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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.

Pilot projects in five communities will test how best to address the health risks that are connected to homelessness. Results could help guide professionals in reducing what has been a chronic problem.
The median net worth of white households in the U.S. is almost eight times greater than that of Black households. Most mayors agree this is a problem but differ on what solutions are best.
Many could quit their jobs because of harassment and burnout, leaving communities at great risk. The public hostility toward the workers has been referred to as “moral injury.”
A new study highlights innovative state-level strategies driven by data that emerged during the pandemic to address social factors undermining the well-being of too many Americans.
Housing costs were rising faster than income before historic inflation made things worse. The CEO of Habitat for Humanity blueprints what local governments can do to ease the current crisis.
California got the ball rolling, working to keep organic materials out of landfills by issuing regulations and using technologies that can turn them into an energy source and carbon sink. Now, other states are joining in.
A public service academy at Arizona State University is helping students consider a career in the public sector. As other universities offer similar programs, will they succeed in expanding the talent pool for government?
Navigating war in Europe, COVID and inflation amid a deep partisan divide, President Biden emphasized solidarity with Ukraine and other points of unity in his first State of the Union address.
Companies and job seekers have expanded options if workers don’t have to live where they work. But for city governments, this can mean lost tax revenue.
Scores of bills have been introduced to limit or forbid classroom discussion of topics at the heart of modern civic life, including race and gender. Even if most won’t become law, they’re putting educators on edge.