Hundreds turn out for sheriff's ICE forum

Author

Carly Heltzel
January 28, 2026

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and I’m watching the feature of Cal Poly’s new John Madden Football Center that premiered during the NFL pregame show last weekend. Onto the five Cal Poly, SLO and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Hundreds of people turned out for the sheriff’s forum to provide transparency on its interactions with federal immigration enforcement. People filled up the chamber, two overflow rooms and spilled out into the hallways, with protestors on the street outside, too. It lasted seven hours, four of which were public comment. The board of supervisors voted unanimously to explore how the county can take action regarding ICE. In data shared, the sheriff’s office released 69 inmates into ICE custody last year.

2.

For those that use Foothill Boulevard daily, the city is seeking your input to make the street safer, or even just better. Some 20,000 drivers, cyclists and pedestrians use the thoroughfare in some capacity every day. Since 2017, three people have been killed in accidents on the road and between 2019 and 2023, there were 97 collisions. The online survey will garner feedback about priorities and concerns; it closes March 17. 

3.

A new installation at Cal Poly’s library captures what’s it’s like to be an Arab American in San Luis Obispo through 14 interviews and images. The project is called “Mawtini” which means “my homeland” in Arabic, and it’s creator said she wanted to put this together after viewing the narratives about people in Gaza. It came “out of strife, out of this need to come together.” The exhibit will be at the Cal Poly Kennedy Library Gallery on the first floor until March 20.

4.

Los Angeles is not getting rid of its controversial “mansion tax,” the city decided after a last second proposal to tear it down. It was widely approved by voters when it passed, and it mandates a 4% tax on houses sold between $5 and $10 million and a 5.5% tax on anything above that. But a statewide measure that’s slowly gaining signatures could limit the amount that cities can tax their residents, something that some state lawmakers are calling a fiscal disaster.

5.

Three years in, a SLO juice company has juiced over 400,000 pounds of fresh fruits and veggies for its “raw and delicious” products. That stands for RAD Juice. The company started by going to farmer’s markets before selling through a variety of different local stores, but now, it’s about to open its very own kiosk at SLO Ranch Farms & Marketplace. New products are on the way, including a protein shake product that uses coconut instead of chemicals.