BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 23, 2018) — Two meetings set, one for tonight and the other tomorrow, may well determine the economic fate of the city of Pittsfield. The correct vote won’t prevent eventual receivership (assuming the current spending problem is not addressed in municipal budgets), […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION APRIL 20-22, 2018) — Inability to let go of the past freezes a person into a lingering immaturity of perpetual pain, blame, and victimhood. It works that way for nations, too, as well as races. Daily we see this being played […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY APRIL 18, 2018) — While wondering when spring takes off its winter clothing, we present three items on today’s edition of THE PLANET, noting in the process the call for all to avoid catty sniping and the “did-to/did-not” of the sandbox. Keep it as […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 16, 2018) — Trump blundered. That’s the two-word synopsis of his decision to send 105 missiles against three sites in Syria, a strike responding to Syrian president Assad’s use of chemical weapons. How different from the President’s prior views of the country, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, APRIL 13-18, 2018) — The recent vote of the Pittsfield City Council to defeat the Tyer Administration’s proposal to borrow nearly $80 million to pay for unfunded mandates ordered by the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the city’s waste […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITYDE WEDNESDAY APRIL 11, 2018) — On this, the 57th anniversary of Carl Yastrzemski’s debut with the Boston Red Sox (1-for-4 off Ray Herbert, a 4-0 extra-inning win), THE PLANET does a tiny bit of housekeeping before we get on to the business of the day. We […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 9, 2018) — Is it a dogfight or a catfight that has hamstrung the Sonsini Animal Shelter? Since the principals in the battle are women, THE PLANET will go for the latter. Krista Wroldson Miller, chair of the Friends of Sonsini, claims the mayor ended […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY !!UPDATE!! APRIL 6, EVENING — Subsequent to THE PLANET‘s column controversy involving the city’s cancelation of its contract with the Sonsini Animal Shelter, the two principals at the heart of the matter issued statements. Krista Wroldson Miller, chairwoman of the Friends of Sonsini, sent the following memo to city […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY APRIL 4, 2018) — Fifty years ago in the evening, THE PLANET found ourselves on Lyman Street then Deming Park looking for our dog Chubbie, a 14-year-old beagle who had wandered off. We searched for awhile before returning home dejected, only to find her wagging tail […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY APRIL 2, 2018) — Clearing our the junk drawer of a writer’s political notebook: B(R)IC-A-BRAC — One of the least known aspects of the deal that will pour nearly $14 million of taxpayer money into the ill-defined BIC building at the PEDA site […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 30-APRIL 1, 2018) — Time to clean the palette with a bit or rhetorical sorbet, the taste of which shall take us away from the bitter aftertaste of politics gone bad. Our bit of whimsical repast serves up another of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 28, 2018) — Now that America’s Future has completed its traipse down Good Intentions Road, it’s back to reality. Now what? The march on Washington to “demand action” on gun control fed a lot of egos, captivated the marshmallowed mainstream press, and […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VLENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 26, 2018) — Returning now to local issues, which is rather like stepping from a soothing bath into a North Korean sewage ditch, THE PLANET points to the latest ludicrous monetary request from the Pittsfield School Department. We refer to Supt. Jason “JIV” […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 22-25, 2018) — Much has been made about President Donald Trump‘s congratulatory call to Russian president-for-life Vlad “The Impaler” Putin. Even more of a non-story was the flash fire erupting after one of Trump’s national security staff leaked the bit […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 21, 2018) — We made it. Another winter resides now only in the books, an abstraction devoutly wished by many but not THE PLANET. We have come to cherish snow season as part of the quadrennial Equinox. On a long, brisk walk in […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MARCH 19, 2018) — Before we continue our series on Hoover, THE PLANET shares news of an important hearing on cable TV service in Pittsfield that takes place at 6 pm tonight at the Berkshire Atenaeum auditorium. The public hearing will be to examine […]
