Grantees’ Stories

Over the past two years, the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) has expanded dramatically around the receding Great Salt Lake, sparking opposition from environmentalists, public health advocates and rural community members. An investigation by Brooke Larsen for High Country News reveals that despite public comments expressing overwhelming opposition, UIPA has pushed forward – and is working closely with elected officials ...

Thousands of families migrated from Venezuela and other countries to Chicago, New York and other cities in the U.S. – and their children, who had already faced significant trauma, had significant mental health needs. With support from the Fund, reporters from El Tiempo Latino and Chicago Health Magazine spent a year reviewing data and interviewing dozens of experts and families ...

The Utah Investigative Journalism Project found an array of allegations against one man, Andrekus Rowe, by at least 17 different women ranging from harassment to assault and rape. Court documents, interviews with eight accusers and more than 60 police reports from law enforcement agencies across the state document a pattern of domestic violence and a knack for manipulating both his ...

So-called “conversion therapy” that purports to convert gay people to become straight has lost favor in Europe and the U.S., where professional associations have spoken out against it and some states have banned it. With support from the Fund, Finbarr Toesland reported for The Progressive that American and European advocates of “conversion therapy” are now focused on Africa – where ...

Three suicides in eight months at an Idaho jail exposed a lack of accountability and oversight of the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, according to a new report by Whitney Bryen, a reporter at InvestigateWest, with support from the Fund. For a story republished by Idaho’s largest newspaper and other outlets, Bryen analyzed video footage, jail policies and investigative files, documenting ...

With the Fund’s support, Sara Sneath was working on a series about fossil fuel influence in Louisiana universities when she received a tip about McNeese University’s Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Center of Excellence. Reporter Natalie McLendon, a McNeese graduate, also reached out to her with tips that the industry’s involvement in the center was unusual. Together, with a follow-up grant ...

The Commercial Development Company (CDC), which calls itself “North America’s leading brownfield developer,” acquires environmentally-impacted lands from industrial operators, pledging to clean them up and sell them for redevelopment. But residents are often left frustrated when the properties remain undeveloped, sometimes for decades. In a six-month investigation supported by the Fund – involving property records, court documents, site visits and ...

Wyoming’s public-defender system has long suffered from inadequate funding and high caseloads. In addition, public defenders in the state work with antiquated records systems and clients caught in cycles of addiction and poverty. With support from the Fund, David Dudley reported on systemic problems in Wyoming through the case of one woman, Aja Johnson, who was represented by an overburdened ...

Business Insider exposed how a series of Supreme Court decisions and laws have made it nearly impossible for incarcerated plaintiffs to seek redress in the courts for violations of the Eighth Amendment – a constitutional protection for prisoners against “cruel and unusual punishments.” Business Insider detailed its findings in a seven-part series. The reporting took over two years and is ...

With support from the Fund, Judith Matloff spent a year investigating a group of white investors who promised to give a tribe in northern Nevada their windfalls from a legal marijuana farm. The venture with the impoverished Ft. McDermitt nation fell apart amid mismanagement and lack of transparency. The story, co-published in The Guardian and High Country News, chronicled how ...