Thousands turn out for SLO's "No Kings Day" rally

Author

Carly Heltzel
October 20, 2025

Good morning. It’s Monday, and I’m looking at protest signs from the “No Kings Day” rally in downtown SLO this weekend. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

Thousands turned out for the anti-Trump “No Kings Day” rally in downtown SLO this weekend. This is the second “No Kings” rally in SLO. Protesters described their urgency and hope to bring to light the “authoritarian” nature of the Trump administration. “Just like a frog in a pot of boiling water, it's heating up so slowly that we don't realize we're cooking and dying,” one attendee said. 

2.

Students with dependents will soon have better access to childcare and information at public universities in California thanks to an initiative signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week. There are 170 students with dependents at Cal Poly, a small number that has made advocating for parental support difficult in the past. The bipartisan bill will primarily require universities to have better childcare referral programs and better communication about aid to fund childcare.

3.

Every year, Cal Poly gives out mini grants targeted at helping departments across campus support Hispanic students as a part of the university-wide effort to earn the Hispanic-serving institution designation. As the application opens for this year’s grants, a look at last year’s projects shows how students, faculty and staff used the money to create Chicano archives, Latino book collections, panels on the intersections of Hispanicness and queerness, academic advising initiatives and several Hispanic student recruitment efforts.

4.

One of California’s last wild rivers is being polluted by growers of a popular flower, the Easter lily. With niche climate needs and few growers, the lily’s bulbs are a unique agricultural product that is produced near the Smith River near the Oregon border at a relatively large scale to meet demand across the country. After decades of this practice, scientists realized the pesticides from the lilies had seeped into the Smith River ecosystem and poisoned the environment and humans downstream.

5.

A flight leaving SLO’s airport was struck by one or more birds in a “Sully”-like mishap that forced the plane to turn around. Shortly after the bird strike, the pilots had to make an emergency landing back to the runway. There was damage to the plane, but no injuries were reported.