Fishy, fishy 

When someone poops on a Pride flag, films it, and posts it on TikTok for the world to see, what do you do? Ban flags, obviously. At least, that's what you do if you're the Paso Robles Unified School District.

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But not all flags. Just the really big ones, because those are the only flags that students want to film themselves defecating on. At first, the district thought it should ban any flag bigger than a 2 feet by 2 feet—you know, because the flag that Paso Robles High School students shit on was a 3-by-5-foot flag they'd ripped off a classroom wall.

Then, in an attempt to not seem as tone deaf as it actually is, the district reversed its decision on the size of flags it will allow in classrooms. Well—kind of. Those large 3-by-5-foot flags? They're still banned.

But, Paso Superintendent Chris Dubost said, now 2-by-3-foot flags are a-OK!

Oh good. I'm sure that LGBTQ-plus students in the district are thrilled and feel supported by this superintendent, whose response to a student-organized forum against the district's flag ban was that he was "impressed with the quality of the presentation the students made."

Did he think they were going to suck? Got anything to say about students feeling like their district's administration just doesn't get it?

"As students, we're exhausting ourselves fighting so hard against this, and they won't listen to us and understand why it's so important to us," student Ava Hughes said. "We just want to be allowed what was taken from us."

I am not impressed with the quality of Dubost's response. Why was any size of flag banned? The punishment doesn't fit the crime.

A punishment that does fit the crime is what the city of San Luis Obispo did to the Natural Healing Center by stripping its permit to open a dispensary after the company's founder and former CEO Helios Dayspring was charged and pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion!

Even though the company and its lawyers are insisting that reprobate Dayspring is "in no way involved" with the Natural Healing Center, it would seem that he has a hand in the would-be SLO dispensary's security plan and continues to direct site architects—and the city of SLO knows about it.

"I want you to be aware of that so you understand how these continued statements that he has no connection are landing," SLO City Attorney Christine Dietrick told Natural Healing Center attorney Randy Fox during a meeting on Oct. 15.

To which Fox responded that although Dayspring's longtime girlfriend Valnette Garcia is the company's CEO and would run the company's SLO operations, Dayspring owns the dispensary building and would collect rent "just like if they rented any other space in SLO."

"The rent is not dependent on the type of business that's conducted there," he told Dietrick.

Oh? It's not?

But the Natural Healing Center would be renting space from the former founder of the company, who built the Natural Healing Center and all of its associated businesses from the ground up, who bribed public officials on the company's behalf, who designed the building specifically as a dispensary for the Natural Healing Center, and who would continue to benefit from said company by receiving rent.

So it's not really the same as renting any other space in SLO, is it?

It's an arrangement that's way more fishy than your standard, everyday rental agreement. Fishy, fishy, fishy.

Kind of like this whole redistricting process that the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors is overseeing—redrawing the districts that as elected officials they would benefit from.

Well. We all know that only the majority of the board will be deciding on this county's new supervisorial districts. It doesn't really matter that 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson said that he was against any iteration of the redistricting map that divided "coastal voices."

During the Oct. 26 redistricting hearing, he said he would vote against any redistricting effort that breaks up communities along the North Coast—his district. But that's only one vote. Maybe two, if 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg joins him in dissenting. Those three conservative members of the Board of Supervisors hold a lot of power to do pretty much whatever they want to ensure their party's control over the county for the next decade—whether the liberals like it or not.

They were eerily quiet during the Oct. 26 meeting, keeping their cards close to their chest and declining to discuss their thoughts on the current redistricting maps offered by county staff. They're acting like they've got some last minute plan up their sleeves that they won't reveal until it's too late for anyone else to do anything about it.

I don't trust 'em.

A lot could change with some of the maps offered up by county staff and the public. One of those maps, submitted by resident Richard Patten, takes District 2 and shrinks it down to Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo, removing several of the coastal bergs, including the one that Gibson currently lives in (Cayucos), and giving it to Districts 1 and 3.

"It's time for a change," Patten said at the meeting.

Boy, it sure is time for the base of power in this county to change, but that's not it. Δ

The Shredder is ready for some liberal shenanigans. Send ideas to [email protected].