Matthew Piper

Paul Baker, a member of Unite for Holladay, stands outside the property of the former Cottonwood Mall site in Holladay on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018.

Utah

Utah Supreme Court weighing Cottonwood Mall project referendum

Utah’s high court declined to rule Friday on whether Holladay residents can vote down the Cottonwood Mall development, in a case that both sides fear will set harmful precedent for city land use.

By Matthew Piper

InDepth

What does the Cottonwood Mall debate mean for density along the booming Wasatch Front?

Those charged with addressing Utah’s creeping housing crisis fear that the not-in-my-backyard resistance is awaking to the extent of their referendum powers at the worst possible moment in the state’s history.

By Matthew Piper

Utah

Are inland port subcommittees exempt from Utah’s public meetings laws? A.G.'s view has changed over years

Utah’s Inland Port Authority Board said it was within its rights to keep its subcommittees closed, but the state’s public meetings law may be less clear than it was explained to them.

By Matthew Piper

The Rio Grande Hotel in Salt Lake City helps low-income and formerly homeless people get back on their feet by providing small, affordable rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens, pictured on Monday, Aug. 20, 2018.

InDepth

U.S. cities used to have low-rent, short-term, dorm-style housing. Is that what Utah’s homeless need?

Decades after most urban rooming houses and flophouses were torn down or repurposed — after being stigmatized as crime-ridden and dirty — state and city leaders think similar dorm-style housing could fill a dire need.

By Matthew Piper

Jalen Moore coaches six boys during a Next Level Basketball training session at the Smithfield Recreation Center in Smithfield, Cache County, on Monday, Aug. 6, 2018.

InDepth

Here’s why anxiety in boys can look like anger, and how some famous role models can help them get through it

While girls pedal harder, highly anxious boys may simply give up and shut down. But some of them say that mentors — sports figures and musicians and others who tell their own anxious tales — can make a big difference.

By Matthew Piper and Lois M. Collins

FILE - This Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, file photo shows an arrangement of pills of the opioid oxycodone-acetaminophen in New York. In an innovative experiment, doctors prescribed fewer opioids after learning of their patient's overdose death in a letter from

Utah

Utah’s overdose deaths fall 12% despite nationwide surge

New estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Utah’s drug overdose deaths fell amid a nationwide increase, which experts credit to a coordinated effort to crack down on prescription drugs and reverse fatal overdoses.

By Matthew Piper

Utah

To fill ‘gap’ in Utah’s new homeless system, group recommends 3 dorm-style buildings

Tasked with finding gaps in Utah’s new homeless service system, a group of advocates and service providers recommended an old-school solution: single-room occupancy housing

By Matthew Piper

Zachary works in class at the WayPoint Academy in Huntsville on Tuesday, July 31, 2018. The all-boys academy teaches them how to learn coping skills and structure their lives.

InDepth

Technology, dating, college, career: Here’s why today’s teens are the most anxious ever

Today’s youth feel pressure to pick the perfect college, the perfect career, the perfect spouse — all while having diminished faith in themselves, less life experience and poor coping skills.

By Matthew Piper

A section of land looking southeast at 7200 West and I-80 that is part of the proposed Utah Inland Port in Salt Lake City on Monday, July 16, 2018. Gov. Gary Herbert joined legislative and local elected leaders to discuss consensus recommendations for the

InDepth

Some think one sentence in the Utah Constitution might undo the Inland Port Authority

The Utah Inland Port Authority is open for business, after a false start and some rejiggering in a special session of the Legislature. Amid the routine action, there was no mention of a looming threat that some believe might undo the new board.

By Matthew Piper

Utah

Provo pays $750K to settle over former police chief’s alleged sexual misconduct

Provo has paid $750,000 to quash a claim that city officials failed to fully vet former Police Chief John King or adequately respond to alleged sexual misconduct by King.

By Matthew Piper

FILE - Candidate Derek Kitchen speaks with Rachel Fletcher while canvassing the 8th South 600 East neighborhood of Salt Lake City on Friday, June 15, 2018. Kitchen had an early edge, 52 percent to 48 percent, in the Senate District 2 Democratic primary, o

Utah

Kitchen sees likely win in Utah state Senate primary, but Plumb waits to concede

One Democrat will soon be one step closer to the soapbox currently occupied by state Sen. Jim Dabakis. And the odds suggest that it’ll be Derek Kitchen, not Jennifer Plumb.

By Matthew Piper

FILE - Lee Castillo campaigns during the Juneteenth Festival in Ogden on Saturday, June 16, 2018. Layton's Castillo has a big early edge over Bountiful's Kurt Weiland in Tuesday's Democratic primary, with both aiming to take on eight-term Republican Congr

Utah

Layton’s Castillo holds 1,500-vote lead in bid to battle Congressman Bishop

Layton’s Lee Castillo had a 1,500-vote lead over Bountiful’s Kurt Weiland in the 1st District Democratic primary

By Matthew Piper

Students high-five Salem Hills High School Principal Bart Peery as they walk by in the high school's hallways on Thursday, May 24, 2018.

Utah

With Utah’s youth suicides rising, educators are feeling the brunt and asking for help

The burden of preventing suicide — and the heartache of failing to do so — still falls inordinately to educators who lack specialized training and recommended levels of support from mental health professionals.

By Matthew Piper

"Angst" producer Karin Gornick hugs Ginger Hales after a screening of the movie at Fort Herriman Middle School on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.

Utah

‘You’re not alone': At Herriman screening, help and hope promised in the fight against teen angst

You’re not alone. That was the idea behind Wednesday night’s free screening of “Angst: Raising Awareness Around Anxiety” at Fort Herriman Middle School, the second of two screenings sponsored this week by the Deseret News.

By Matthew Piper

Men watch horse racing on an array of screen at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, N.J., Monday, May 14, 2018. The Supreme Court on Monday gave its go-ahead for states to allow gambling on sports across the nation, striking down a federal law that barr

InDepth

FAQ: The Supreme Court allowed states to legalize sports betting. What’s next?

In a decision Monday, the Supreme Court gave all states the ability to legalize sports betting — currently only legal in Nevada. What are the implications?

By Matthew Piper

InDepth

Moment or movement: Will teacher strikes bring lasting change for U.S. educators?

Teacher walkouts in Arizona and Colorado are the latest in a series, as educator pay has yet to return to pre-Recession levels in many states. Teachers have had some success. But will the momentum carry on past the midterm elections?

By Matthew Piper

Utah

Provo responds to sexual assault allegations against former police chief

Provo is disputing allegations that it was negligent in hiring former Police Chief John King, or that it failed to respond properly to two internal allegations of sexual misconduct in the years before King was dismissed for a third.

By Matthew Piper

InDepth

After CDC says it lacks data, Utah’s top school suicide program seeks study, expansion

A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Utah’s leading school suicide programs haven’t been “rigorously evaluated” for their effectiveness. Their response: We want to be studied. But we need help.

By Matthew Piper

Utah

Herriman High ‘hurting’ after 5 suicides in past year

In the past year, five students have died by suicide while enrolled at Herriman High School, and community members are trying to cope with an unusually pronounced version of a statewide trend.

By Marjorie Cortez and Matthew Piper

Utah

Curtis says he heard about 3 incidents of sexual misconduct by former Provo police chief

Congressman John Curtis clarified Friday that as Provo’s mayor, he heard three — not two — complaints of inappropriate sexual conduct by John King.

By Matthew Piper

InDepth

Provo officials heard about sexual misconduct by former Chief John King years before alleged rape

Provo city officials learned about complaints of sexual misconduct by former Police Chief John King more than a year before a rape allegation brought about King’s resignation, according to a new lawsuit and interviews with those close to the case.

By Matthew Piper

Intermountain Medical Center in Murray is pictured on Thursday, March 15, 2018.

InDepth

Intermountain Healthcare employees brace for more job cuts as Utah’s largest employer readies to ‘adapt or die’

Weeks after 2,300 Intermountain Healthcare billing employees learned that their jobs will be outsourced to a for-profit company with a checkered past, other nonclinical employees have been told that their departments will soon be reorganized.

By Matthew Piper

Department of Public Safety information analyst Stephen Gilley leads the state's Drug Monitoring Initiative. The Drug Monitoring Initiative's goal is to reduce overdose deaths by sharing information about illicit drugs that is collected at emergency rooms

InDepth

This Utah fusion center tries to get ‘predictive’ about opioid trends

Synthetic opioids and other dangerous illegal drugs are unlike what many local law enforcement and public health agencies have encountered, and Utah is one of many states overlaying all available data to get a grip on the trend.

By Matthew Piper

InDepth

5 women accuse Provo of ‘deliberate indifference’ to sexual assault, harassment by former police chief

A demand letter sent to Provo city officials says former police Chief John King sexually harassed or assaulted no fewer than five local women before his resignation in March.

By Matthew Piper

Intermountain Medical Center in Murray is pictured on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017. The Huntsman Cancer Institute and Intermountain Medical Center are both included in the U.S. News' new hospital rankings.

InDepth

Why Intermountain Healthcare says it’s best for patients and employees to outsource billing to a company with a checkered past

It might mean $70 million in savings that Intermountain Healthcare can pass on to patients. It might mean hundreds of new jobs for Utahns. Or it might, from the perspective of outgoing Intermountain employees, be a “kick in the teeth.”

By Matthew Piper

Salt Lake City police detective Greg Wilking walks through the Public Safety Building lobby in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. The department wants to hire 50 officers amid a statewide candidate shortage.

InDepth

Utah, like most places, is struggling to find qualified police officers. What can be done about it?

Police officer shortages have been reported nationwide in recent years, the result of low unemployment, low public opinion among target demographics and diminished pensions — once one of the profession’s most attractive lures.

By Matthew Piper

InDepth

Will Bundy ruling lead to more standoffs? In Utah, at least, a range of opinion

If not legally revelatory, exactly, what does the practical precedent of Cliven Bundy’s dismissed charges mean for the future of the long-complicated working relationship between ranchers and the feds?

By Matthew Piper and Amy Joi O’Donoghue

InDepth

The agony of John Curtis

John Curtis has agonized to find his voice in the binary world of national politics, especially as a representative of a state that has complicated feelings about the president.

By Matthew Piper

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has been openly opposed to President Donald Trump and who has announced that he will not run for re-election, said he hopes Mitt Romney will run for Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch's seat and how his Mormon optimism plays into his thou

InDepth

Q&A: Jeff Flake hopes Romney will run and replace him as the Senate’s most fearless Republican Trump critic

Short-time Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake hopes Utah’s Mitt Romney can succeed him as a bulwark against divisiveness and rancor in the Republican Party.

By Matthew Piper

Utah

John Curtis sworn in, casts his first vote as Utah congressman

With House Republican leaders eager to have his vote for sweeping tax reforms, John Curtis ended his term as Provo mayor and shortly after became Utah’s newest congressman.

By Matthew Piper