REVIEW

March 6

March 1

Acknowledging the severe winter storms that struck California beginning in late February that brought damaging winds, historic precipitation, and flooding, Governor Gavin Newsom proclaims a state of emergency for thirteen California counties, including San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. The declaration supports disaster response efforts and relief for winter storm damage, and activates the state’s National Guard to support emergency operations within the Office of Emergency Services, Caltrans, and the California Highway Patrol. The late winter storms brought several inches of rain to SLO County and snow down below 1,500 feet on multiple days.

March 2

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says Pacific Gas & Electric Company can continue to operate the Diablo Canyon Power Plant past its current licenses while a new license renewal application is under review. PG&E had planned to decommission the plant when the licenses for its two units expire in 2024 and 2025, but last year state lawmakers sought to extend operations for another five years amid concerns over possible blackouts. Last October, PG&E requested that the NRC resume consideration of a renewal application originally submitted in 2009, which the company later withdrew after it decided to close the plant. The California Energy Commission has ruled that keeping the plant running through 2030 is needed to ensure electric reliability. The new application is slated to be submitted by the end of this year.

March 2

The California Department of Water Resources announces it is recommending approval of San Luis Obispo County’s sustainability plan for the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. The plan, in the works since 2018, is the county’s roadmap to bring the basin into a sustainable condition by 2040. Required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the plan has undergone intense scrutiny and substantial revision in order to meet the needs of the county and the state. Without approval, the State Water Resources Control Board would control the management of the basin. Approval means that SLO County can manage the basin in a fair and equitable manner for all the basin’s groundwater users.

Cal Poly’s College of Science and Mathematics announces a new Astronomy Faculty Research Fellowship that expands faculty/student collaborations on space science. Supported by a generous donation from the Marrujo Foundation, the fellowship in its first year will allow assistant professor of physics Elizabeth Jeffery to lead a research team of students exploring data related to locations and brightness of stars to better understand how long they’ve existed. Additional members of the astronomy faculty, focusing on different research, will participate in the fellowship in future years.

March 10

Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe sentences Paul Flores to twenty-five years to life in prison for first-degree murder in the death of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart. She also orders him to pay $10,000 in restitution and register as a sex offender for life. The sentencing comes more than twenty-six years after Smart disappeared, and follows the judge’s denial of motions made by defense attorney Robert Sanger to acquit the defendant, dismiss the charges, and hold a new trial. With time served and with good behavior, Flores could be eligible for parole in fifteen years.

March 16

The Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum and SLO County Veterans Services Office brings a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Madonna Meadows in San Luis Obispo for a four-day, twenty-fourhour, free educational event about the impact of the Vietnam War. Accompanied by a Mobile Education Center, “The Wall That Heals” honors the more than three million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed forces in the war, and bears the names of the 58,281 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. Since 1996, the exhibit has been on display in more than 700 communities throughout the U.S.

553,425

The number of passengers—an all-time high—traveling through the SLO County Regional Airport (SBP) in 2022. It sets the record for the most annual passengers in the airport’s history, and is more than a third higher than 2021’s traveler count of 406,230.

614

The number of victories that baseball head coach Larry Lee has accrued at the Division-I level in his twenty-year career with Cal Poly. That number, along with leading the Mustangs to the NCAA Division-I Regionals on three different occasions, inspired Team USA to name him its forty-third Collegiate National Team manager this spring.