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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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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
Newsom inks another big mask deal
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, July 23. Sent 17 million masks to other states California is burning through 46 million masks a month even as hospital systems and frontline workers face shortages, leading Gov. Gavin Newsom to ink another multimillion-dollar mask contract with plans to strike an even larger deal in the next few months. […]
By • July 23, 2020
Powell Street in San Francisco, normally a bustling tourist and shopping destination, remains empty on May 7, 2020. San Francisco County will maintain shelter in place orders through the end of May. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
How remote work could change California cities
Good morning, California. It’s Wednesday, July 22. A metropolitan exodus? Many tech employees may never return to their offices in San Francisco or Silicon Valley as jobs go and stay remote, presaging a massive political and cultural shift as workers flee from crowded, expensive cities to quieter, cheaper parts of California.  Two-thirds of Bay Area […]
By • July 22, 2020
Federal officers form a line facing west outside the Justice Center after protesters removed fencing around the front entrance of the federal courthouse in Portland, Ore., on July 20, 2020. Photo by Alex Milan Tracy, Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images
WhatMatters
Will Trump send federal police to Oakland?
Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, July 21. Top California lawmakers push back Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf lambasted President Donald Trump Monday for suggesting he might send federal agents into Oakland to quell civil unrest, ratcheting up tensions between California and the federal government.  Trump on Monday threatened to send federal law […]
By • July 21, 2020
Lucia Soares helps her two younger children, Emily, 9, and Daniel, 16, with their school work in their Modesto home. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
For 90% of students, school will be online
Good morning, California. It’s Monday, July 20. Parents scramble for alternatives It’s official: At least 90% of California students will begin the school year with online learning. The order, which Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday, marks an unprecedented level of state intervention into the operations of more than 1,000 local districts. It also carries massive […]
By • July 20, 2020
The back window of a studio seen from the street at San Francisco Art Institute. The private art college has been forced to closed due to financial pressures related to the coronavirus. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
State of the state: grim
Good morning, California. It’s Friday, July 17. Difficult road ahead As California approaches yet another pandemic inflection point, things are looking pretty grim on multiple fronts.  —Virus: The state logged a record 11,000 new cases on Tuesday, and hospitalizations and intensive-care admissions remain at record levels, though the rate at which they’re increasing is beginning […]
By • July 17, 2020
Sharie Wilson in the kitchen of her remodeled Elk Grove home on June 22, 2020. Wilson says that when the bought the home it was the ‘worst on the block’ but was able to turn it into a space that she’s proud of. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
Inside California’s Black exodus
Good morning, California. It’s Thursday, July 16. From cities to suburbs — and other states Brentwood’s Black population shot up more than 6,200% over the past three decades. In Elk Grove, it increased by more than 5,100%. In Antioch, nearly 2,000%. Meanwhile, the Black populations of Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland declined by 49%, 43% […]
By • July 16, 2020
WhatMatters
Newsom vs. Orange County — again
Good morning, California. It’s Wednesday, July 15. What happens if districts defy state? Orange County isn’t making things easy for Gov. Gavin Newsom. The county’s board of education recommended Monday that students return to school without face masks or physical distancing, contradicting guidelines from the state Department of Education and testing Newsom’s avowed commitment to […]
By • July 15, 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom at the CalFire/Cameron Park Fire Station in Cameron Park on May 13, 2020. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo/Pool
WhatMatters
Newsom orders California back to square one
Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, July 14. Bars, indoor dining, gyms, churches to close Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered massive swaths of California’s economy to close back down, largely reverting the state to where it was in March, as a surge in coronavirus patients pushes rural hospitals to the brink. Newsom directed all 58 […]
By • July 14, 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference at the Veterans Home of California Friday, May 22, 2020, in Yountville. Photo by Eric Risberg, AP Photo/Pool
WhatMatters
How California lost control of the pandemic
Good morning, California. It’s Monday, July 13. From model to not-so-model state About two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom began easing California’s stay-at-home order — the country’s first, which cemented the Golden State as a national model — the state is monitoring 31 of 58 counties for concerning coronavirus trendlines. Bars and indoor restaurants are […]
By • July 13, 2020
A nursing student does patient check-in and hands out requisition forms allowing patients to get their COVID-19 test results online at Cal Expo in Sacramento. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters
WhatMatters
Testing re-emerges as major challenge
Good morning, California. It’s Friday, July 10. Shut-down sites, supply shortages So you want a coronavirus test? Well, it may not be that simple. This week, San Bernardino County canceled hundreds of appointments due to a shortage of materials. Five testing sites were shut down in Sacramento because UC Davis Health, which processes the tests, […]
By • July 10, 2020

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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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Emily Hoeven