Matthew Piper

Government reporter

Matthew joined The Tribune in 2012 and has worked as a copy editor, general assignment reporter, University of Utah sports reporter and as a reporter/editor on the web desk. He now covers Salt Lake City.

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Law enforcement officers from several agencies increase their presence in the Rio Grand homeless area in Salt Lake City Monday August 14, 2017.

Tell The Tribune: Has Operation Rio Grande pushed homeless camping or drug use into your neighborhood?

By Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:38 p.m.

(Steve Griffin / The Salt Lake Tribune)

Karolyn and Sam Day look at a memorial for their son Jared Day in their Taylorsville, Utah home Monday August 1, 2016. On Aug. 6, 2011, Taliban fighters shot down a Chinook helicopter carrying 38 military personnel, including 31 Americans Ñ the largest loss of U.S. life in the Afghanistan campaign Ñ and two Utahns: Jared Day and Blanding's Jason Workman.

5 years later, families feel loss of two Utahns assigned to Navy’s elite unit on its deadliest day

By Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:37 p.m.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) A visual of gravitational waves from two converging black holes is depicted on a monitor behind Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Co-Founder Kip Thorne as he speaks to members of the media following a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, as it is announced that scientists they have finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. The announcement has electrified the world of astronomy, and some have likened the breakthrough to the moment Galileo took up a telescope to look at the planets.

Detection of gravitational waves fulfills life’s work of Logan native Kip Thorne

By Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:36 p.m.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Co-Founder Kip Thorne speaks to members of the media following a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, as it is announced that scientists they have finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. The announcement has electrified the world of astronomy, and some have likened the breakthrough to the moment Galileo took up a telescope to look at the planets. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Utah-born Kip Thorne wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his role in detecting gravitational waves

By Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:36 p.m.

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) UHP Troopers make an arrest on 400 west as law enforcement officers from several agencies increase their presence in the Rio Grand homeless area in Salt Lake City Monday August 14, 2017.

Who is being arrested in Operation Rio Grande? Many have felonies or lengthy records, though few appear to be the promised ‘worst of the worst’

By Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:35 p.m.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is seen silhouetted as he speaks during a National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) news conference in Washington. Price announced Friday, Sept. 29, 2017, he is resigning amid criticism of his travel on private planes. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Utahns met with Trump’s top man on Medicaid — only to see him resign the next day. What does Price's exit mean for Operation Rio Grande?

By Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:35 p.m.

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sam Goldsmith at the closed Seven Canyons Fountain at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City Thursday September 14, 2017. The fountain was closed this year for health concerns could be brought up to code and reopened for far less than the $2 million quoted by Salt Lake City, according to Sam Goldsmith, the son of Seven Canyons Fountain artist Steven Goldsmith. Sam Goldsmith dug through city documents and even enlisted a local architecture firm to create an alternative proposal that he presented in a Liberty Wells Community Council meeting Thursday.

Popular Liberty Park fountain can be reopened for much less than $2M quoted by Salt Lake City, artist’s son says

By Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:35 p.m.

(Salt Lake City Police Department/Courtesy of Karra Porter) In this July 26, 2017, frame grab from video taken from a police body camera and provided by attorney Karra Porter, nurse Alex Wubbels is arrested by a Salt Lake City police officer at University Hospital in Salt Lake City. The Utah police department is making changes after the officer dragged Wubbels out of the hospital in handcuffs when she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient.

Footage ‘tells the truth,’ Utah nurse says after the SLC officer who arrested her was fired

By Luke Ramseth | Pamela Manson | Matthew Piper | November 7, 2017, 8:35 p.m.

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Overniter Motel at 1500 west North Temple in Salt Lake City Monday October 23, 2017. Salt Lake City's Redevelopment Agency has proposed a $4 million loan to buy the and replace it with a development that includes affordable housing, part of a broader plan to create more than 750 affordable units using $22 million set aside by the City Council.

Rather than loan $4M to a developer, SLC Council votes to buy North Temple motel and hold public bid process

By Matthew Piper | October 25, 2017, 3:19 a.m.

Salt Lake City has $22M to spend on affordable housing. A North Temple motel teardown is first on the mayor’s wish list.

By Matthew Piper | October 24, 2017, 5:49 p.m.