Month: January 2024

by Travis Mateer

The original Higgins bridge in Missoula, not to mention the building this picture was taken from (the Penwell building), was designed by a woman named Josephine Kennedy, and her husband’s name was John, so John Kennedy. Funny. Also, Josephine is the name of my little girl, so I was a little surprised to come across her name in this Missoula Current article about the Penwell building a few days ago.

Instead of quoting a Kidston piece, here’s an excerpt from a different source that I scrolled through 27 pages to find:

Josephine (Stark) Kennedy was also a well-known architect in western Montana, designing several buildings to include the Sacajawea Lodge, of which she owned. She was married to J. H. Kennedy, a contractor, builder and architect who sold real estate and insurance when he first arrived in Missoula. Josephine took over his office, running “Kennedy & Forbis” out of the First National Bank building after his death in 1916. Josephine was a direct descendent of the Civil War hero General Stark, a prominent member of the Eastern Star, and a Missoula resident for approximately 33 years. She passed away in 1922.

I’ve written MANY posts about bridges, so I filed away this factoid in case MORE bridge developments emerged, and guess what? They quickly did!

Before I get to those more recent bridge developments, I have been meaning to note that the cost of rehabilitating the Northside pedestrian bridge has increased. Remember, this project was said to be a TOP priority for our placeholder Mayor, Jordan Hess, but now he’ll just have to watch the progress continue like the rest of us as Mayor Davis acclimates to her new role. From the link:

Council members on Wednesday approved two change orders related to the work, including an additional $259,000 related to winter scheduling and $56,000 for city permitting and changing construction needs.

“We’re running into a lot more rust than we thought we would,” said David Selvage, the city’s superintendent of park services and systems. “We’re re-sequencing our fair-weather work to the spring. We’re providing an allowance to do cold-weather work for the extra costs. We could get some of that back, but we’re not going to step over a dollar to pick up a dime.”

The maligned bridge was built just 24 years ago but quickly fell into disrepair as structure elements began to fail. The city closed the bridge last year for safety reasons and is eager to get it reopened, calling it a vital link between the Northside neighborhood and downtown Missoula.

Another bridge in Missoula recently got some attention from a reporter who is back in Missoula, a bridge I refer to as THE BRIDGE TO NO WHERE. Here is the Facebook post that got my attention:

Ok, so we’ve got the Higgins Bridge represented in this post, the Northside bridge, and the bridge to no where commented on by a reporter named Madison, which makes me think about the MADISON bridge and how its crumbling infrastructure closed sidewalks in 2016.

And then there’s the single-lane Maclay bridge, which I was barred from crossing on Saturday night at 1:45am for some unknown reason. Was there an accident? When I went by the next day, it was open again, and no one at the Rural Fire District station had any indication of it being closed for any reason.

The Maclay bridge is a great example of local government bodies exhibiting utter failure on an important piece of infrastructure in a growing part of the Missoula valley. I found an old Facebook post and took a screenshot of a well-informed commenter who had this to say:

For more context on the Maclay bridge, and why it pisses me off so much, check out thees posts:

Dave Strohmaier Has A Bridge Problem And That Means I Have A Problem With Dave Strohmaier–BUILD THE BRIDGE! (March 13th, 2019)

County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier Is Supporting The Agenda Of The South Street Bridge Obstructionists (October 14th, 2019)

A Retired Civil Structural Engineer Claims Maclay Bridge Should Be Condemned In Letter To Editor (October 28th, 2019)

Countering Maclay Bridge BS (November 20th, 2019)

Why Are Missoula Bridges Plagued With Problems? (July 14th, 2021)

If you appreciate my local perspective, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is still accepting donations. And stay tuned to this post, because if I figure out why the orange cones were up at 1:45am, I’ll put it in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

On January 5th I purchased a single red rose and took it to St. Patrick’s Hospital where Sean Stevenson was removed from life support on January 5th, 2020, BEFORE his family was notified. I wanted to see if I could find out which room number Sean was in when the Sheriff’s Office euthanized him, but the records department has been moved offsite, so instead I checked in with the risk management department and told them what I was looking for, and why. I might get a call next week about this, we’ll see.

Later in the day I got a text about the passing of the most dangerous woman in Montana, Jane Rectenwald. After experiencing a stroke late last year, Jane left this world around 8am on January 5th. I’ll leave any speculation about the rumors I’ve heard for another post.

Ok, how about a smooth transition now from Jane to aliens. How could a transition like this be smooth? Well, a weird and interesting fact about Jane is that she worked as a student librarian many years ago for a guy by the name of J. Allen Hynek. Here’s the old business card Jane sent me a pic of when I wrote about this in March of last year:

And here’s some context on Hynek:

During World War II, Hynek was a civilian scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he helped to develop the United States Navy’s radio proximity fuze.

After the war, Hynek returned to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio State, rising to full professor in 1950. In 1953, Hynek submitted a report on the fluctuations in the brightness and color of starlight and daylight, with an emphasis on daytime observations.[4]

In 1956, he left to join Professor Fred Whipple, the Harvard astronomer, at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which had combined with the Harvard Observatory at Harvard. Hynek had the assignment of directing the tracking of an American space satellite, a project for the International Geophysical Year in 1956 and thereafter. In addition to over 200 teams of amateur scientists around the world that were part of Operation Moonwatch, there were also 12 photographic Baker-Nunn stations. A special camera was devised for the task and a prototype was built and tested and then stripped apart again when, on Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik 1.

After completing his work on the satellite program, Hynek went back to teaching, taking the position of professor and chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern University in 1960.

As an accomplished scientist, Hynek was no slouch when he started taking seriously UFO anomalies. Here’s more from his Wikipedia page:

In 1953, Hynek was an associate member of the Robertson Panel, which concluded that there was nothing anomalous about UFOs, and that a public relations campaign should be undertaken to debunk the subject and reduce public interest. Hynek would later lament that the Robertson Panel had helped make UFOs a disreputable field of study.

As UFO reports continued to be made, some of the testimonies, especially by military pilots and police officers, were deeply puzzling to Hynek. He once said, “As a scientist I must be mindful of the lessons of the past; all too often it has happened that matters of great value to science were overlooked because the new phenomenon did not fit the accepted scientific outlook of the time.”[7]

In a 1985 interview, when asked what caused his change of opinion, Hynek responded, “Two things, really. One was the completely negative and unyielding attitude of the Air Force. They wouldn’t give UFOs the chance of existing, even if they were flying up and down the street in broad daylight. Everything had to have an explanation. I began to resent that, even though I basically felt the same way, because I still thought they weren’t going about it in the right way. You can’t assume that everything is black no matter what. Secondly, the caliber of the witnesses began to trouble me. Quite a few instances were reported by military pilots, for example, and I knew them to be fairly well-trained, so this is when I first began to think that, well, maybe there was something to all this.”

I’m thinking about this topic because of the weirdness emanating from Miami. While it’s easy to dismiss the idea of 10 foot tall shadow creatures being the reason for a MASSIVE police response at a mall in Miami, there’s still something very odd about the official story that this police response was due to youth getting violent with “sticks”.

Kids with sticks? Ok, Miami police, if this is the kind of police response you need to deal with kids with sticks, it might be BETTER for cop morale to go with the shadow creatures narrative because THEN your boys in blue don’t look like a scared, overreacting police state.

To better document this strange incident, here’s a little ditty I made. Please enjoy!

Ok, now for the links to the week’s content. Remember, I don’t plan on maintaining a Monday-Friday posting schedule in 2024, but since I haven’t left town yet, I decided to keep kicking ass at the pace Zoom Chron readers have come to expect from me. Here are the link:

Synchronicity Story Time Program: A Method Of Developing Narrative Control Sledgehammers For Youth (January 1st, 2024)

The False Freedom Of Elon’s X (January 2nd, 2024)

The Covert Climate Propaganda Campaign Behind Missoula’s “Common Good” (January 3rd, 2024)

Why Doesn’t The LifeGuard Group Search For White Women? (January 4th, 2024)

Missoula Needs More Housing, But The White Lion Sleeps Tonight (January 5th, 2024)

That’s it for the first week of 2024. If you would like to help my local reporting efforts, Travis’ Impact Fun (TIF) is still accepting donations, though it’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen any monetary support.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Lions are powerful animals, which is why men sometimes appropriate their likeness for tattoos. Or, for the purposes of THIS post, a logo for a corporate brand.

That’s right, WAGS CAPITAL is the business invoking LION energy in order to create the impression that former football player, Aaron Wagner, is a competent ALPHA-male business man who will successfully transform the former Missoulian building on the Hip Strip into towering condos. But will he?

For context, here are two posts about how Wags Capital created unnecessary controversy regarding this development project that locals were sure to hate in the first place:

Getting To Know Wags Capital While Speculating On A Brewing Oligarch Battle (December 2nd, 2021)

Wags Hands Off To Bergquist To Build The Archie, The Belle, And The Cam (September 21st, 2022)

I hadn’t given any thought to Aaron Wagner and his Hip Strip condo project until Christmas, when I received an email from an upset mother in Utah, where Wags Capital is based. Apparently one of the Wags Capital food brands hasn’t been able to pay its employees payroll, and this mother is trying to understand how an ALPHA male like Mr. Wags can project ALPHA strength while his company’s brand closes and screws over teenage girls.

Here is a portion of the email from the concerned mother in Utah who I had a chance to speak with on the phone this week:

Hello Mr. Mateer,

I came across with one of the blogs about Aaron Wagner and WagsCapital from a couple years ago while researching WagsCapital. 

Let me share a story about WagsCapital, they owned or have a Restaurant registered in the state of Utah, Kokonut Island Grill of Pleasant Grove, Ut. among other UT local restaurants. Andy and Carmilla P. as co-owners (to my daughter’s knowledge they owned 40%).   

Here is where all begins, my daughter started working there at the beginning of October, everything started fine, no issues beside some workplace drama, that drama grew and she started noticing more coming from management to the point of making some employees quit. At the end of November rumors started growing between employees that the numbers were bad, management made a mistake of changing the menu for the worse and sales declined, not only that but Google reviews started pouring badly. At the end of November, my daughter noticed that the amount she got paid was not accurate according to what the app used for schedules was showing every day. I made the suggestion to take screenshots of what the app was showing to see if there was any mistake with her paycheck, this later become a blessing for her. At the beginning of December, to be more accurate Dec. 5th, she received a message through the same app from Daisy (supervisor) that the restaurant was going to close for “maintenance” for the rest of the week, no further explanation. On Sunday, my daughter logged in to see what her schedule for the week, to her surprise nothing was posted. No schedules were posted for any of the employees. She proceeds to ask about it, but there was no response from management. To add injury to the situation, that same week of December 3rd was payday week, which she inquired about it as well because no payment was posted into her bank account (until this day, Dec 25th she is still waiting for it)There was no response for neither. Text after text, nothing. No explanation as if she was going to work or to when to expect her paycheck. No work dismissal at all, no termination letter, no paycheck! Then management went radio silent. She is not the only employee in the same situation, according to Facebook messages and Google reviews they did the smear thing to other locations. She is being in contact with coworkers (majority teenagers) and the frustration is the same.

A struggling restaurant brand doesn’t necessarily mean a struggling parent company, so I decided to make the local rounds in Missoula to see what I could find out. Here are the results of my brief investigation.

According to the Montana Cadastral website, The Belle LLC is still the primary owner, which is Wags Capital, but ownership doesn’t automatically confer viability, so I made a few more attempts to get information with the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, the WGM Group, and Cole Bergquist’s office at Pure West.

I learned the LEAST from Pure West, but that’s probably because Cole Bergquist was in California, which makes sense, since that’s where he’s from. For some context on THIS alpha male, here’s how he frames his football/real estate career:

Cole grew up in San Clemente, CA and moved to Missoula, MT to attend The University of Montana where he majored in Accounting and Finance. Cole was the starting Quarterback for the Griz from 2005–2008 and led them to four consecutive Big Sky Championships and a National Championship game. After college, he played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL for three years.

In his first three years in real estate, Cole sold over 125 properties, distinguishing him as one of the top producers in the area. Cole believes that when you buy or sell a home you should remember the process as an exciting and hassle-free experience.

When I went to the WGM Group this week (after leaving a message with Jeff Smith), they told me that they no longer represent Wags Capital on this project. This is the benefit of begin LOCAL and actually showing up, in person, to the places where I’m trying to get information. If I had just made phone calls and waited for a response, I wouldn’t have developed the following perspective: this project appears to be DEAD.

When I called MRA and pressed the number for the director, I was pleased to hear Ellen Buchanan’s calm, confident voice on the other end of the line. What did I learn from Ellen? Nothing much, since this property is NOT in an Urban Renewal District, but I did learn that our current economic climate in America is causing MANY hiccups with big development projects. Excellent damage control, Ellen!

Yes, Ellen was confident that this project would “come back around” despite all the indicators I’m seeing that the white lion does NOT have the prowess he projects. What would Andrew Tate think about all this?

There will be more to report on this development project, so stay tuned. Also, it appears a historic building right across the street from this site will be getting some refurbished love, so that should bring some attention to this part of Missoula and the ambitions of developers like Aaron Wagner.

If you appreciate my local reporting, consider pitching in by supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

When an attractive indigenous woman by the name of Jermain Charlo went missing, the non-profit run by the chaplain of the Sheriff’s Office in Missoula, Lowell Hochhalter, sprang into action. Did they find her? No, but two years later, KPAX reported on how Lowell’s non-profit, the LifeGuard Group, was continuing to search for missing persons.

A Missoula search and rescue group says recent statistics that were released about missing persons over the last three years are daunting, but they won’t stop looking for missing people.

It’s been almost two years since Jermain Charlo went missing. And still, the Lifeguard Group says it hasn’t and won’t stop looking for her.

Charlo was last seen at the Orange Street Food Farm in Missoula on June 16, 2018.

Two years later, after Rebekah Barsotti went missing, I caught the LifeGuard Group lying to me about their involvement in the search for Rebekah. Why would they lie about that?

Now, another two years later, another woman is missing and I don’t see any indication that the LifeGuard Group has been involved in searching for Eva Prather. Instead, this is their most recent post on Facebook:

Why is this non-profit involved in searching for missing persons NOT searching for Eva Prather? Can anyone answer that question for me?

Police are asking for the public’s help to find a missing woman who suffers from mental illness.

Missoula PD says 43-year-old Eva Masin Prather has been missing since 1:30 a.m. on December 30th when she left her residence on foot. The family noticed she left her personal belongings behind. Police say she has not seen or heard from since she left the home, and has no known destination of travel. 

MPD went to on say that Eva suffers from anxiety and extreme paranoia, and when she’s not around family she is said to believe people are out to get her.

At the very least, this non-profit could have posted an article about Eva on social media, but they didn’t even do that. Why the fuck not? 

When Joey Thompson went missing, did the LifeGuard Group do anything to search for him? Not that any Facebook search results indicate.

Nothing came up when I searched the Group’s Facebook page, which is VERY weird, considering Lowell Hochhalter was familiar with who Joey Thompson was before he went missing. So, why not help search for him? I mean, ANY information on what happened to Joey would be NICE TO KNOW, and I think Lowell Hochhalter knows SOMETHING about what happened.

Thompson’s death certificate, filed last week, lists his cause of death as drowning in a period of minutes in the river. However, in a space on the certificate for an explanation of how the injury occurred, it says “undetermined.”

The manner of death (i.e. whether it was an accident, homicide, suicide or natural) is also listed as “could not be determined.”

According to a news release from the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office sent out in April, detectives followed information on the events leading up to and after Thompson’s disappearance. They believe no criminal activity was suspected in his disappearance, the news release stated. 

Did I mention that Lowell Hochhalter WORKS for the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office? And have I mentioned my own investigation into the disappearance and death of Joey Thompson indicates that criminal activity WAS INDEED involved?

Here’s my reporting from last year on Joey’s case:

Some Curious Things NOT Happening In The Joey Thompson Missing Person Case (May 5th, 2023)

Who Knows What Happened to Joey Thompson? (May 15th, 2023)

We Adults Are Failing The Friends Of Joey Thompson (May 20th, 2023)

Why Are Two Sheriff Offices Now Failing To Call Me Back Or Acknowledge Any Investigation In The Death Of Joey Thompson? (May 28th, 2023)

Who Found Joey Thompson’s Body In The Clark Fork River, And Where? (June 19th, 2023)

Joey Thompson’s Death Certificate Information Has Finally Been Released, Now What? (June 29th, 2023)

Now what? Nothing, because that’s what the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office is good at. And with such a pathetic array of local media pretenders, the public is fucking clueless about how bad the situation is.

When I saw Eva’s last name, I thought it sounded familiar. Then the Missoulian’s report used a DIFFERENT last name, which brought my attention to it even more (emphasis mine):

Missoula police are asking for the public’s help locating a 43-year-old woman who’s been missing for about four days. 

Eva Masin was last seen in Missoula in the early morning of Saturday, Dec. 30, at about 1:30 a.m. She was at her house, according to a news release from MPD. 

Concerns were shared with law enforcement over Masin leaving behind her personal belongings, and that she wasn’t appropriately dressed for cold outside temperatures, according to the release.

When I did some searching, using the name Prather, I found that a Missoula County Sheriff Sgt. has the same surname in an article about the Sheriff’s Office getting money from the Five Valley Drug Task Force, so I’ll ask the obvious question: is Ryan Prather related to Eva Prather?

Sgt. Ryan Prather with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department said the county has received funding from the Montana Board of Crime Control for the Five Valley Drug Task Force for over 20 years.

“It’s a continuous program and it has been very productive,” he said.

I’m only asking these pointed questions because recent history has indicated that our Sheriff’s Office is NOT VERY GOOD at doing their job, and I say that after following several cases VERY CLOSELY. But is this really incompetence I’m seeing, or is something else happening here?

To be fair, it appears Lowell and family are busy teaching victims of human trafficking how to fix horse saddles. For resale? (emphasis mine):

Chances are, right now, there’s an old saddle buried somewhere under a pile of dusty tack in the back corner of a Montana barn. This saddle has been forgotten, just like the hole in the barn’s roof that’s been patched over by a swallow’s nest. However, outside of Missoula, there’s a ranch where old saddles like those are being restored by people who know how it feels to be forgotten. They are survivors of human trafficking. Lowell Hochhalter and his team at The LifeGuard Group have made it their mission to rescue these lives and bring them to safety. By teaching how to restore a saddle, they’re giving survivors a chance to restore themselves.

Yesterday, after writing the majority of this post, I drove to where the Griz would be leaving Missoula for the FCS Championship in my transit truck with my BIG magnet asking WHAT HAPPENED TO SEAN? The magnet includes the picture of Sean smiling with Salma Hayek, and I’m happy to report the image worked as intended, grabbing the attention of none other than LOWELL HIMSELF as he walked down Higgins with his son and non-profit co-worker, Carson, to cheer on the Griz.

Was it the cleavage that got your attention, Lowell?

Since January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, I’m sure I’ll write at least one more post about the LifeGuard Group and their special relationship with Montana’s Governor, Greg Gianforte. I’m also interested in how our Attorney General, who is seeking reelection, will be framing this issue in the weeks and months to come.

If you appreciate my perspective on local issues, please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). I’ll be traveling soon, and any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I’m sure Mica’s mommy and daddy truly believe they are doing what they need to do for their kid, which includes using him for a legal case to save the world from what they think will be catastrophic climate change if we don’t all DO SOMETHING NOW!

I didn’t go looking for this image of a 14 year old kid when I first saw another Missoulian article bashing cars and promoting multi-modal zealots who continue pushing their fear ideology on the rest of us. Here’s what I’m talking about from an organization called “Common Good”. This explanation of what a “neighborway” is comes after some fear-mongering about pedestrians having conflicts with cars (emphasis mine):

The neighborway concept emerged from community listening sessions conducted by the nonprofit Common Good Missoula. The design involves a 6- or 8-foot protected corridor along existing streets. To install a neighborway, parking would be rearranged and roadways would get narrower. Wilburn and Endsley also envision adding traffic circles and other calming measures on streets where neighborways are put into place.

The idea is to provide a lower-cost, quicker-build alternative to sidewalks and traditional protected bike lanes. Their proponents see neighborways as a boon for safety, equity and climate resilience.

“We’ve heard repeatedly concerns about pedestrian and biking safety,” said Endsley. “It doesn’t always feel safe or easy getting around Missoula without a car.”

Of course Endsley is repeatedly hearing about these concerns, that’s because there is a well-funded AGENDA to make sure the FEAR of climate change is pushed on local officials so that they spend money they don’t have on infrastructure we don’t need. 

It’s not always easy to parse out the orgs involved in this fear campaign, so I started with the about page of Common Good to see what other organizations are involved:

I took the first group on this list–Families for a Livable Climate–and under the page where you can become a business sponsor I found this:

Kantor Law? Hey, isn’t that the surname of the 14 year old climate activist? Wow, what a coincidence!

When you go to the Montana Free Press article about Mica Kantor, they don’t tell you that Kantor Law is involved in this movement, but they DO tell you how Mica’s parents started indoctrinating their son into the FEAR campaign at the age of four. From the link (emphasis mine):

Even before Kantor’s experience with wildfires disrupting his athletic outlet, he was aware of the impacts of global warming. The first time he recalls hearing about climate change was as a 4-year-old, he says, when his parents took him to see the 2012 documentary “Chasing Ice.”

“My parents didn’t think I’d understand the film. They just thought I’d like the cinematography,” he said. “But I understood. Not fully, since I was 4, but I knew something was wrong and it scared me a little. I was shocked and had a lot of questions for my parents. I’ve been trying to learn more and more about it ever since.”

So, scare the kid, then use him in a legal case? Brilliant. And what kind of asshole is going to criticize that? Certainly not a REAL journalist from a REAL institution that gets tourist dollars from municipalities, like the city of Missoula. Right Montana FREE Press?

Beneath Kantor Law the logo of a brewery is clearly visible. A brewery? Yes, but Imagination Station wants you to think they are SO MUCH MORE than a brewery, but are they?

Yesterday I went to Imagination Station to see if they were aware of the CRITICAL CHALLENGE of urban camping and the recent EXPLOSION near this brewery’s West Broadway location. The woman who pours beers had NO CLUE that an open pit fire near one of the “urban camps” exploded, sending a piece of metal shrapnel at a first responder.

Upon arrival crews found an 16-foot by 16-foot fire in a large pit with multiple explosions that were heard at the scene. 

A piece of metal that flew out of the pit nearly missed one of the first responders. 

The fire was successfully contained due to the prompt response of emergency personnel.

I educated the bartender of this COMMUNITY-ORIENTED brewery about the fire and explosions that happened behind their business, then suggested if they wanted to do something actually constructive for this community, maybe they should organize a clean-up or something.

Is jumping on the climate-fear bandwagon really a good move for businesses? For Edward Jones it appears to be a good opportunity to pitch bullshit investment strategies like “decarbonizing” your money.

Of course the Headwaters Foundation hosted this event. It’s the perfect place for Missoula’s replacement population to mitigate their wealth-guilt and signal their world-saving virtue.

If you appreciate my perspective consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF).

Thanks for reading!