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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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California Governor, Gavin Newsom walks through the assembly chamber with California Controller Malia Cohen during the opening session of the California Legislature in Sacramento on Dec. 5, 2022. Photo by José Luis Villegas, AP Photo/Pool
WhatMatters
Newsom to lead anti-Jan. 6 march to Capitol
Over the next few days, very different events will take place in downtown Sacramento. Today, Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to march to the state Capitol with a group of ticketed supporters before being sworn into office for his second term, according to an invitation enclosed in a late December campaign email. About 1,000 people […]
By • January 6, 2023
State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Bakersfield Democrat, bows her head in prayer before session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan, 4, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters
WhatMatters
Why 20 votes matter in California, Washington, D.C.
One shared takeaway from the otherwise very different starts to new legislative sessions in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.: What a difference 20 votes make. The Legislature that reconvened Wednesday in the California Capitol is the most diverse in state history, with a record 50 women — although there’s still a slim possibility that number could […]
By • January 5, 2023
Crews repair a levee on north side of the Cosumnes River on Jan. 2, 2023, after it was breached by heavy rains and flooded Sacramento County roads and properties near Wilton. Photo by Fred Greaves, Reuters
WhatMatters
Bomb cyclone, floods expose California vulnerabilities
The massive, bomb-cyclone-fueled storm set to unleash on California today — dumping more rain and snow across much of the already-soaked state while whipping it with winds as high as 70 mph — illuminates some of the underlying climate and environmental issues confronting state lawmakers, who return to Sacramento today to recommence the 2023 legislative […]
By • January 4, 2023
The state Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. on Wednesday, July 6, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters
WhatMatters
Key issues that will shape California in 2023
Welcome to 2023 — a year that will likely prove decisive in California’s attempts to address some of its most pervasive challenges, ranging from housing and homelessness to climate change. Wednesday, state lawmakers are set to return to Sacramento (though some may be driving instead of flying Southwest as they usually would) to resume the […]
By • January 3, 2023
A crowd of people gathered at City Hall in Downtown Los Angeles as part of a nationwide effort in support of abortion rights on May 14, 2022. Photo by Raquel Natalicchio for CalMatters
WhatMatters
California cements abortion rights, flavored tobacco ban
Note: The newsletter will pause until Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. Happy holidays and happy New Year! If you were reading the text of the California Constitution on Wednesday — as one does — you would have noticed a new line: “The state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most […]
By • December 22, 2022
Darren Gallagher stands in front of a damaged house in Rio Dell on December 20, 2022 after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern California. Photo by Fred Greaves, REUTERS
WhatMatters
Will Northern California earthquake revive seismic safety debate?
Is California prepared for The Big One? That was the question undoubtedly on many residents’ minds after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Humboldt County in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, resulting in two deaths and at least 12 injuries; damaging homes, roads, bridges, water and gas lines and other critical infrastructure; and leaving about 57,000 […]
By • December 21, 2022
Homeless tents at an encampment near the PATH apartment complex in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, 2021.
WhatMatters
California accounts for 30% of nation’s homeless, feds say
The numbers are in, and they’re grim. California accounted for 30% of the country’s homeless population in 2022, despite making up less than 12% of the total population, according to federal data released Monday. It was also home to 50% of the country’s unsheltered people, or those living in places such as streets, cars or […]
By • December 20, 2022
Striking UC academic workers picket on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Nov. 14, 2022. Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters
WhatMatters
UC strike could stretch on despite tentative deal
A dispatch from CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn: UC striking workers are facing a high-stakes game of Deal or No Deal. Friday evening, the University of California and the negotiating team representing 36,000  striking academic workers approved a tentative agreement to end the five-week work stoppage — thought to be the largest-ever labor action […]
By • December 19, 2022
The sun sets on a power generating plant in Huntington Beach, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006. Looking to avoid summer power blackouts, California may tap more fossil fuel power. A proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration would let the state purchase power in emergencies from aging gas plants. Photo by Chris Carlson, AP Photo
WhatMatters
Major votes intensify California climate controversies
If there’s one thing Thursday made clear, it’s that climate policy and controversy go hand in hand in California. Depending on whom you ask, the two major actions state regulators took Thursday are either indicative of California “leading the world’s most significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution” (as Gov. Gavin Newsom put it) or […]
By • December 16, 2022
Lorenzo Mays poses for a photo outside the group home where he lives in Shingle Springs on Aug, 10, 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters
WhatMatters
How the mentally disabled can languish in California jails
For almost nine years, Lorenzo Mays disappeared inside Sacramento County jail, charged with a murder he insists he didn’t commit. During that time, Mays was never brought to trial. He wasn’t allowed to leave. Instead, he remained in a kind of legal limbo, with most of his years spent in solitary confinement. The reason? Judges […]
By • December 15, 2022