by Travis Mateer

On this installment of Zoom Chron’s Week in Review we talk about development in Midtown, rabies in Superior, and heartless homeless bashers in the Flathead. Regarding the Flathead Commissioners letter, Missoula’s placeholder Mayor, Jordan Hess, went to the media to REAFFIRM our city’s care for the homeless. From the link:

“We hear a lot from our constituents that they really care about serving our homeless population. We react to the people we serve, and in Missoula, our constituents really care about providing services to those in need,” said Hess.

Hess spoke out against a controversial letter from the Flathead County Commission earlier this week.

The commission claimed services for the homeless are only attracting more homeless individuals to Kalispell and called for the community to reject all things that empower the homeless lifestyle.

While Hess did his virtue signaling, a homeless man was charged with felony assault with a weapon for putting a knife to the throat of a fellow homeless man at the Johnson Street Shelter. Here’s a picture of Sean Ross, who was born in Michigan and had an assault with a weapons charge last year in Lewis and Clark County.

Here’s the other charge, from Conweb:

And here’s the story about how Ross came to the shelter, checked in his 10 inch knife, hung out for an hour, then committed a felony, allegedly. From the link:

An officer spoke to multiple witnesses involved. One witness said the suspect male, later identified as Sean Ross, came into the shelter with a blade. The witness told Ross that he needed to check the blade. Ross checked the weapon, hung out for about an hour, and then came back and got his knife. Ross then went out to the courtyard where the assault allegedly occurred.

One victim, John Doe, was interviewed and his first statement was “He tried to kill me literally” and “he put it to my throat and everything.” Doe explained that Ross came right up to him with the knife, put it to his throat and said, “I’ll kill you.” Doe further reported that he had to defend himself to keep from being stabbed. Doe also said he was “scared for my life.” Two other witnesses corroborated Doe’s explanation of what occurred.

If Missoulians REALLY DO CARE about serving people without conventional places to live, maybe we should ask ourselves about the rampant violence happening in and around these CARING facilities were different forms of assistance enabling are being dispersed.

Regarding the rabies claims in Superior, Montana (Mineral County), there’s A LOT more than just speculation about whether or not David Barsotti has rabies. Friday also featured a status hearing on the Writ of Mandamus, which I attended. After the hearing, I had a very interesting confrontation with Deputy County Attorney, Wally Congdon.

Did I confirm whether or not Wally once fell off a horse and hit his head? You’ll just have to listen to the WEEK IN REVIEW to find out, but if you want to read some hilarious Congdon context, check out this post, titled A Field Of Schemes In Wally World.

And then there’s the Midtown meeting I attended on Wednesday, where the application of the Delphi method was on full display. For a quick history, here’s Wikipedia:

The name Delphi derives from the Oracle of Delphi, although the authors of the method were unhappy with the oracular connotation of the name, “smacking a little of the occult”.[12] The Delphi method assumes that group judgments are more valid than individual judgments.

The Delphi method was developed at the beginning of the Cold War to forecast the impact of technology on warfare.[13] In 1944, General Henry H. Arnold ordered the creation of the report for the U.S. Army Air Corps on the future technological capabilities that might be used by the military.

Different approaches were tried, but the shortcomings of traditional forecasting methods, such as theoretical approach, quantitative models or trend extrapolation, quickly became apparent in areas where precise scientific laws have not been established yet. To combat these shortcomings, the Delphi method was developed by Project RAND during the 1950-1960s (1959) by Olaf Helmer, Norman Dalkey, and Nicholas Rescher.[14] It has been used ever since, together with various modifications and reformulations, such as the Imen-Delphi procedure.[15]

This history is fascinating, and the technique itself is something discussed in more detail during the episode, so give it a listen! And if you appreciate that content, in addition to the Monday through Friday blog posts, then consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading/listening!