Nonprofit & Nonpartisan News

Join us at the CalMatters Ideas Festival on May 21. 💡 Get your tickets now.

Avatar photo

Emily Hoeven

Contact Latest Stories

Emily Hoeven wrote the daily WhatMatters newsletter for three years at CalMatters . Her reporting, essays, and opinion columns have been published in San Francisco Weekly, the Deseret News, the San Francisco Business Times, the Flathead Beacon, the Daily Pennsylvanian, and the Mercury News. Emily graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English and French and studied English at the University of Cambridge, England as a Thouron Summer Prize fellow. She speaks French fluently and spent a year teaching English in Châteauroux, France.

Contact

Email X

Latest Stories

The sun peaks through the smokey skies from the Camp Fire and a PG&E transmission line November 12, 2018, three miles west of Pulga, Calif. Photo by Karl Mondon, Bay Area News Group
WhatMatters
Fast winds incoming: PG&E power shutoffs could last 3 days
Tens of thousands of Californians may be forced to spend the next few days without power while dry, powerful winds slam the northern part of the state. PG&E said Tuesday it will likely cut power to about 54,000 customers in portions of 24 counties through Friday while much of Northern California remains under a red-flag […]
By • October 14, 2020
A voter drops her ballot into the box at San Francisco City Hall on Super Tuesday 2020. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
California ballot battles heat up
The closer the November election gets, the tenser California’s political climate becomes. Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra — both Democrats — sent a cease-and-desist letter Monday to the California Republican Party, demanding it remove unofficial ballot drop boxes set up outside of churches and gun shops in several counties. The […]
By • October 13, 2020
Fire smolders under high voltage towers in Pulga, Calif., November 9, 2018
WhatMatters
PG&E under investigation for deadly Shasta County fire
Another fire season, another investigation into whether PG&E equipment may have sparked a deadly blaze. This time, it’s the Zogg Fire in Shasta County, which has so far killed four people and destroyed more than 200 structures. Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency, took possession of PG&E equipment as part of its investigation into the […]
By • October 12, 2020
Electric Pylons in the foothills of San Gabriel mountains. Image via iStock
WhatMatters
Why California had rolling blackouts: mainly, poor planning
Two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom called for an investigation into California’s first rolling blackouts in nearly two decades — during which time residents were twice warned that blackouts could return — a group of key state agencies released their preliminary findings. The findings raise serious questions about the ability of California’s electrical grid to […]
By • October 9, 2020
WhatMatters
Big challenges ahead for unemployment department
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, October 8. 1.57 million claims unresolved California’s unemployment department is in the hot seat — again. Lawmakers ripped into the besieged agency in a Wednesday oversight hearing, exposing the breadth of challenges facing the Employment Development Department as it resumes accepting claims after a two-week reset period that ended Monday. […]
By • October 8, 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom at a press conference in the state capitol following the first COVID-19 death in California. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
California’s big budget bet fizzles out — will Newsom support new taxes?
Well, it doesn’t look as though California’s big bet on a federal stimulus package that would allow the state to reverse $11 billion in budget cuts is likely to pay off. In a Tuesday tweet that sent shock waves through Wall Street, President Donald Trump announced he was ending negotiations on a coronavirus relief package […]
By • October 7, 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today that Justice Martin Jenkins has been appointed to the Supreme Court of California. Photo courtesy of Governor's press office
WhatMatters
Newsom picks moderate for CA Supreme Court
Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, October 6. Gov’s first nominee Gov. Gavin Newsom made his first appointment to the California Supreme Court on Monday, nominating retired Justice Martin Jenkins to fill the seat vacated in August by the court’s most conservative member, Justice Ming Chin. If confirmed, Jenkins, 66, would be the first openly gay […]
By • October 6, 2020
The remains of a burned home in Berryessa Highlands on Sept. 21, 2020. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
Another record: Fires burn more than 4 million acres
California surpassed a staggering milestone Sunday: More than 4 million acres have now burned in a record-defying fire season still far from over. That’s four Rhode Islands, three-and-a-half Grand Canyon National Parks, and a little more than one Connecticut. It’s also more than double the 1.98 million acres burned in 2018, California’s previous modern-day record. […]
By • October 5, 2020
The Glass Fire burns near Diamond Mountain as a Cal Fire truck passes by about 3.5 miles from downtown Calistoga on Oct. 1, 2020. Photo by Jane Tyska, Bay Area News Group
WhatMatters
More fire danger ahead
It pains me to begin yet another newsletter with this line, but dangerous fire weather is expected to persist across much of Northern California through Saturday amid dry, powerful winds and elevated temperatures — likely adding fuel to the Glass Fire tearing through Wine Country. The blaze, which has already forced nearly 100,000 evacuations and […]
By • October 2, 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the reparations bill over Zoom on Sept 30, 2020. Screenshot via youtube
WhatMatters
Reparations study, police reform coming to CA
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, October 1. Newsom signs high-profile bills As historic protests against police brutality and racism continue to sweep across California and the nation, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed into law a spate of racial and criminal justice legislation and several police reform bills — though the most ambitious police proposals […]
By • October 1, 2020

Gift this article