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Carl Smith

Senior Staff Writer

Carl Smith is a senior staff writer for Governing and covers a broad range of issues affecting states and localities. For the past 30 years, Carl has written about education and the environment for peer-reviewed papers, magazines and online publications, with a special focus on conservation and sustainability. He has guest-edited special issues of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health focused on the Precautionary Principle and the human rights dimensions of environmental degradation. Carl attended the University of Texas and the University of Georgia. He can be reached at carl.smith@governing.com or on Twitter at @governingwriter.

Organic waste in landfills is a major source of methane emissions. Orange County, Calif., is making progress in diverting it.
The court is considering whether criminal penalties for sleeping in public places amount to cruel and unusual punishment. But no ruling on the issues before the high court will change the nature or scope of the problem.
A variety of factors make Latinos less likely to have health insurance, including language barriers, types of occupations and immigration status. Coverage problems extend well beyond undocumented individuals.
Recent events highlight the fact that water systems are targets for cyber attacks. There are ways of strengthening defenses at little to no cost, but more needs to be done to implement them.
Detection of avian flu in dairy cows and one sick worker don’t add up to imminent danger for lots of people. But public health officials say the threat shouldn't be taken lightly.
A visit to your doctor won’t cover everything that could lead to chronic disease. Vermont’s primary-care system helps fill the void.
Veterans were once half as likely as the general population to land in prison. Now, they're twice as likely. State and local officials are trying to prevent this from happening.
More than $100 billion in private investment has already been spurred by the federal Inflation Reduction Act, helping to drive advanced manufacturing in many states.
Health outcomes and life expectancy improve in counties where residents have greater opportunity to engage in civic life.
Milwaukee County has one of the nation’s highest death rates from synthetic opioids. It’s deploying millions of opioid settlement dollars to fund programs across a variety of agencies.