The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Utah News Dispatch. When social worker Jules Martinez met one teen client, it seemed like the boy had given up: he’d dropped out of school, started selling drugs and stopped speaking with his mother. He’d been hospitalized multiple times for aggression...
Year: 2024
Developer behind Utah Lake islands scheme received taxpayer money for working on his brother’s anti-wolf campaign
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. For years, the state has paid millions to Big Game Forever so the organization could lobby for removing the gray wolf from the list of animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. During that time, the nonprofit...
Free webinar on understanding public meetings 9/19
Want to get involved in your community but don’t know where to start? Start by showing up! There are public meetings all over the state from city council meetings and zoning boards to legislative hearings and more. Join us for a free webinar on Sept. 19 from 12-1 pm to learn how to find meetings...
State tech officer fired after pushing back against plans to scrub public data
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with KSL.com SALT LAKE CITY — For the past decade, Drew Mingl helped build Utah’s Open Data Catalog into a model of transparency for state governments across the country. The data portal posted thousands of datasets online in useful formats for all...
Cox touted several priorities and promises for Utah Latinos in 2022. Has he lived up to them?
Written and translated by Sydnee Chapman Gonzalez The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Telemundo Utah. (Para leer el texto en español vaya a la mitad del artículo.) October 2022 seemed like the accumulation of progress for many Latino Utahns as Gov. Spencer Cox carved out an evening...
Emergency calls from US Magnesium workers show disorganized response
By Eric Peterson and Emma Penrod The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune, with support from the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. The urgent call came into the Tooele County 911 dispatcher just after 9:30 one...
Utah in danger of losing hundreds of affordable housing units in next few years
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with KSL.com, The Standard Examiner and St. George News. MILLCREEK — Ivette Vickory loves her Millcreek apartment, but seeing her rent nearly double since she moved into the complex in 2009 has been hard to stomach. Then she found out rent could...
Controversial Moab developer quietly makes major donations in AG’s race
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Moab Sun. Derek Brown’s campaign website for the attorney general’s race brands him as a “constitutional conservative,” ready to take on the overreach of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. meddling in Utah’s state’s rights. Moab resident Laura Long is also worried...
County commissioner and former Utah wildlife official investigated for alleged big game baiting
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. It was a dream hunt more than 20 years in the making — that’s how long Robert’s father had been applying in annual state drawings for a highly sought after bow hunting tag. Scoring the tag last...
Utah gave $40M in tax breaks to a solar company accused of fraud
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Salt Lake City Weekly. “I guess you could call me a tree hugger,” said Washington state resident Tammy Crough on why she decided to install home solar power in 2023. “I love trees, the Earth, and I think solar is a...









