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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.

Two Native American communities have received 2023 Culture of Health awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Their work is rooted in reviving practices outside forces had disrupted.
One of the hallmarks of effective homeless response is coordinated effort. Mayors met in Los Angeles, the nation's homeless capital, to figure out how they can work together to reduce the entrenched problem.
Latinos accounted for more than half of U.S. population growth in the last two decades. Understanding of this community hasn’t kept pace, but a new resource from the Latino Policy and Politics Institute could help change that.
In recent years, the public perception of police culture has been defined by acts of violence against citizens. A group of chiefs and sheriffs are working to change the narrative by emphasizing a mission of service.
Dealing with undeserved hostility and threats may be the most unexpected new task for election officials, but the skills their jobs require have been expanding for years.
Lack of human connection is bad for your health. Responding to an advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General that a loneliness epidemic is affecting half of all Americans, San Antonio has been pushing out resources to help build bonds between community members.
Many see next year's election as a historic test of American democracy. What does a national survey say about how “democratic” the attitudes of the voters themselves are?
The Carter Center is leading an effort to turn down anti-democratic noise around elections, neighbor by neighbor. Arizona is one of the first stops for their campaign.
Election officials brace for surge in AI-generated misinformation, and lawmakers face complex challenges in containing it.
Experts explore how AI could be used to create and spread election-related falsehoods that disrupt democratic processes.