Here in Irvine, we are observing Memorial Day by fighting over a veterans cemetery.

A few years ago, the legislature approved construction of a veterans cemetery here, and the plan was to build it on a picturesque plot of land near the Great Park, which is being slowly but steadily built atop the old El Toro Marine base that was decommissioned in 1999. Then some stuff happened—not all of it as transparently as one might hope—and the city council agreed with a local developer to swap the cemetery land for a different plot of land that abuts the San Diego Freeway. Uproar ensued.

So now it’s up for a vote. Yes on B is a vote to go ahead with the land swap. It allows the developer to put up offices near the Great Park and moves the cemetery to the freeway site. No on B is a vote to keep the cemetery where it was originally planned. June 5th will decide the matter.

May 27, 2018 — Irvine, California

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

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