Alum small business owner criticizes tariffs in Congress

Carly Heltzel
May 27, 2025

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and I’m reading about Cal Poly Baseball securing its first Big West Championship in program history this weekend. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

A local small business owner testified in Congress about the “supply chain disaster” caused by the Trump administration’s tariffs that have decimated her profits and threatened her livelihood. She started her convertible footwear company as a junior at Cal Poly, and it has since grown into a multimillion-dollar business with 12 employees. After making viral TikToks about the impacts of Trump’s soaring tariffs on China — the only viable manufacturer for her products globally — that every day the tariffs continue means the “death of more American dreams.” 

Chloe Shrager / The Tribune

2.

PolyLink, an AI chatbot with built in schedule builders, flowcharts and class search, is helping students enroll for Fall Quarter. It began as a senior project last spring and officially launched this winter with a team of 11 students running the operation. The goal is to streamline the scheduling process and make resources that students may not have known about accessible. “I want it so PolyLink can make their whole schedule with one click,” the founder said. “I want to be almost like magic.”

Max McCullough / Mustang News

3.

Officials are gearing up for an active fire season. As the year’s rainy days come to a close, the grasses in some fire-prone areas of the state are 41% or more thicker than the average year, meaning lots of fuel for a potential blaze. California’s drying brush is likely to cause the flash drought conditions that we saw in last year’s deadly season, but there’s little else officials can tell us about the upcoming fire risks beyond a few weeks out. For now, vegetation is predicted to be fire-ready by mid-July.

Anthony Edwards and Greg Porter / San Francisco Chronicle

4.

The Trump administration demanded National Parks take down any signage that disparages Americans, living or dead. This is another step in Trump’s attempts to erase negative or critical American history — which he calls “improper ideology” — from all museums, monuments and public exhibits. Now one of his secretary’s is calling on National Park visitors to report unfavorable history they find to force its removal. All 400 federally managed land units will now display signs that invite feedback on aspects of the parks that “fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of the natural landscape.”

Olivia Hebert / SFGate

5.

Trader Joe’s is the most reputable brand in the U.S., a new ranking found. Triumphing over Patagonia by 0.1 points, the grocery chain beat out 99 other brands including Costco (No. 5), Apple, Nintendo, Amazon and In-N-Out in the eyes of the 17,000 people that contributed to the survey. Last year, Trader Joe’s ranked 13th. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the list with “very poor scores” sits X, the Trump Organization and the butt of all jokes, Spirit Airlines.

Nico Madrigal-Yankowski / SFGate