IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Carl Smith

Senior Staff Writer, Governing

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 vast majority of calls are about distress, not violent crime. Dispatching social workers and other professionals rather than law enforcement can improve outcomes in many cases.
A former mayor of Compton, Calif., who oversaw the country’s largest experiment with universal basic income, thinks a new software platform can help bootstrap underserved communities.
Rhode Island Commerce Secretary Elizabeth Tanner is paying close attention to the e-government work being done in Estonia in her mission to offer more modern, streamlined state services.