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Emily Hoeven

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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.

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Good news at last from California's coronavirus testing: The percentage of people tested who have the virus has dropped significantly. Image via iStock
WhatMatters
Coronavirus positivity rate hits record low
Amid record-breaking fires, apocalyptic orange skies and smoke-choked air, Californians finally have a bright spot of news: Coronavirus positivity rates statewide fell to an all-time low of 3.6% over the past 14 days and 3.3% over the past week. As a result, travelers from California no longer have to quarantine for two weeks upon arriving […]
By • September 16, 2020
WhatMatters
Trump, Biden face off over California wildfires
Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, September 15. Golden State in the spotlight California took center stage on the national campaign trail Monday, with Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leveraging the state’s record-breaking fires to advance their respective political visions. The faceoff will likely continue today, with Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala […]
By • September 15, 2020
President of the United States Donald Trump speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
WhatMatters
Trump headed to California as wildfires rage
President Donald Trump will visit California today for a wildfire briefing with Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials, just a few days after Newsom declared “a climate damn emergency” and slammed the federal government for its rollback of certain environmental protections. The visit marks the latest iteration of Newsom and Trump’s back-and-forth on wildfires. Last […]
By • September 14, 2020
Assemblymember Kevin Kiley leaves the California Capitol on Aug. 28, 2020. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
Capitol
The young Republican lawyer taking on California’s governor
Welcome to the next installment of Insiders. Assemblymember Kevin Kiley, a 35-year-old Rocklin Republican with degrees from Harvard and Yale, left a promising law career to run for a state Legislature so heavily dominated by Democrats as to render Republican votes almost meaningless.  “I would do it all over again if I had the opportunity,” […]
By • September 14, 2020
A scorched car in a clearing following the Bear Fire in Butte County on Sept. 9, 2020. The blaze, part of the lightning-sparked North Complex, expanded at a critical rate of spread as winds buffeted the region. Photo by Noah Berger, AP Photo
WhatMatters
Fires set record books ablaze
Six of the 20 largest fires in state history California’s 2020 wildfire season is rewriting the record books. Wildfires have burned more than 3.1 million acres this year — an area approaching the size of Connecticut and the largest amount in California’s recorded history. Six of the 20 largest wildfires in state history are currently […]
By • September 11, 2020
A pedestrian walks around Lake Merritt on Sept. 9, 2020, in Oakland. Smoke from multiple fires in California has filled the Bay Area sky. Photo by Aric Crabb, Bay Area News Group
WhatMatters
‘It feels like the end of the world’
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, September 10. Orange skies, raging fires Just when it seemed like 2020 couldn’t get any more apocalyptic, millions of Northern California residents will likely spend their Thursday under a dark orange sky clouded with ash — just as they did yesterday. Catherine Geeslin, a San Francisco resident: “It feels like […]
By • September 10, 2020
The Creek Fire burns in the Sierra National Forest on Sept. 6, 2020, near Big Creek, Calif. Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP Photo
WhatMatters
‘We are in uncharted territory’: High winds spreading already-historic fires
Never has so much of California burned. And as powerful winds continue to blast the state, the likelihood of historic fires metastasizing and others exploding looms large for overworked firefighters and exhausted residents. In Southern California, strong Santa Ana winds could push the Bobcat fire toward homes in foothill communities. The fire, which is currently […]
By • September 9, 2020
Wind whips embers from a tree burned by a wildfire in Riverside on Oct. 31, 2019. Photo by Ringo H.W. Chiu, AP Photo
WhatMatters
Strong winds force power shutoffs as fires burn record 2 million acres
Most Californians are waking up today to strong and dangerous winds — and some are waking up without power. PG&E began shutting off power for about 172,000 customers in 22 counties late Monday night to mitigate fire risk amid strong winds forecasted to pummel much of the northern part of the state through Wednesday. In […]
By • September 8, 2020
Visitors enjoy the beach in Half Moon Bay on Aug. 15, 2020. Californians are bracing for another heatwave over the holiday weekend. Photo by Anda Chu, Bay Area News Group
WhatMatters
Get ready: Another big heat wave is coming
Good morning, California. It’s Friday, September 4. Note: Due to the holiday weekend, I’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday. Blackouts could return Another likely record-breaking heat wave is set to blanket California over Labor Day weekend — bringing with it the potential for more rolling blackouts. The operator of California’s electrical grid on […]
By • September 4, 2020
WhatMatters
Newsom defends progress on homelessness
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, September 3. ‘We’re just getting started’ Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that California is making an “unprecedented” effort to address homelessness, two days after lawmakers failed to pass a bill to massively increase housing production — which Newsom said in his February State of the State speech was “the only […]
By • September 3, 2020

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