To finish up the week, here’s a picture of a little girl having a ball feeding the coots. I know you’re not supposed to feed animals in the wild these days, but kids love it so much that it’s easy to see why we all still do it. And anyway, our local lake is manmade and the coots haven’t truly been wild for a very long time. They might as well be in a zoo, so there’s probably not much harm in this.

This is a composite photo. I had one picture where the girl looked excited and cute, and another where the coots were all staring upward waiting for a treat. Neither one was very good by itself, so I stuck them together to make one great picture.

March 7, 2018 â€” Irvine, California

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

With just 4 days left, we need a huge surge in reader support to get to our $400,000 year-end goal. Whether you've given before or this is your first time, your contribution right now matters. All gifts are 3X matched and tax-deductible.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do. That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

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