SLO County DA links Mamdani to 9/11 in posts

Author

Carly Heltzel
November 06, 2025

Good morning. It’s Thursday, and I’m reading about the “Brothers Chalamet,” a tight-knit friend group of Timothée Chalamet lookalikes who met at New York City’s contest last October. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

SLO County District Attorney Dan Dow shared two posts on X tying New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to 9/11 — both showed photos of planes hitting the twin towers after they were hijacked by Islamic extremists. Mamdani, who is Muslim, has faced rampant Islamophobia on the campaign trail. One of Dow’s reposts warned about the “threat of Islam after 9/11” while the other was captioned “New York already forgot.” When asked about it, Dow sent a screenshot of his biography with “Retweets are not endorsements. Personal Page” highlighted.

2.

The federal government still owes SLO $1 million, half the recovery aid promised after the 2023 winter storms damaged the city. City officials say they are still relying on the money to come through, but it’s seeming less likely as time goes on and the government shutdown persists. “I think it is important to acknowledge that the rules maybe don’t really apply as much as they used to,” the director of finance said, referring to the Trump administration’s breaks from agreements.

3.

SLO County could have anywhere between a $4 million and $11 million budget deficit next year, but officials predict it’ll be around $7.5 million. Statewide cuts to homelessness services this year and federal cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs caused the biggest holes. This is far from the county’s first budgetary woes, as just last year the board of supervisors had to cut $32 million and 155 jobs to stay afloat. 

4.

Alarming rates of young men across the state are “disconnected,” a term now used to describe people who are neither in school nor employed. Studies show nearly 10% of Californians between the ages of 16 and 24 fit this description — most of them men, with Black and Indigenous men showing higher rates. These disconnected young men tend to experience mental health issues associated with being on the outs of society, creating an even bigger barrier to getting back on track.

5.

Foster cats are spread across the city in the homes of students, and the Cal Poly Cat Program is always looking for more. For people not willing to commit to long-term fosters, the program can set students up with a furry friend for as little as a month, or even a week over a break like Thanksgiving when other students who foster are gone. Volunteers for the program make themselves abundantly available, coordinators said, to support the foster houses at every step.