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Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former teachers union employee and staunch union supporter, decided yesterday he’d finally had enough and delivered a stinging speech calling the LA teachers union, among other things, “one unwavering roadblock to reform.” Needless to say, union president A.J. Duffy was unhappy:

Furious union representatives denounced the mayor’s comments as those of a turncoat who seemed to ignore the pernicious effects of state budget cuts and had joined in a union-bashing chorus once associated with conservative Republicans. Some seemed bewildered at what they considered a betrayal from Villaraigosa, who defines himself as a “progressive” politician and man of the left.

“Pointing fingers and laying blame does not help improve our schools,” UTLA President A.J. Duffy said in a terse statement. “UTLA will continue our partnership with all parties to overcome the devastating effects of the budget cuts on the education program for our students.”

I’m not plugged into Los Angeles politics even slightly, but I sometimes wonder if Duffy understands just how widely his union is loathed? Somebody should correct me in comments if I’m wrong, but as near as I can tell from my occasional contact with Angelenos, UTLA almost literally has no support anywhere from anybody that it doesn’t directly give money to. Everybody else hates them with a passion. That doesn’t mean Villaraigosa can win a big public battle with UTLA, of course, since they give lots of money to lots of people, but he might. If Villaraigosa plays his cards right, he’ll have about 90% of the city on his side. Pass the popcorn.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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