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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.

Changes in state laws are making it easier for drug users and responders to test drugs for additives that can prove fatal.
Better pay for legislators is on the table in several states. It’s a sticky subject, even when their work is compensated below the minimum wage.
Is crime out of control? The homicide rate went down 12 percent last year. Still, there’s more than one kind of crime, more than one data set and more than one way to spin things.
State lawmakers will be rushing to address crime, AI, housing and a host of other issues – including growing budget gaps – ahead of elections this year.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes $1 billion to help states implement modern building codes. The CEO of the International Code Council outlines both obvious and underappreciated reasons they are essential.
The latest data from HUD shows a 12 percent increase in the homeless population. After declines over the last decade, current trends are troubling, but it's not clear how long the upward swing will last.
More than 95 percent of PAC spending from the four biggest public-sector unions went to Democrats, according to the Commonwealth Foundation.
A successful lawsuit based on 19th-century laws to combat the Ku Klux Klan has renewed attention on how police officers can help protect voters. It's part of a broader effort to crack down on intimidation.
Planting trees along small streams is a simple idea with big consequences for watersheds.
For years, a conservation-focused legal foundation and a nonprofit housing financier have partnered with local governments, investors, researchers and developers to lay the foundation for healthy neighborhoods.