A profanity-laced viral video and SLO County election results. Today’s top stories
The Tribune covered tight election results, a viral racial slur incident and a new development in the Kristin Smart case Wednesday. Here’s a digest of the top stories from San Luis Obispo County.
Here are key takeaways:
- Election update: The District 2 supervisor race flipped Thursday, with Jim Dantona now leading Michael Erin Woody by 210 votes, while incumbent Jimmy Paulding widened his District 4 supervisor lead to 54%, according to the latest results. Congressional incumbents Salud Carbajal and Jimmy Panetta both advanced to the November general election.
- Viral confrontation: A Fresno business owner called Paso Robles cannabis shop owner Ernest Hall the N-word in a weekend dispute caught on video that has drawn more than 150,000 views. The altercation began when Hall refused a sale that would violate city ordinances, and both parties have since filed competing criminal complaints.
- LGBTQ+ youth find community: The Queer Student Union at Paso Robles High School has spent the year hosting weekly meetings, cookie decorating and Pride events to bring joy to LGBTQ+ students amid heated school board debates over transgender policies.
- Police activity in SLO: The San Luis Obispo Police Department blocked off a road near Craig Street on Thursday morning to serve a search warrant, with an FBI agent seen outside a home at the scene. The road reopened by 9:45 a.m., and police declined to share further details.
- New Pismo Beach coffee shop: Dulci, a coffee and pastry shop from the brother-and-sister duo behind Taqueria El Quero, opened May 13 on Pomeroy Avenue. The shop serves flavored lattes, croissants and pizza flatbreads priced between $6 and $8, with views of the Pismo Beach Pier and sunset.
- Grover Beach development approved: The Grover Beach Planning Commission unanimously approved a four-story condo building called “Sea Salt” that will contain 58 residential units, seven hotel rooms and 2,500 square feet of commercial retail space, according to a Tribune report. The Cusack Family Trust project will replace a commercial building currently home to Radiant Church.
- Neighbors fight Parkfield fire: When a vegetation fire broke out Sunday afternoon near a Parkfield home and the closest Cal Fire team was unavailable, neighbors arrived with bulldozers, tractors, hoses and shovels to contain the blaze themselves. The 3.9-acre Vineyard Fire was fully extinguished by 8:30 p.m. with no injuries.
- New Kristin Smart special: ABC News Studios released “Killer on Campus” on Hulu and Disney+ on Thursday, investigating a new lead and search in the 1996 disappearance of the Cal Poly student. The special comes after a May search of Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home, where soil vapor tests came back “very strong” for evidence of decomposing human remains.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.