By Eric S. Peterson and Sam Stecklow The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Invisible Institute and Salt Lake City Weekly. In September 2019, the Logan City Police Department hired Officer Miguel Deras, who had recently left the University of Utah’s campus police. Police officers move from...
Author: Eric Peterson (Eric Peterson)
State refuses to release conflict-of-interest records for Cox’s cabinet
The following story was reported by the Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with KSL.com. SALT LAKE CITY — The people who run Utah’s state agencies are required to disclose possible conflicts of interest. But the governor’s office apparently doesn’t think the public has the right to know what those are. In a highly unusual...
Utah wildlife officials secretly culled 170 elk from LDS Church ranch land
The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. A massive gang of elk — with thousands more animals than the land could support — had been growing for years in Morgan and Rich counties. The best solution, the Division of Wildlife Resources decided late last...
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...
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...
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...









