Senior writer Doug Smith scouts Los Angeles for the ragged edges where public policy meets real people, combining data analysis and gumshoe reporting to tell L.A. stories through his more than 50 years of experience covering the city. As past database editor from 2004 through 2015, he hunted down and analyzed data for news and investigative projects. Besides “Grading the Teachers,” he contributed to investigations of construction abuse in the community college system and the rising toll of prescription drug overdoses. Smith has been at The Times since 1970, covering local and state government, criminal justice, politics and education. He was the lead writer for Times’ coverage of the infamous North Hollywood shootout, winner of a 1997 Pulitzer Prize. Between 2005 and 2008, Smith made five trips to Iraq on loan to our foreign desk.
Latest From This Author
A lawsuit demands the nullification of leases that allow UCLA and a private school to maintain facilities on land deeded more than a century ago to veterans.
Aug. 27, 2024
Two men were found fatally shot at about the same time Saturday night on adjacent blocks in Carson. It wasn’t clear if they were connected.
Aug. 25, 2024
A measure on the November ballot that would double the county’s quarter-cent homeless sales tax is leading in an early poll of L.A. County voters but not with enough support yet to pass.
Aug. 17, 2024
Mayor Karen Bass says that unlike previous cities that hosted the Summer Olympics, Los Angeles will not resort to draconian measures to address homelessness.
Aug. 16, 2024
Human Rights Watch issued a voluminous report Wednesday castigating local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom for failing to observe “an internationally protected human right” by criminalizing homelessness.
Aug. 14, 2024
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday that it will change a rule that counts service-related disability benefits as income, often excluding veterans from housing restricted to low-income residents.
Aug. 8, 2024
A lawsuit alleging the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to maintain the campus and provide adequate housing for disabled veterans is set for trial Tuesday.
Aug. 5, 2024
L.A. County supervisors are set to take up a motion reaffirming their policy against criminalizing homelessness, the latest response to a Supreme Court ruling on anticamping laws.
July 29, 2024
Gov. Gavin Newsom issues an executive order requiring state agencies to remove homeless encampments in their jurisdictions and urging California’s cities to follow suit.
July 25, 2024
Three new studies shed new light on homelessness in Los Angeles, painting a mostly grim picture, with some glimmers of hope.
July 24, 2024