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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 port of Long Beach is an engine for millions of jobs across the nation. Its CEO talks to Governing about managing operations through trade disruptions.
The full impact of changes to Medicaid won't come into perspective until 2027. RAND researchers estimated how many could lose coverage in each state.
Higher gas prices aren’t the whole story. The more a state depends on oil, the more expensive life becomes for residents.
Utah is a solid-red state, but that doesn’t shield Weber County’s Ricky Hatch from election controversy.
Household electricity bills were going up in almost every state long before gas prices became a worry.
xAI will keep its Colossus supercomputer cool with wastewater, leaving the drinking supply to support human intelligence.
Girmay Zahilay is the first new executive of King County, Wash., in 16 years. His restructure of the executive office sprouted rumors he "fired everyone" — but Zahilay says he's just organizing his office around his campaign promises.
Some people fear self-driving vehicles, but experts say their potential to save lives might be their biggest benefit.
How can tariffs affect not just consumers, but state economies? An economist who studies trade policy offers an overview.
It's not a question of if or when: State and local governments are already putting artificial intelligence to work.