Chad Stephen Smith

Published July 20, 2008, in The St. Augustine Record

No easy answers in crash

For two families, there are still no answers to a question that is, in the same breath, so simple yet so life-shattering: Why?

Why was Rachel Higgins, a 33-year-old mother working two jobs so she could afford to do mission work in the Philippines, driving the wrong way on Interstate 95 early Thursday morning?

Why didn’t she see the “Do not enter” signs on the exit ramp? Or, if she turned around in the median, why would she do that?

Why was no one involved in the crash wearing a seat belt?

Published April 23, 2008, in The Independent Florida Alligator

Column: So long, Alligator; thanks for everything

The Alligator’s sports editor, Mike McCall, and I were talking about our long-term career goals recently, and we have come to simple terms about what would validate our lives’ work.

His: to be listed in his high school’s Wikipedia entry under the notable alumni section.

Mine: to be in the Alligator’s Hall of Fame.

Published November 10, 2007, in The Gainesville Sun

Underage drinking seems endless for police

At a medical-themed private party at a downtown bar last month, fraternity men dressed as doctors and their dates dressed as nurses mingled, drinks in hand, when two Gainesville police officers moseyed in.

One officer carded a nurse, who put down her vodka and cranberry drink and pulled from her bra her driver’s license that showed she was 20, a few months shy of being legal. In handcuffs and high heels, with a white nurse’s cap still on her head, the University of Florida student was led to GPD’s downtown annex past crowds of bar-hoppers. One told the officers she was his stripper. Others just snickered.

Published September 19, 2007, in The Gainesville Sun

Student’s Tasering spurs march, sit-in

While roughly 200 protesters grappled with the finer points of their protest and their message Tuesday – Which building should we march on next? Should we accept a meeting with a lowly university vice president? Should Taser guns be banned from the University of Florida campus? – there was one thing they all agreed on: Cops shouldn’t have Tasered Andrew Meyer.

No easy answers in crash

Column: So long, Alligator; thanks for everything

Underage drinking seems endless for police

Student’s Tasering spurs march, sit-in

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