This is Bill. He moved to San Pedro in 1952 and has lived in this house for the past 45 years. He worked at the port for 15 years and is now retired.

He told me he was outside “doing a little cleaning up.”

BY THE WAY: The top picture is a composite. I had one photo that showed the junk pile well but I liked Bill’s expression better in another one. So I lifted it out and copied it onto the first photo. This is the kind of Photoshopping that got Brian Walski fired from the LA Times a few years ago. Luckily, I’m not a photojournalist, so I can get away with stuff like this.

April 7, 2018 â€” San Pedro, California

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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