By DAN VALENTI Four recent developments concerning the Pittsfield school department have cost the city’s taxpayers almost $6 million. They are: * The grand theft of $10,000 from a locked teacher’s desk, the caper known as PromGate. * $1 million dollars in raises for teachers as a result of the new contract between them and […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI Arts (LENOX, Monday, June 27, 2011) — An ensemble “relationship” play with a funeral, family dysfunction, and a ghost surely has the ingredients of a winner — especially in the hands of an ensemble without any weak links in the chain. So what’s missing in Shakespeare and Company’s production of The […]
By DAN VALENTI There’s Only One Right Call on the No Show Vote: “Rejected.” (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, Saturday, June 25, 2011) — It’s No Go on No Show. That’s the verdict 99% of the 12 of 14 Pittsfield wards Chris “No Show” Speranzo represents, and 98% of everyone else. The other 1 and 2% consists […]
By DAN VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE & STATEHOUSE, BOSTON, Friday June 24, 2011) — Rejected. That’s the only possible answer for the Governor’s Council regarding the nomination of State Rep. Chris “No Show” Speranzo to the lifetime appointment to a $110,000 a year-plus-benefits, no-show job as clerk magistrate of Central Berkshire District Court. No Show, the […]
By JOSH CUTLER PLANET VALENTI Sports (PITTSFIELD, Friday, June 24, 2011) — Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day.” This old melody is what the Pittsfield Colonials players and staff were singing to themselves as they attempted to play a doubleheader on a soggy and gloomy Thursday morning at Wahconah Park. While conditions prevented […]
By DAN VALENTI FIRST ADD 1, JUNE 25, 2011 — Part three of our school department expose shall focus on the phony bus purchase deal. We will say for the moment that “APPROVAL OF BUS BID” was agenda item VI-a from the June 22 meeting. Naturally, wanting to work from the facts, we went to […]
By DAN VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, Wednesday, June 22, 2011) — It’s getting to crunch time with the municipal budgets, plural, and THE PLANET can predict another disaster for bedraggled taxpayers. Mayor Jimmy Ruberto’s fattened-calf spending plan will escape with nary a scratch after the council’s pathetic gumming of the document. The taxpayers needed councilors […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI Arts (PITTSFIELD, JUNE 21, 2011) — Certain words were invented to describe sounds for which no other words exist: a dog’s “bark” or the wind’s “whoosh.” This critic won’t bore you with the long, literary “O” word that refers to this phenomenon, but we will share that certain names conjugate […]
EDITOR’s NOTE: For the past three days, we have been experiencing problems with our remote server. THE PLANET’s webmaster has been addressing the issue all day today, and it appears the geeks have worked out the bugs. We apologize to the readers of the site for any inconvenience this has caused. We hope the fix […]
By DAN VALENTI FIRST ADD There’s Still Time for Justice on the Industrial Toxins that Still Remain in Pittsfield; Re-open the Consent Agreement. NOW! (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, JUNE 17, 2011, THE DAY AFTER BLOOM’S DAY) — THE PLANET would love to know who out there can tell us what Bloom’s Day is and to whom […]
By DAN VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, June 16, 2011 ) — We got rid of our TV on Sept. 1, 2008 and haven’t looked back whatsoever. The cliches proved true: Mr. and Mrs. Planet suddenly found a whole lot more time built into the evenings of our days. She designed and installed a sewing room/art […]
By DAN VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, JUNE 16, 2011) — This just in. The Pittsfield Colonials will conduct a press conference today at 3 p.m. at Beloved Wahconah Park (BWP) to address the future of the franchise. This comes in light of a hatchet job a couple days ago in the Boring Broadsheet. Hint: The […]
By DAN VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, JUNE 15, 2011) —Quick hits and funky bits: * PROMGATE — Funny how $10,000 of school money is stolen, drugs and booze are consumed inside of PHS, and the building is vandalized, and the apologists for this crime eagerly dismisses this as high school hijinx — you know, boys […]
By DAN VALENTI (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, JUNE 14, 2011) — After spending a couple of days in Perth Amboy, N.J., hardly the garden spot of the Garden State, The Planet finds it good to be back on terra more-or-lessa firma, noting with interest a new page on Facebook promoting a write-in for Sara Hathaway for […]
By DAN VALENTI GOBs and STICKY, SLIMY GOO (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, June 13, 2011) — Two quick pieces of circumstantial evidence that suggest that the GOBs are playing for keeps and that their stranglehold over Pittsfield public life — which has continued uninterrupted since Ann Wotjkowski’s tenure as mayor save for the two years of Sara […]
By JOSH CUTLER PLANET VALENTI Sports (PITTSFIELD, June 12, 2011) — Though inclement weather conditions prevented a doubleheader between the Pittsfield Colonials and the New York Federals from being played, it couldn’t spoil the party for about 500 family, friends, and supporters of former Pittsfield Red Sox pitcher and Berkshire County Jimmy Fund chapter founder […]
