Former Cal Poly football star is headed to Super Bowl LX

Author

Carly Heltzel
January 27, 2026

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and I’m looking at photos of elephant seals duking it out on SLO County beaches. Onto the five Cal Poly, SLO and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Former Cal Poly Football player Elijah Ponder will play in the Super Bowl for the Patriots. He went initially undrafted after graduating last year, but then he was signed by the Patriots as a free agent. He’s actually played for them his rookie season, including recovering a fumble close to the end zone in the AFC championship, leading to the Patriots’ only touchdown and ultimately their ticket to the Super Bowl.

2.

A Cal Poly student set up a booth to remember Alex Pretti, the man who was shot and killed by border patrol agents in Minneapolis Saturday, and take action in local spaces. Because the sheriff’s office aided federal immigration enforcement in at least one case last year, the TRUTH Act mandates that it must hold a forum for transparency around their actions. That forum is today at 1:30 p.m. 

3.

In an undercover operation downtown, law enforcement officers were not able to buy alcohol through minors at three of the four locations they tried. F. McLintock’s, on the other hand, didn’t need a police decoy. When officers walked in, they suspected that four individuals already drinking there were underage, checked their IDs and busted them. Now McLintock’s will be investigated further by state agencies.

4.

Democrats in California’s state government want to shut their federal counterparts to vote down a bipartisan funding bill and shut the government down. In a flurry or tears and mournful words about the two U.S. citizens recently killed in Minneapolis by immigration enforcement, state lawmakers called for Congress to cut off funding to those agencies in order to tamp down on their aggressive detainments and violent strategies. 

5.

100 miles away, in the small town of Livingston, Levi’s stadium’s grass was growing for 18 months on a local sod farm, before tractors rolled it up into 570 bundles and shipped it to Santa Clara in 32 trucks. There, it’s been monitored for the month of January — apparently they knew the 49ers wouldn’t make it to the NFC finals and turned the field over early — using grass strength sensors, massive LED lights that optimize the heat and light on the field and a vacuum system beneath to suck out extra moisture.