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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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Jose Bautista marched with fast-food workers and other SEIU members in support of AB257 on May 31, 2022. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters
WhatMatters
Newsom faces two tough labor decisions
Headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk are two highly controversial labor-backed bills that could test the limits of the governor’s commitment to progressive policy as he seeks to elevate his national profile and appeal to voters in other states. Among the pile of bills that state lawmakers greenlighted in marathon Monday floor sessions as they […]
By • August 30, 2022
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon attends a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters
WhatMatters
T-minus 3 days for California lawmakers
It all comes down to this. The two-year legislative session ends Wednesday at midnight, giving Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers just three days to hammer out agreements on complex, controversial bills and budget items encompassing everything from nuclear power to abortion to youth vaccination. According to veteran Sacramento lobbyist Chris Micheli, legislators still need […]
By • August 29, 2022
Cars on the road during rush hour in San Francisco, California on August 24, 2022. Photo by Carlos Barria, REUTERS
WhatMatters
Goodbye, gas-powered cars
Thursday was a day of climate contradictions in California’s state capital. First, state air regulators voted unanimously to phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars, passing a rule that will require automakers to electrify 35% of their new vehicle fleets by 2026, 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2035, CalMatters’ Nadia Lopez reports. Gov. […]
By • August 26, 2022
From left, Luis Diaz, 56, and Rodrigo Hernandez, 50, are part of a cooperative that is programmed by the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center in Los Angeles, an organization that ensures fair wages, health and safety protection. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters
WhatMatters
Waiting for wages, three years later
Picture this: You go to work every day at a car wash. You don’t get paid for all your work. The state of California investigates your employer and announces a fine of more than $2.3 million for wage theft violations and penalties. Three years pass. You still have yet to receive a dime of the […]
By • August 25, 2022
Assemblymember James Ramos (D-Highland) and other legislators vote during a session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 22, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters
WhatMatters
In California, the calm before the legislative storm
Hurry up, and wait / So close, but so far away. The opening lines from Jordin Sparks’ motivational song “One Step At A Time” also describe the buildup heading into the final stretch of the legislative session, which ends one week from today: Although state lawmakers are holding daily floor votes as they work their […]
By • August 24, 2022
Supplies are shown on a desk at Safer Inside, a realistic model of a safe injection site in San Francisco, Aug. 29, 2018. Photo by Eric Risberg, AP
WhatMatters
What’s behind Newsom’s safe injection sites veto?
Read between the lines of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Monday veto of a controversial bill that would have allowed San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles to launch trial supervised drug injection sites in a bid to curb California’s epidemic of fatal overdoses, and you might catch a glimpse of the political tightrope he’s walking. Although the […]
By • August 23, 2022
Sonja Shaw is running for a seat on the Chino Valley School Board in the Inland Empire and holds a training binder that details the process of running for office in Chino on August 14, 2022. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters
WhatMatters
School board races emerge as GOP election focus
“Red state governors, they talk a big game, don’t they, about providing parents with education choice,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Monday video post on Truth Social, the social media company founded by former President Donald Trump. “But when it comes time to walk the walk, they’re absent.” The governor’s post — in which […]
By • August 17, 2022
Students wait in line before heading to their classrooms on the first day back to school at Sunkist Elementary School in Anaheim on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Photo by Jae C. Hong, AP
WhatMatters
California schools face avalanche of changes
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” is the name of a 2022 film, but it could also describe the cascade of changes confronting California schools as they welcome students back to campus after more than two years of pandemic-disrupted education. Although many COVID restrictions have loosened — most schools have ended mandatory testing programs, made face […]
By • August 16, 2022
Guerneville residents paddle through the flooded streets of their Russian River town, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2019
WhatMatters
California’s climate countdown: Can the state power through it?
It’s climate crunch time in California. Starting today and lasting through Thursday, generators and transmission-line operators should delay any scheduled maintenance to avoid possible power outages as Californians crank up their air conditioners to deal with an expected onslaught of 100-plus degree heat, the state’s electric grid operator said Friday. The California Independent System Operator’s […]
By • August 15, 2022
The state Capitol in Sacramento on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters
WhatMatters
Tough decisions loom for lawmakers, Newsom
In some ways, the suspense file that state lawmakers churned through on Thursday — a lengthy list of hundreds of bills that they either silently sent to their death or let survive another day — didn’t live up to its reputation. That’s because the secretive, twice-annual process — which allows legislators to shelve bills they […]
By • August 12, 2022

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