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, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1, 4/2/21 — After writing this and it being active since Thursday night around 10 p.m. EST, THE PLANET has once again proven prescient. Today, Courtney Gilardi took out papers to run in Ward 4, a mere hours after we posted the following column. Once again […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 2 — 4/1/21 No April’s Fool joke, this latest in a series of crimes plaguing the city. From the PPD release: On Wednesday 03/31/2021, at approximately 8:30 PM, members of the Pittsfield Police Department responded to the Mobil Mart located at 580 North St for a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First in a Two-Part Series (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 29, 2021) — There’s a clan war going on between some residents of the Shacktown section on upper Holmes Road and the city of Pittsfield over a now-built and running cell phone tower there. In 2017 Verizon petitioned […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 26-8, 2021) — A few items to clear off the desk this Madness weekend, and then THE PLANET turns to discussion over to you. NEIGHBORS NOT BUYING CELL TOWER — On upper Holmes Road, technically in the 800 block of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 24, 2021) — USA Today recently ran a story on cities that should fare well and poorly after the COVID-19 pandemic retires. The article asks what will happen to workforces when more companies continue or initiate the option of working at home? Where […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 22, 2021) — Spring has sprung, and with that, THE PLANET presents the flowering of the COVID vaccination debate, what we call “The Vaccinated Chronicles.” Of course, this would be unnecessary if Pittsfield were run by competent, honest officials. But alas … […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 19-21, 2021) — Somehow, Bay Staters knew that when it came to COVID vaccinations, Massachusetts — the purported world leader in health care, with its vaunted medical centers — would blow it. As soon as politicians got involved, those in […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, ST. PATRICK’S DAY, 2021) — Shocking news. Investigators have actually found a woman who does not claim she was sexually harassed by New York Gov. Andrew “Born on Third” Cuomo. Stop the presses! Press the stoppers! Call the roller of fat cigars! Erin, go braless. […]
