Taylor Stevens

Award-winning investigative journalist and multimedia storyteller

SLTrib •

Legal battle over noncompete contracts may threaten mental health care for autistic kids

The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with The Daily Herald and The Salt Lake Tribune.

Saratoga Springs
• On the worst days, Brittney Olsen remembers crawling into a closet to meet her son after school to hold him in her lap while he cried.

The then-seventh grader, who has high-functioning autism, knew he wasn’t like some of the other students. His teachers would tell him he was slow, Brittney said, or act like he didn’t care about his sch
Arizona Republic •

Trespassing citations become constant worry for those living on the streets

Trespassing citations become constant worry for those living on the streets

As Edna Smith takes a blue marker to a cardboard sign — adding a colorful outline to a heart-dotted message that wishes readers a “very safe and blessed day” and proclaims that “God loves you” — she makes sure her feet are planted firmly on the sidewalk.

She has a right to set up here, in the public right-of-way on the corner of Dysart Road and Rancho Santa Fe Boulevard near a bustling shopping and food district in Goo
Cronkite News - Arizona PBS •

Tapachula, Mexico, has become an 'open-air prison for thousands of migrants

TAPACHULA, MEXICO – The desperation here is palpable. It fills the stifling air as migrants line up in the hot sun outside the National Migration Institute in hopes of receiving an interview, their children close at hand and their visa applications tucked under their arms in colorful protected sleeves so the papers won’t get ruined on the nights their families sleep outside in the rain. It strains the voices of the asylum seekers protesting outside a news conference by Mexico’s president, as the
Arizona Republic •

Metro Phoenix cities turn to homeless courts to help people navigate the justice system

Metro Phoenix cities turn to homeless courts to help people navigate the justice system

Mesa’s Community Court might appear like any other at first glance, with defendants appearing one by one before a judge dressed in a black robe.

But a closer look at their sentences reveals a key difference.

On one Wednesday afternoon, Judge John Tatz directs a woman to get a new birth certificate, Social Security card and ID, to attend weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and to stay in regular contact wi
SLTrib •

This Utah mink farmer wants to build a legacy. But will his industry survive?

The first warning sign might have been small: a caged mink’s sneeze, or possibly a cough. But the coronavirus pandemic would go on to sweep through Utah farms in 2020 with a force that ultimately killed at least 12,000 mink across 12 farms.

The mink on Anthony Nelson’s farm in Morgan County didn’t get sick. But he still worried that the business he launched in 2015 could fail, as farms across the state were quarantined and auction houses closed, making it difficult to find buyers.

To support t
SLTrib •

Inside 20 Rue Jacob, Salt Lake City’s 1980s lesbian bookstore

Apache Junction, Ariz.
• Abby Maestas was driving back to Salt Lake City from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival — in an old Honda so packed with camping gear that she and her two friends could barely move — when the idea for the bookstore was first spoken into existence.

It was 1979 and Maestas, a self-described “Chicana dyke” who grew up in Magna, had been operating a mail-order bookstore for the previous few years. She was helping women get titles about feminism or lesbianism that they coul
SLTrib •

‘Kayak court’ brings the justice system to Salt Lake City’s homeless on the banks of the Jordan River

As Britny McCurdy recently pleaded “guilty” to a misdemeanor for the use or possession of drug paraphernalia, nothing about the scene evoked a typical courtroom.

A public defender had paddled up to the banks of McCurdy’s camp on the Jordan River in a canoe moments before, asking if she had any outstanding cases that needed to be resolved. After accepting the offer, she proceeded to hear legal advice while sitting on a milk crate in a pair of jean shorts and sneakers, her blond hair pulled up in
The Salt Lake Tribune •

No refuge in redrock

Volunteers found 30 people experiencing homelessness in Grand County, from living outdoors to staying with friends or in a domestic violence shelter, during this year’s Point in Time count in January. Eighteen fit the federal government's official homeless definition — up from 12 the year before and a number some advocates say is likely an undercount.

Some have been pushed into homelessness by rising housing costs — like “NewClear” Ned Robinson, a former radio DJ who lost his mobile home and im
SLTrib •

From expensive dinners to pricey hotels: How Utah lawmakers spend donors’ contributions

Utah’s part-time state lawmakers, who earn $12,825 plus benefits during the grueling 45-day legislative session, often say they aren’t in public service for the money.

That sum, though, doesn’t take into account the tens of thousands of campaign dollars lawmakers have at their disposal. With loose rules governing the use of that money, legislators can buy gifts, expensive dinners and pay for trips to resort destinations — so long as they can establish a tie to their elected office or campaign.
SLTrib •

Tribune analysis: Utah lawmakers spend unlimited amounts in campaign cash — sometimes in violation of state law

Utah’s campaign finance guardrails do little to restrict how legislators use the unlimited sums they’re allowed to raise, in part because the state relies on an honor-based disclosure process as a check on spending.

A Salt Lake Tribune analysis found that, since 2015, lawmakers have collectively spent millions of dollars, often with little or no transparency about where the money is going and limited oversight from the state’s tiny elections office, which has one full-time employee to review tens of thousands of expenditures.
SLTrib •

Exclusive: Utah leaders went rogue in early coronavirus response, emails from health experts show

The powerful state budget managers who controlled key parts of Utah’s initial coronavirus response were skeptical about the value of medical expertise in handling the crisis and made repeated attempts to resist or subvert health officials, according to records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

Springing into action soon after the virus hit Utah, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) molded an economy-focused strategy that called for clamping down quickly on the disease, floodin
SLTrib •

Nearly 80% of the money budgeted for Operation Rio Grande was used for policing, jail beds and court costs

Nearly $8 of every $10 allocated by state and local governments for Operation Rio Grande, a massive safety and social services campaign, were spent on court costs and policing and jailing the predominantly homeless population around Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Park.

Spending data, which The Salt Lake Tribune has compiled for the first time since the two-year operation ended, show far less money — about 18% of the $55.3 million in new funding — went into housing, shelter and services like substance
SLTrib •

Violent crime and property crime surge in Salt Lake City, up more than 20% in 2020

After years of trending downward, reports of violent crime and property crime have spiked in Salt Lake City this year — a microcosm of a nationwide trend of rising criminality that could have its roots in the coronavirus pandemic.

Violent crime increased 21.6% from Jan. 1 through Sunday, and property crimes are up 24.9%, according to crime statistics the Salt Lake City Police Department reports on its website. Criminal homicide, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft in the capital city all
SLTrib •

Shopping carts, usually stolen, are a lifeline for many homeless campers in winter

A camper is folding up blue plastic tarps behind the downtown Salt Lake City Public Library on a chilly November morning when he realizes Antonio Hernandez — a professional cart “wrangler” — has noticed him.

The man points to the cart’s bare handle, stripped of the plastic cover that would mark it as property of a particular store. Maybe that’ll persuade Hernandez to relent and let him keep the cart he’s stuffed full of blankets and bags.

Hernandez doesn’t sound sarcastic or unsympathetic. He’
SLTrib •

Four homicides in one year have Ballpark neighbors calling for action

Someone was moaning outside Darren Gonzol’s front door. He and his wife froze inside their Fremont Avenue home in Salt Lake City’s Ballpark neighborhood.

After five or so, they finally worked up the courage to peek out the window into the dark April night and saw a man splayed out just feet from their front porch. They would learn later that he’d been shot during an attempted home invasion on nearby Paxton Avenue and had somehow made it as far as their yard before collapsing.

Police and parame
SLTrib •

Utah’s two biggest development projects face an unlikely foe: mosquitoes

As he wades into a duck hunting club marsh, mosquito abatement rural field supervisor Quinten Salt drags a long-handled dipper through a murky puddle and ladles out a sample for inspection.

“Nice, stagnant water in salt grass,” he says — prime habitat for the mosquitoes that abundantly populate this area northwest of Salt Lake City.

Sure enough, after a few dips, Salt finds 15 larvae wriggling through a water sample. They’re harmless now, but once they mature to adult mosquitoes, they’ll begin
SLTrib •

Eight arrested after protesters again target Utah’s Inland Port and clash with police

What began as a peaceful act of civil disobedience outside Salt Lake City Hall on Tuesday — with protesters holding giant sunflowers and poles depicting ducks, carrying signs decrying a massive development planned for the city’s northwest side — quickly devolved into violence.

Opponents of the Utah inland port development denounced not only the project but also capitalism, colonialism, climate change and immigration laws in organized speeches before they crossed 400 South, temporarily blocking
SLTrib •

A homeless Salt Lake City couple have had a housing voucher for weeks but can’t find an apartment. They remain living on the street.

For more than two months, Ron and Katherine Barrett have spent their days searching for an apartment and their nights sleeping in the cold in a tent with a tarp over it on a patch of grass in Salt Lake City.

The couple have been in and out of motels since around 2008 and on the streets since early 2017. And they’ve been searching for a place to live since Nov. 20, when they received a housing voucher that provides rental assistance to those who are chronically homeless.

But it’s been difficult
SLTrib •

‘I couldn’t touch the piano for years’: Piano students at Utah State University describe a culture of sexism, discrimination and favoritism

Tonya Pruhs recalls taking off her engagement ring before her piano lessons at Utah State University, fearing she’d be shunned by teachers who routinely said women weren’t serious musicians once they were married.

Rachel Speedie passed up offers at prestigious conservatories to accept a scholarship at USU — and then had to fly home to Nevada to train with her high school teacher when faculty refused to work with her.

Carrie Day Franklin slogged through nearly a decade at USU as a mom with youn