Carl Smith is a senior staff writer for Governing and covers a broad range of issues affecting states and localities. He can ...

Governing, covering transportation, housing and infrastructure. He previously worked for PlanPhilly, Philadelphia magazine, ...

A volunteer hands out bottled water to residents of Jackson, Miss., last fall at a distribution site set up by World Central Kitchen. The city’s clean-water emergency was caused in part by a shortage ...

Federal transportation infrastructure funding has been directed toward those parts of the country where workers experience long commutes. Broadband funding has been allocated to counties where fewer ...

Gov. Gavin Newsom cleared his state’s death row earlier this month, commuting the death sentences of over 500 inmates in the ...

Democrats flipped at least 10 legislative chambers this week and won six new trifectas. After years on the back foot, they’ll have to decide how ambitiously to wield their newfound power in the states ...

As soon as next year, student loan borrowers in default could face garnished wages and seized tax refunds. States are ...

Governors often like to say they have the best job in politics, enjoying lots of agenda-setting deference in their home ...

More than 1 in 10 working-age Americans didn’t have health coverage in 2026, according to a new survey. Many who did still deferred care because of cost.

Democrats prevailed in Secretary of State races in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan and Nevada, and flipped the ...

With the Games' budget climbing to $7.3 billion, city and state officials are confronting rising infrastructure costs and ...