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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.

The national conversation about racism isn't about individual acts of violence or harassment, but about systems that perpetuate injustice. In the wake of recent protests, legislators have responded.
Legal experts are questioning our current system of “law and order” based on punishment. They are calling for restorative justice programs that can demonstrate how investments in accountability yield rewards.
Allissa Richardson, a pioneer in mobile journalism, discusses the emergence of smartphones and social media as tools to fight back against the mistreatment of marginalized citizens by law enforcement.
Residents of senior care facilities are particularly vulnerable to the most damaging effects of COVID-19. Recent legislation aims to prevent lack of resources or bad practices from making things worse.
Thanks to better video technology and the expansion of social media, citizens now have the means to monitor, disseminate and expose acts of police brutality. They are forcing the country to rethink policing practices.
Dramatic increases in suicide rates had attracted attention well before the unprecedented stresses of the pandemic. Legislators are proposing measures to keep a bad situation from getting worse.
To date, dozens of bills and resolutions have been introduced by legislators to address shortcomings with police training, qualified immunity and racial profiling, including the use of facial recognition technology.
Public health agencies have steadily lost workers since the 2008 recession. Tech can help address some of the biggest demands from the pandemic, but humans and better funding are still badly needed.
In a socially distanced world, citizens who most need online support and resources are least likely to be able to access them. Recent bills on the digital divide, including broadband, are addressing the problem.
The last recession pummeled the government workforce. Now, the pandemic has hit and once again, layoffs have become a fact of life. But not every state and local government is cutting jobs to stanch revenue losses.