Month: December 2021

by Travis Mateer

Recently some upset Superintendents in Montana sent a letter to OPI’s elected leader, Elsie Arntzen, to describe their upset feelings about her allegedly deplorable leadership. Here’s how the totally NOT conflicted Daily Montanan is reporting this hissy fit:

Asserting that Superintendent Elsie Arntzen’s leadership is “creating serious deficiencies” and undermining public education as a central tenet of democracy, the top leaders of the state’s AA schools are demanding the head of the Office of Public Instruction restore the agency and start supporting schools instead of “throwing rocks at local school districts.”

While the Superintendent of my kids school wasn’t a signatory of this letter, I DID speak with Heather Schmidt on the phone after she dragged Target Range into the controversy over a dumb comment made in jest by Quentin Rhoades. Here’s the reporting on how SERIOUS Heather took this THREAT:

Target Range School District Superintendent Dr. Heather Davis Schmidt sent an email to staff Wednesday regarding an incident at a community meeting Monday.

According to Schmidt, during the public meeting, an attorney who has filed a lawsuit against several local schools regarding their universal mask mandate made a threat to superintendents, saying “shoot ‘em.”

“In the school environment we take all threats seriously, and I take this one seriously,” Schmidt said. “I am in the process of making a formal complaint with law enforcement and the Missoula County Attorney’s Office.”

Now, with this framing in mind, you might be thinking I’m about to get SUPER CRITICAL about how Heather Schmidt is leading my kids’ school, but since the dreaded OMICRON variant was discovered, I have finally had a change of heart about the THREAT we face, and now I think Heather Schmidt is doing FANTASTIC!!!

Let me provide an example.

I attended a band concert–fully masked of course now that OMICRON was stalking me–and all the anxiety I felt about these little OMI-spreaders giving me the deaths evaporated when I saw that not only were the kids wearing masks, SO WERE THEIR INSTRUMENTS!

After my relief and astonishment wore off, I started wondering…who had the lucrative idea to sell the school district instrument-masks? Or was this some kind of DIY ingenuity from the PTA or something?

Since I was wearing my “parent hat”, I resisted the urge to find someone to field my inquiry (on a side-note, this “wearing hats” idiom is an actual thing. It’s kind of like how I’ve had to shift from aggrieved documentary film maker with The Roxy to artist/citizen journalist).

What I’m trying to say is Elsie Arntzen would benefit from embracing all the amazing opportunities fear and political opportunism can create, especially if a corporation and/or public sector union has your back.

Now, what other holes could benefit from a little fabric-armor against OMICRON?

Have a nice weekend!

by Travis Mateer

Keeping the public safe from unstable psychos like Josh Paniagua is the main job of a County Attorney like Kirsten Pabst, but Pabst’s office didn’t see fit to properly charge Paniagua with murder after he stabbed Ben Mousso 4 times in a drug rip gone bad at the beginning of last year.

Here’s Pabst in July of 2020 explaining the “self-defense decision” she made regarding this killer:

In court documents, investigators say Mousso and two others lured Paniagua to the casino with a meth-for-marijuana trade, but they didn’t have meth.

Prosecutors say they decided to rob Paniagua. Paniagua said Mousso hit him “three to four times” in the head in one version and “seven to eight” in another.

Paniagua admitted he stabbed Mousso four times.

The charging document claims, while Paniagua’s conflicting story made investigators question the “appropriateness of his actions and the level of force he used in response to Mousso’s attack … Paniagua maintained he ‘had no choice in the stabbing.’”

“We are looking at the reasonable person standard,” said Pabst.

Montana law specifically allows someone, in this case Paniagua, to use force, including deadly force, to prevent a robbery.

Since Josh Paniagua wasn’t properly charged in this incident, he was free to continue doing psychotic things, like preparing to save his devil-possessed mother, Traci, with his homemade torture chamber:

Court documents say Traci reported to a neighbor and police that Joshua thought she was “possessed by the devil” and that he “had to get the demons out of her” in a homemade “torture chamber” in their home.

Joshua then reportedly attempted to assault her with a hammer before Traci escaped to a neighbor’s house and called the police.

When police arrived at the scene, Joshua had barricaded himself inside the home before coming out once and then going back inside.

Paniagua continued to do so for several hours until police were able to extricate him.

This incident happened in June, about six months after Josh stabbed Ben Mousso to death in a public bathroom. Sort of puts Pabst’s July comments–defending her office’s NON-action in January–in a different light, doesn’t it.

Now, as the end of 2021 draws to an end, Paniagua is finally being sentenced, but for WHAT crime? I guess you can’t expect those kind of details from our local reporting. Here’s what WAS reported about Paniagua’s sentencing:

“She sentenced Mr. Paniagua to 10 years active with the Department of Public Health and Human Services, which is primarily focused on mental health treatment, and then followed that up with another five years active Department of Corrections placement, which is focused primarily on substance abuse,” said Bloom. “Then she followed that up with another 10 years on probation. So ultimately, Mr. Paniagua will do 15 years in custody, followed by another 10 years of supervised probation.”

In the article, after some of the victim statements were read, the prosecuting attorney for the County, Mac Bloom, had this to say:

“It was probably the most difficult case I’ve worked in my eight year career,” he said. “The work that law enforcement put into this and that our office put into this to try to get to the right answer and to get to the right solution was incredible. We put a lot of time into this case, and we wanted to make sure that we got it right because we wanted justice to be done. I know that the families of the deceased feel like that was not the case here and my heart breaks for them. They lost their son and we can never bring him back, and really, my heart goes out to them for that tragedy. We just had to do the best we could to evaluate it objectively and under the laws of the state of Montana.”

Yes, Missoula County Attorneys are well known for their ability to objectively evaluate and prosecute dangerous people, people like that VERY DANGEROUS drone whistleblower, Brandon Bryant, who faced similar time in custody for using WORDS to create feelings of NON-SAFETY for politically important people, like council member Gwen Jones.

Here’s a post I wrote in February of 2020, titled If Brandon Bryant Had Killed A Homeless Person Instead Of Using Threatening Language Would He Still Be Sitting In Jail? In this post I juxtapose the felony charges Bryant faced for using threatening language, while the alleged assailant of Sean Stevenson, Johnny Lee Perry, was allowed to walk without ANY charges after allegedly assaulting Sean at the Poverello Center on January 3rd, 2020.

I have ZERO FAITH in our County Attorney’s office as long as Kirsten Pabst is leading it. In my opinion, Pabst is an important cog in a corrupt political machine that has been running roughshod over this community for years, protecting the politically connected from the consequences of their actions, while bringing the full weight of the law upon those without political friends to protect them.

Pretty soon, the power dynamics running this town will be on FULL DISPLAY.

Stay tuned…

by Travis Mateer

Before I get to the strategic action of Parks and Rec to remove benches in a park near the seasonal emergency homeless warehouse on Johnson Street, I’d like to share a story of how I used this concept in my work at the shelter to make homeless people disappear. Utilizing these methods to protect spa customers from the visual evidence of homelessness is a big reason I was up for downtown person of the year in 2015.

The spa I assisted was on Main Street, near the Union Club. The problem they had was daytime evidence of a nighttime sleep-spot for someone on the streets of our liberal community. Using the skills I picked up from the crime prevention officer at the time, Rob Scheben, I told the spa manager what to do: move the storage container.

You see, the spa had a storage container behind the building, and it was placed right up close to back of the building, making a space that provided some cover and protection. Moving the storage container back removed that cover and protection. I even picked up some of the trash around the area because I have EXCELLENT customer service skills.

When I talk about Engen’s legacy on homelessness–formalized 9 years ago with a 10 year plan to end it–I sometimes mention having been quoted in that plan. I decided to find the PDF and screen-shot this regime’s use of me back when I was a sucker spouting housing-first platitudes and referencing Million Dollar Murray.

Yep, there I am, referencing one of the “frequent flyers” I helped triage during business hours. That seems like a LONG time ago now. But then I read articles like the one linked above, and it all comes rushing back.

Missoula Parks and Recreation recently removed picnic tables from Montana Rail Link Park because they are being “misused,” according to department head Donna Gaukler.

Unhoused people were apparently using the picnic tables, as they are under a roof. MRL Park is close to the emergency winter shelter for the homeless on Johnson Street.

Two years ago, near the main shelter on West Broadway, a different tentacle of local government–our Mountain Line bus service–removed benches at two covered bus stops that just happened to be by the homeless shelter. While the justification was exactly the same, the main shelter isn’t seasonal, so the benches never returned.

If you have legitimate disability needs, well, too bad.

One Franklin to the Fort resident who opposes removing the tables, David Ley, recently told the Missoulian he is a disabled veteran and likes to sit when he has his dogs at the park. MRL also includes an off-leash dog park.

“When Winter comes around, I like to sit under the pavilion if it’s snowing or freezing rain or something, but they just removed everything from under the pavilion,” Ley said.

“What really got me invested in this was that I saw it as some pseudo-classist insult.”

Whoa, David Ley, don’t be getting all fancy with your pseudo-discourse. There are potential crimes, and there are crime-prevention designs, and there are Donna Gauklers available to school you on what the National Recreation and Park Association has to say about what this design concept has to offer:

According to the National Recreation and Parks Association, that term is defined as “a plan or project that uses specific design principles to work toward deterring criminal behavior while positively impacting the image and usage of an area or facility.”

While the removal of benches provides short-term relief for SOME daytime users of this park, nothing is mentioned in this article about the existence of Tax Increment Fido, a partially TIF-funded sculpture that is so ugly and offensive in its use of TIF (intended once upon a time to address “blight”), it may lead to criminal mischief, like vandalism.

Here’s a look at what thousands of TIF dollars can create:

No, not ALL the money came from TIF. Just some of it. I think. The article from the time explained that THE WHOLE PARK was developed with TIF money, and some percentage was set aside for public art, but it didn’t cover the cost of Fido–I mean “Scratch”–so MRA kicked in more:

In this case, the TIF money designated through the Percent for Public Art ordinance wasn’t enough scratch to pay for Scratch. So the Montana Redevelopment Agency, which administers the TIF dollars, put up another $12,500 in TIF funds to cover the rest of the cost.

So, in summary, no more winter-time benches at Rail Link Park means crimes of passion against public art and crimes of existence for the “unhoused” can be prevented.

Any questions?

by Travis Mateer

I am excited that education reporter Skylar Rispens is excited about submitting an application to the Education Writers Association. Why? Because it educated me about the continuing “education” Skylar will receive if accepted.

Here’s the excitement which is, of course, being expressed on Twitter:

The program Skylar Rispens has been dreaming about, called NEW TO THE BEAT, is a dream that entails a handler mentor AND trip to DC. Here are some of the cool things a NEW TO THE BEAT applicant will learn:

The January event will cover beat basics like making the most of open records and how to find and use education research, plus provide a crash course in navigating education policy and politics. Participants will also learn how to use key federal databases, and how to take their writing and interviewing skills to the next level.

When I think of what it takes to go NEXT LEVEL with mentors and training in DC, I think money because, let’s face it, America’s capitol is a pay-to-play cesspool of corruption.

Ok, now the big reveal. Who exactly is paying for Skylar Rispens to realize her dream in DC?

If you weren’t already disgusted by the sorry state of local media, here are a few new reasons to be cynical.

Unless, of course, you’re eager to take Lumina’s equity self-assessment, or read the reporting from an ALEC-supporting foundation created with Walmart loot.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Zoom Chron. For a little housekeeping, you may notice the blog has been renamed ZOOM CHRON BLOG. Yes, I have finally retired Reptile Dysfunction. It was time.