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

Gov. Gavin Newsom, wears a face mask as he answers a reporters question during his visit to the Queen Sheba Ethiopian Cuisine restaurant in Sacramento on Friday, June 19, 2020. Newsom visited the restaurant that is participating in the Great Plates Delivered program that provides meals to older adults who are at-risk to COVID-19. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo/Pool
WhatMatters
Pressure mounts on Newsom for reopening plan
Good morning, California. It’s Wednesday, August 19. Cases, hospitalizations, deaths decline Pressure is building on Gov. Gavin Newsom to figure out a reopening plan after San Diego, California’s second-largest county, fell off the state’s coronavirus watch list Tuesday and hospitalizations, case rates and deaths continue to decline statewide. The news came a few days after […]
By • August 19, 2020
PG&E’s Oakland K substation is silhouetted at sunset in the hills of Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, October 9, 2019. PG&E was supposed to shut off power at noon in the Oakland hills, but at 8:45 PM it was still on. Photo by Jane Tyska, Bay Area News Group
WhatMatters
Bigger blackouts ahead
Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, August 18. Newsom orders investigation Millions of Californians should expect rolling blackouts through Wednesday night — and they’ll likely last hours longer than those over the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday. Newsom said the state anticipates being 4,400 megawatts short of Monday’s energy needs. One megawatt can power up […]
By • August 18, 2020
A rare lightning storm crackles over Mitchell's Cove in Santa Cruz around 3 a.m. August 16, 2020. The severe storm system rolled through the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas early Sunday, packing a combination of dry lightning and high winds that triggered wildfires throughout the region. The National Weather Service on Sunday extended a red flag fire warning for the entire Bay Area until 11 a.m. Monday morning. Photo by Shmuel Thaler, The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP
WhatMatters
The weekend: blackouts, lightning, fire tornado — and first shutoffs in 20 years
2020 just keeps getting better. As many as 2 million Californians experienced one-hour blackouts on Friday and Saturday nights as the state triggered rolling power outages for the first time in nearly two decades amid a record-breaking heat wave. The sky-high temperatures, paired with gusty winds and dry conditions, exacerbated fires across the state, contributed […]
By • August 17, 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
Newsom loses more top staff
Gov. Gavin Newsom is losing more top aides — including Anthony Williams, his main liaison with the state Legislature — as his administration struggles to control the coronavirus pandemic and rebuild a crumbling economy. The news of Williams’ departure and that of two other administration staff comes days after the Sunday resignation of the director […]
By • August 14, 2020
Sen. Kamala Harris speaks at the 2019 National Forum on Wages and Working People hosted by the Center for the American Progress Action Fund and the SEIU at the Enclave in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 27, 2019. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
WhatMatters
California stereotypes in national spotlight
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, August 13. How will Harris respond? As the first California Democrat to land on the national ticket, Kamala Harris will bring the Golden State — and all of its stereotypes — into the spotlight with her.  California has long been a Republican shorthand for homelessness, crime, radicalism and Democratic mismanagement. […]
By • August 13, 2020
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris speaking with attendees at the 2019 National Forum on Wages and Working People hosted by the Center for the American Progress Action Fund and the SEIU at the Enclave in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 27, 2019. Photo by Gage Skimore via Flickr
WhatMatters
Who will Newsom pick for Harris’ Senate seat?
Good morning, California. It’s Wednesday, August 12. Let the lobbying begin Joe Biden chose California Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate Tuesday, putting the Golden State on the national ticket for the first time in nearly 40 years and launching yet another game of political musical chairs — this time in the hands […]
By • August 12, 2020
WhatMatters
Uber, Lyft lose first battle to CA
Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, August 11. But war rages on The California vs. Uber/Lyft war is far from over — but Big Tech lost the first battle. A San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction Monday requiring the gig-economy companies to reclassify their drivers as full-fledged employees entitled to minimum wage, unemployment […]
By • August 11, 2020
Dr. Sonia Angell, Director of California Department of Public Health, at a press conference in the state capitol following the first COVID-19 death in California on March 4, 2020. Angell has just announced that she is resigning from her post. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
CA Director of Public Health resigns
Good morning, California. It’s Monday, August 10. Second top resignation in two months The director of California’s public health department resigned late Sunday night, less than a week after state officials reported a tech glitch that resulted in an undercount of coronavirus cases and confusion about the scope of infections as the state’s death toll […]
By • August 10, 2020
WhatMatters
CA Dems split: Tax the rich, or borrow big?
Good morning, California. It’s Friday, August 7. Three weeks to pick a path Tax the rich, or borrow big? That’s the central quandary for California Democrats as they try to dig the state out of a $54 billion hole while also providing relief to the millions of people teetering on the edge of a financial […]
By • August 7, 2020
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat, poses for a photo with her family.
Politics
‘I am kind of shy’: Assemblymember Gonzalez on motherhood and quarantine
Welcome to Insiders, a new series in which I provide a glimpse into the personal lives — and personalities — of key players in the California Capitol.  Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, one of the most influential and high-profile lawmakers in the California Legislature known for her Twitter confrontations and taking on Silicon Valley’s gig-economy titans, says […]
By • August 7, 2020

Gift this article

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.
CalMatters
California, explained
Emily Hoeven