Justin Higginbottom

Print and radio journalist

Stories

NPR •

Authorities don't know who is shooting free-roaming horses in the Utah desert

On a remote patch of Utah desert bordering the Navajo Nation in Utah, hundreds of horses roam free on the shrubby desert that stretches across red rock canyons all the way to the forested slopes of Bears Ears National Monument. To some, they're majestic wildlife that symbolize the freedom of wide-open western landscapes. To others, they're an out of control population displacing cattle and damaging the ec
The New Republic •

The “Psychonauts” Training to Explore Another Dimension

Kevin Thorbahn found himself in a hotel lobby without quite remembering how he got there. There were flashes of brilliant light, indescribable geometric patterns, and the feeling of being blasted through a gigantic stained glass window. And then he was standing in the lobby, as if checking in for a long-planned vacation. All he knew was that he was enamored with the woman behind the counter. Although “woman” wasn’t quite right—it was more like an outline of energy, a feminine purple hue.
The Independent •

Inside America’s ‘Bermuda Triangle for missing people’

On a still-cold April morning at her home in Farmington, New Mexico, Bernadine Beyale knelt next to two of her dogs – the German Shepherd Trigger and a Czech Shepherd named Gunny – and applied juniper ash above their eyes.

Her Frenchie dog thought Beyale was dispensing treats and bullishingly lined up. So Beyale blessed him too in the Navajo way, even though he would be staying behind today.

Trigger and Gunny, meanwhile, were heading to work.

Beyale is the founder of Four Corners K9 Search an
Truly Adventurous •

Dojo Wars

On the night of April 24, 1970, a historic karate brawl broke out in Chicago between senseis and students from rival dojos (karate centers). The fight was not for an audience or a trophy. No one had seen anything like it outside of the movies. One thing was certain: Not everyone was going to get out alive.

They were introduced as the Dragon Lady and Count Dante.

Christy Carter, a 22-year-old Playboy Club bunny, sat next to John Keehan, 29, one of the country’s best known martial artists, on th
CNBC •

'They will destroy everything here': Turkish advance forces Syrians to flee homes as winter looms

Sleman Alshallah, 40, gathered his wife and five children outside his home with what little they owned — cooking pots, blankets and a rug — in the small northern Syrian farming village of Am Alkef last week. "We are ready to leave at any hour," said Alshallah.


It would be difficult to abandon his grandparents' farm and only source of income, he said. He looked north, in the direction of Turkey and dull thuds of fighting, where a mile away was the last defense against the adv
Atlas Obscura •

How an Abandoned Modernist Cinema Became a Revolutionary Symbol in Lebanon

A few months ago, a trickle of protesters converged on downtown Beirut, spurred by a proposed tax on the text-messaging platform WhatsApp. Within a few days, the crowd had swelled, and so had its aims: Demonstrators spoke out against sectarian rule, unemployment, and development that had transformed the area where they were standing into a playground for the rich. Their efforts helped oust the prime minister, but the protests have continued, and they have faced violent crackdowns by security for
KUER •

CIA Paranormal Program Finds New Life In Utah

Paul Smith’s psychic school is located in an industrial park on the outskirts of Cedar City. It could be an accountant's office except for a decal of a pyramid and an all-seeing eye on the door.

It’s called Remote Viewing Instructional Services, and inside half a dozen students hailing from Colorado to Canada are practicing before their first session.

Remote viewing is a form of extrasensory perception, or ESP, where practitioners learn to describe an object, which might be on the other side o
Newsweek •

Even in Utah, Trump's Republicans Sour on Mitt Romney

A chorus of boos greeted Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) at a Republican Party state convention here in his adopted Utah last month — but for the former presidential hopeful and Mormon princeling, heckling from his party long ago lost the surprise factor.

Video of a detractor calling him a "traitor" at the Salt Lake City airport went viral online earlier in the year, and in February, he met President Joseph R. Biden in the Oval Office, prompting online vitriol.

As he entered the convention, he was w
Al Jazeera •

Reform school survivors allege abuse of their personal files too

Ashley Astle left Spring Creek Lodge, a residential facility for troubled youths in Montana, over a decade ago. She has never been back. “I'm not sure how deeply you want me to go into my experience of the program, but I will give you the short version. Basically, it was terrible,” she said. Last winter she started to hear disturbing rumors that reopened old wounds. Spring Creek Lodge closed in 2009 after a wrongful death suit after a student hanged herself, and the school sat d
CNBC •

'It's a powder keg ready to explode': In Greek village, tensions simmer between refugees and locals

Those looking from the windows of the Drop Center, a popular school and cafe for refugees in the Greek village of Moria, could tell the mood had turned on a warm morning in early February. Afghan mothers pushing strollers were heading back to the refugee camp, while young men were rushing in the other direction. A morning protest by around 300 asylum seekers over their squalid living conditions had begun peacefully enough inside the camp, home to some 20,000 people from 64 diffe
Al-Monitor •

Syria’s Qamishli a window onto Turkish-Kurdish conflict across border

On the top floor of an unfinished concrete building in the northern Syrian city of Qamishli last week, a group of journalists milled around a video camera trained a few hundred meters away across the Turkish border to the city of Nusaybin. With the steady dull thuds of shelling in the background, the reporters, who were camped out to document the bombing in Nusaybin, smoked, drank tea, talked quietly around the recording equipment and ducked out to the balcony to snap photograp
The Diplomat •

Intolerance Rising: Atheists at Risk in Malaysia

Earlier this month the Kuala Lumpur chapter of the non-profit Atheist Republic, an organization which “provides opportunities for non-believers around the world to gather with like-minded people,” posted a photo of a rare meetup of members.

The photo shows more than 20 men and women, mostly young, casually dressed, smiling, hands, cups or peace signs raised – all presumably non-believers.

The caption reads: “Atheists from all walks of life came to meet one another, some for the very first time
Utah Public Radio •

A Natural Gas Operator Begins a Different Type of Extraction: Bitcoin

Operators at Wesco’s Blue Hills natural gas processing plant near Moab, Utah had a problem. After the Greentown pipeline was shut down by regulators who deemed it hazardous, Blue Hills’ gas was left stranded.

“And unfortunately, these oil wells are not like your kitchen faucet where you can turn it on and off at your pleasure,” said Steve Degenfelder, land manager and spokesman for Wesco Operating and Kirkwood Oil and Gas. “And so we had no other recourse than to flare the gas that would have o
KUER •

The New Neighborhood Watch: After Protests, Utah Sees Birth Of Different Armed Movements

When Black Lives Matter protests kicked off in Utah in late May, John Sullivan noticed a lot of the leaders were white.

So the Black, 26-year-old, former speedskater decided to start his own organization. He called it Insurgence USA, and he immediately started organizing protests for racial justice.

When someone suggested they go to Provo, he thought it was a great idea. The event would give his group a chance to get out of downtown Salt Lake City, where protests were usually held.

“My though
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