BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 26-8, 2020) — The Commonwealth’s Conflict of Interest laws are designed to prevent office holders from voting on matters where they can reasonably be perceived as having an evident financial interest in the outcome. Based on the law, THE PLANET […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 24, 2020) — Today THE PLANET begins with a victory lap. We — not The Berkshire Eagle (aka, The Boring Broadsheet), not iBerkshires, not radio or TV — just saved Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski millions. We guess at least $2 million — […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 22, 2020) — As part of the giant scam to skirt the budget hit COVID-19 has taken on every aspect of public and private economics, Ward 1’s Helen Moon lobbied for and, with the help of complicit councilors, successfully ordered the Pittsfield […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 19-21, 2020) — You’ve heard the old joke about the definition of mixed emotions: Seeing your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your new Cadillac (THE PLANET can relate!). Well, we have mixed emotions right now. Lordy, we have actually […]
PLANET VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 17, 2020) — THE PLANET has stumbled on quite the James Bond story, this involving Ward 1 councilor Helen Moon. The supporting cast remains a bit of a mystery, but the casting office mentions district attorney Andrea Harrington, school superintendent Jake “JIV” McCandless, other […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 15, 2020) — “Without a data source I have to reject your statement ‘in light of the crime problem in Pittsfield.’ You’ve offered a single qualitative assessment of the city without supporting evidence. The PPD fields a range of calls and without the longitudinal […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 12-4, 2020) — Soon after the death of George Floyd, the cry went up in Minneapolis like smoke from a burned-out storefront: “Defund the Police.” Lawmakers took it literally. Nine of the 12 city councilors, a veto-proof majority (the mayor […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 10, 2020) — You already know about the late George Floyd, the drugged up convicted felon and ex-con arrested by Minnesota police on suspicion of passing counterfeit dough . You don’t know about the equally late David Dorn. After Floyd met an […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 8, 2020) — Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski received the best gift for which they could reasonably hope when the pandemic hit. The resulting economic turmoil — in Pittsfield, more like devastation, with the tourist economy all but destroyed — provided the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 5-7, 2020) — He had good and bad in him, like all of us. THE PLANET won’t presume to “know” George Floyd or what kind of person he was. We only know some facts about his life plus what those […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2020) — One overlooked fact in George Floyd’s death is the composition of the quartet of complicit Minneapolis police officers. Central Casting provided the four, a group consisting of a white, a black, a Latino, and an Asian. Can you get […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JUNE 1, 2020) — It wasn’t enough that the coronavirus put the World’s No. 1 economy into the shredder. Now we have what’s left — Left — being further pulverized by the “protests” following the death of George Floyd at the hands of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 29-31, 2020) — THE PLANET can express no sufficient amount of outrace regarding the horrible death of George Floyd at the hands and knee of Minneapolis, MN police officer Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer among the quartet responding to a report […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MAY 27, 2020) — On THE PLANET today, a little of thissa and a lot of thatta. BLACK LIKE ME — First, you have the presumptive nominee of the Democrats appearing via Snapchat on a show hosted by a cat called Charlemagne the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ADD 1 5/25/20 — THE PLANET heard reports of shootings, plural, in Pittsfield, and at least one of our correspondents here mentioned something to that effect. It wasn’t rumor. Here’s the information from the Pittsfield Police Department: The Pittsfield Police Department is currently investigating two shooting incidents […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 22-4, 2020) — THE PLANET has lived through three previous pandemics. We’re now on our fourth. The pandemics: In 1957-8, the Asian flu, left 1.1 million people dead worldwide (116,000 in the U.S.). In 1968, the Hong Kong flu struck. […]
