BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2016) — You might have heard about … A creeper in a van tries to pick up a middle-schooler. A man who can’t get a taco at that noted spot for gourmands, Taco Bell, backs out in a rage and, like […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, EASTER SUNDAY WEEKEND, 2016) — THE PLANET wishes all visitors to this site every good wish and will for this, the holiest weekend in the Christian calendar. May it be a time of hope. Let our hope be a design and not a dream. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016 — Get the panic button handy. As of the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2015, “The City’s liabilities exceeded its assets … by $44,990,750. This compares to the previous year[,] when liabilities exceeded assets by $38,586,112.” For those […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Third of Three Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, Wednesday, March 23, 2016) — War. What is it good for? If you’re a taxpayer, absolutely nothing. If you’re a liberal politician, however, it’s good for a sinecure and a lifetime of the high life. LBJ had the War on Poverty […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Second of Three Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016) — Keeping with yesterday’s theme, the “Gang Violence Public Statement” that Pittsfield filed with the state shared the following additional information. Although the student population (5,774) is 70% white, “students of color are disciplined more frequently than […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY First of Three Parts (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016) — Buried within a massive 350-page supporting package for tomorrow night’s city council meeting a most startling document. It contains something you only rarely come across in official Pittsfield: truth. THE PLANET credits Terry Kinnas for wading […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 18-20, 2016) — OK, off Trump and onto the Chump. Tucked away during the March 9 meeting of the Pittsfield School Committee (PSC), literally the last item of business prior to executive session, was this agenda item: “VI, E. Approval of Contract […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 17, ST. PATTY’S DAY, 2016) — Erin, go braless, as they used to say back in the Green Day. Just stay away from green beer. Anyone who drinks green beer on St. Patty’s Day comes off as an amateur. Have fun! The Donald […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016) — Much has been made about protesters getting “roughed up” at rallies for GOP presidential candidate (and likely nominee) Donald Trump. [ED. NOTE: Trump had a big night last night on Super Tuesday II taking Florida and its 99 delegates; Totals […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, THE IDES OF MARCH, 2016) — Yesterday, THE PLANET broke down leases at the Pittsfield Municipal Airport brining in a whopping 15 cents a year. Think about it terms of geological time. At 15 pennies a year, after a billion years, taxpayers have made […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2016) — Some people love flying. Others dread it. All of us, however, want the plane always to fly level, whether it’s on or off the ground. In some ways, on-the-ground activity is the most important of an airport, since it’s there […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, MARCH 11-13, 2016) — BIC was the name of my first ballpoint pen. BIC then became the Berkshire Innovation Center. Now there’s another BIC in town. THE PLANET has long known that food and classrooms are not a good fit, if, that […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2016) — Out of the western skies came Sky King. We got that. THE PLANET, though, doesn’t get what’s going on at and with the Pittsfield Municipal Airport (PMA). We haven’t since they canceled commuter airlines there and then began all that […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016) — Carl Michael Yastrzemski. The Man Called Yaz. Number 8. This is the ballplayer who authored what is considered the greatest all-around season in MLB history. We speak, of course, of Yaz’s exploits with the bat and glove in the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016) — Pittsfield School Committee chair Kathy “Lady Boots” Yon and her group had it. School superintendent Jason “Jake” JIV McCandless and his team had it. School Building Needs Committee co-chair Kathy Amuso and the clan had it. So did the mayor, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2016) — It made for a deceptively good headline: “Jobs Report Shows Brisk U.S. Hiring in February” (NY Times). The mainstream media across the country gobbled it up, spoon-fed. The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) comes from the […]
