Good morning. It’s Monday, and I’m reading about the demand for the viral “torpedo” baseball bats after the Yankees debuted them in a nine-home-run game. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Over 2,000 protesters gathered outside the downtown courthouse Saturday, joining roughly 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations nationwide to advocate for judicial independence under the Trump administration. People lined the blocks surrounding the courthouse to create a symbolic “human shield” around the courthouse. Some signs read “Not my dictator,” “Felons shouldn’t control the courts” and “The Turd Reich.” “This is an issue that matters to us and is unacceptable,” an officer of Cal Poly Democrats said.

Nick Forselles / Mustang News

2.

Paso Robles’ “critically overdrafted” basin has exceeded sustainable levels of withdrawing water for the past eight years. Agriculture was responsible for using 94% of the withdrawals in 2024 and increased its pumping by 19% from the year prior — with vineyards as the guiltiest crop. The other parties are cities and public works. Officials said they hope to incentivize farms to decrease to pumping at sustainable levels by 2040, but if not, they can always implement pumping restrictions to force their hand. “We have that hammer if we ever need it,” one official said.

Stephanie Zappelli / The Tribune

3.

Deltopia remained relatively safe this year, officials said, despite an “uptick in attendance.” By noon Saturday there were 19 medical emergencies and at 3:30 p.m. there had been 60 arrests for the typical party violations. The only standout was a man arrested for possession of a loaded firearm, which police nabbed before 11 a.m. heading toward Deltopia. All roads reopened by the evening. “I love just wearing a bikini, definitely the socializing, and the drinking culture,” one attendee said.

Joshua Molina / Noozhawk

4.

Student visas across the state and nation have been canceled by the Trump Administration in recent days. While efforts last month targeted pro-Palestinian activists, these cancelations seem to have no reason. The UC schools and Stanford have confirmed that several of their students are affected, as well as some out of state schools. USC, which has 17,000 foreign students, declined to comment. “We're looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said when addressing visa revocations in a recent speech. 

Jaweed Kaleem / Los Angeles Times

5.

The self-proclaimed “Queen of Scream” has made a living coaching Hollywood’s best and brightest to do just that: shriek their guts out. She’s worked with Korn’s Jonathan Davis, actor Kevin Bacon and singer Courtney Love to give them that raspy edgy and coach a different primal sound out of each of them. She’s sold over 250,000 copies of her 2005 DVD, “The Zen of Screaming,” proving her methods by having a doctor stick a camera down her throat to film her vocal cords at work. “Screaming is chaos,” the Scream Queen said.

Ariana Bindman / SFGate