The following story was funded with support from The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. On July 7, dozens of people experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake City frantically gathered their belongings from a camp along 150 North and 700 West. As...
Category: News
Critics say a lack of trust between police and the homeless community is to blame for an unsolved homicide
The following story was funded with support from The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and was reported by the Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Salt Lake City Weekly. Joe Salas was in a dark mood when he said goodbye to his wife at the North Temple Trax station and headed north along the Jordan...
Utah helped landlords, not renters. How that’s changing.
The following was supported by funding from The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Salt Lake Tribune. In 2021, a spokesperson for the Department of the Treasury was surprised to learn that Utah was using federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) money to pay landlords’...
Lehi MLM draws criticism for continuing to do business in Russia
By Sara Tabin The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with the Daily Herald. As war rages and evidence of atrocities and mass murder surfaces in Ukraine, many U.S. companies have stopped doing business in Russia. But not everyone is pulling out. Nature’s Sunshine, a Utah-based multilevel marketing company...
Utah hunting guide faces felony charge for Donald Trump Jr.’s big game hunt
By Eric S. Peterson The following story was written and researched by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah hunting guide Wade Lemon faces five years in state prison for the death of a Carbon County bear killed during a guided hunt on May 18, 2018. But Lemon, a...
A tax break for Utah seniors could be a lifeline–if people knew about it
By Cathy McKitrick The following story was supported by funding from The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with City Weekly, The Spectrum & Daily News, Daily Herald, Standard Examiner, The Park Record and Living and Aging With Pride. Property taxes on the dream home Darrell...
In a rural Utah town, two detectives craft their own method of investigating D.V. and rape cases: empowering survivors
By Stephen Dark The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Deseret News. One late June 2021 afternoon, Carbon County victim advocate Denna Fausett drove to Mesquite, Nevada. She picked up 25-year-old Josie Powell at the trailer park she lived in and brought her back to downtown Price,...
Complaint alleges Salt Lake City councilman broke campaign laws to get elected
By Cathy McKitrick The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sore loser. Sour grapes. In hindsight, Billy Palmer figured that’s how people would likely see his campaign finance complaint against fellow City Council candidate Alejandro Puy. Palmer filed his complaint with the Salt Lake...
Bills helping renters face uphill battle in Legislature dominated by real estate industry
The following story was supported by funding from The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Lacey Whyte knows all about the “scarlet E” that comes with having an eviction on your record and how difficult it makes it to get into...
Southern Utah town’s apocalyptic spending project raises eyebrows.
By Sara Tabin The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Spectrum & Daily News and the Salt Lake City Weekly. The past couple years have been rife with existential threats for Utahns—earthquakes, wildfires, supply chain shortages—not to mention multiple waves of coronavirus surges. It’s been enough...









