Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m reading about a San Luis Obispo pastry chef who will compete on the Food Network’s newest show: “The Ultimate Baking Competition.” Onto the five Cal Poly, SLO and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Cal Poly has 10 license plate reader cameras stationed at the entrances and exits of campus that record every vehicle that passes, down to the dent in your front bumper. The company that sells and operates the cameras, Flock, has come under fire for allowing federal agencies to access community data, but Cal Poly says its data is kept separately. And nearly a year after installing them, Cal Poly has finally opted into a transparency portal that allows the public to see how often that data is accessed and by who.

Grace Gillio / Mustang News

2.

A former SLO County probation officer was convicted of embezzling more than $160,000 from the probation department union. Over 18 months, she wrote checks to herself for up to $10,000 each, the court found. She sought a mental health diversion for being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but the court found no evidence that manic episodes were the cause of the embezzlement.

Chloe Shrager / The Tribune

3.

Two state lawmakers want to open up access to official letters that lobbyists send to lawmakers to support or oppose a bill. While the letters are public records, journalists and others must request access each letter from lawmakers and their staffs, a time consuming task — there are more than 2,000 bills per year and each can have dozens of position letters. “It sort of blew my mind when I found out that that wasn’t readily available,” one of the bill’s authors said.

Ryan Sabalow / CalMatters

4.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is shutting down sale of Kratom, an over-the-counter painkiller sold in pill and drink form, pulling 3,300 products worth $5 million off of shelves in the past three weeks. Kratom, which has dozens of active chemicals including at least one opioid, has been linked to 242 deaths and identified as the sole cause of 27 deaths in the state. Even more harmful is a closely related product called 7-OH, also sold in convenience stores, that contains a molecule 10 times stronger than morphine.

Lester Black / SFGate

5.

Right in front of a $15 million home in one of San Francisco’s wealthiest neighborhoods, a hooded figure keeps dropping dog poop bags by a temporary “no parking” sign. The homeowner then put up two security cameras and a sign warning the culprit off, but it just kept happening. Theories about why are rampant. Some think its retaliation for construction being noisy and blocking street parking. “It is funny with all the things going on that this is the issue,” one neighbor said.

Garrett Leahy / The San Francisco Standard