Good morning. It’s Friday, and I’m nominating my favorite LA-based burgers for the LAist’s second annual Tournament of Cheeseburgers contest. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

SLO’s airport is bringing back nonstop flights to Vegas this fall. Alaska airlines will begin the daily connection on October 4 on a temporary basis, but airport officials said they are in talks to convince the airline to establish it as a “permanent and year-round” offering. Prices for a one-way ticket start at $69, slightly above the nonstop flight to Vegas offered by the airport in Santa Maria. “It’s a boost for our regional economy, supporting tourism, business, and local travelers alike,” one spokesperson said.

Hannah Poukish / The Tribune

2.

The contentious debate over transgender girls in sports has made its way across SLO county. Ten people took to commenting at a Paso Robles school board meeting, with many more in the audience on both sides. This comes after a transgender girl at Arroyo Grande High School ended up at the center of a regional and national debate for participating in women’s sports and using the women’s locker room. Eight of the comments were calling on the school board to pass legislation that bans trans girls from these things, while two were in support of trans youth.

Sadie Dittenber / The Tribune

3.

Bots and fake students are defrauding community colleges’ financial aid systems and costing the state millions. This year, the losses totaled $13 million — that’s 74% more than last year and four times what it was two years ago. Community colleges are beginning to charge “nominal” fees to enroll in classes that deter bots from posing as students using stolen identities, enrolling in classes then disappearing when the financial aid check arrives. Or faculty have to weed out fake students before classes start. “The cost to individual districts is enormous,” one lawmaker said.

Nanette Asimov / San Francisco Chronicle

4.

Access sites to Klamath River open today after it was finally undammed by the Oregon border. Sites will have minimal amenities for now, keeping it to some pit toilets and access to the water. Native Americans and environmentalists pushed for the water to flow freely again for decades before setting off the largest dam-removal project in the U.S., which was completed last year. The dams were purely for hydroelectric power, not providing drinking water or flood control, before being deemed too costly to maintain.

Kurtis Alexander / San Francisco Chronicle

5.

If you think you could smuggle contraband items into a music festival or a movie theater, maybe don’t try it at the U.S. border. A man was arrested at the California border attempting to smuggle in six parrots by stuffing them in his boots. Officers asked him to step out of the vehicle when they noticed “unusual clothing bulges” around his ankles, soon to discover that those were caused by a half dozen birds. After a search, they found six more undeclared parrots in his car, two of which were dead.

Clara Harter / Los Angeles Times