Heat wave power shutoffs and Mid-State Fair opening day. Today’s top stories

Wildfire-risk power shutoffs, a cliff rescue and the opening of the 80th Mid-State Fair headlined the news across San Luis Obispo County on Wednesday.

Here’s a quick roundup of top stories from The Tribune.

• PG&E power shutoffs hit heat-wave zones: More than 1,500 PG&E customers in San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties lost electricity Wednesday afternoon after the utility triggered a Public Safety Power Shutoff in the Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio areas, citing high winds and dry conditions that raise wildfire risk. The outage could last through Thursday evening, and a resource center was opened at Cuesta College’s North County campus.
• Man rescued from cliff at Montaña de Oro: A 23-year-old man fell from a cliff near Grotto Rock at Montaña de Oro State Park around 1:09 p.m. Wednesday, suffering a leg injury and a head laceration. The California Highway Patrol’s H-70 helicopter hoisted the patient and transferred him to an ambulance by 1:59 p.m.
• Central Coast gets $5M for severe mental illness care: California’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget allocates $5 million to CenCal Health to run a pilot training program on the Central Coast for parents, caregivers and providers of people with severe mental illnesses. The program will use LEAP training techniques and comes as federal Medi-Cal cuts under HR 1 reduce healthcare resources for California residents.
• Oceano rejects Flock surveillance camera: The Oceano Community Services District voted 3-2 on July 8 to reject a request from the SLO County Sheriff’s Office to install a Flock Safety automated license plate reader camera on district property. Board members and community members cited concerns about data privacy, Flock’s history of data breaches and the camera’s proposed location near a community space serving a large Latino population.
• Downtown SLO wine bar Region closes: Region, a wine bar that opened at 979 Morro St. under Hotel SLO in April 2022, has shut its doors after four years pouring Central Coast wines. The business is refocusing on its original Sonoma location where it began in 2019.
• Mid-State Fair opens for 80th year amid heat and water main break: The 80th annual Mid-State Fair runs July 15-25 at the Paso Robles Event Center, with day passes starting at $10.35 for youth and 11 major concerts headlined by Chris Stapleton, Old Dominion and Ice Cube. Opening day was complicated by triple-digit heat that could temporarily close carnival rides if surface temperatures become unsafe, and by a Tuesday night water main break on Riverside Avenue that closed the road to northbound traffic before reopening at 5:06 p.m. Wednesday. Nearby hotels including Best Western Plus Black Oak and the Adelaide Inn are near or at full capacity, with rooms starting at $417 per night as the fair draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to a city of about 32,000 residents.
• Octagon Barn turns 120: SLO’s historic Octagon Barn, built in 1906 by dairyman and sea captain William Mighell, will mark its 120th anniversary with a community gathering July 18 featuring tours, live music and ice cream from Harmony Valley Creamery. The barn is also being designated the new trailhead of the Bob Jones Trail connecting San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach.

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.