free on bail in connection with the district attorney’s charges of manslaughter and reckless […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 30-MAY 2, 2021) — If at-large councilors Peter Marchetti, Peter White, and Earl Persip have ganged up on the fourth at large member to discourage her from running for re-election, they have failed. Methuselah’s Bar and Lounge owner and councilor-at-large […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 28, 2021) — THE PLANET stumbled across what one interested observer called “a little plot thickening with the Yuki bar dancing.” “It turns out that the person who reported the video to the health department was none other than Earl Persip,” our source […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 26, 2021) — Today, THE PLANET presents a guest column that sheds light on the tragic demise of the once-thriving Berkshire County Softball Complex. We had the pleasure of playing on several teams there in the 80s and 90s. Our columnist details […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 23-5, 2021) — People are quick to place THE PLANET into their little, ideological boxes. Our work as a columnist, talk show host on radio and TV, and now blogger has been going on long enough where many make the mistake […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 21, 2021) — Maybe you didn’t hear about it, but a jury found former Minneapolis, MN police office Derrick Chauvin guilty, just as THE PLANET predicted. Chauvin had no shot. He was toast in the first few minutes of testimony when the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 19, 2021) — Lots going on, and to fit some of it in, THE PLANET presents two stories. Up first … WHAT YOU HAVEN’T HEARD ABOUT ADAM TOLEDO On Chicago’s West Side, police are alerted to gunshots in an alley. It’s 2:30 a.m. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 16-8, 2021) — Your first protection: Obey the law. Your second protection: Comply with police instructions should you be stopped. If you won’t do the first, you must do the second. Comply. Comply. Comply. These two simple rules would have saved […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 14, 2021) — In Monday’s column, THE PLANET mentioned some facts and feelings elicited by the heartbreaking case of 10-month-old Kristoff Zenopolous, who died while in the care of his foster parents, Matthew and Cassandra Tucker. A grand jury investigated and came back […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 12, 2021) — What if we began this way? “They waddled into Berkshire County Superior Court, all 600 pounds of them, an estimate of their combined weight. If they were billboarding for the 7 Capital Sins, which would it be, sloth or […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 9-11, 2021) — Outgoing Ward 4 councilor Chris Connell posted this remark with respect to THE PLANET‘s previous column, one that provided fractured snapshots of the ocean’s eleven that make up, and we do mean ‘make up,’ the city council: […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, DATE, 2021) — It’s April, the cruelest month, and nomination papers wait for the claiming in the Pittsfield city clerk’s office. Already, a cuppa-three have done it. With that THE PLANET presents this unabashed look at the current lineup of sodbusters. Ward 1 Helen […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 5, 2021) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with manslaughter, second-degree murder, and third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, sat passively but attentively during the first week of his trial. Behind him loomed a large portrait of Floyd, […]
