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Our local fireworks show wasn’t as good this year as it’s been in the past, but I made up for that with a more serious effort to get a good picture of it. This shot was captured at a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds, with the camera steadied by my trusty beanbag. I like it, a good ol’ red, white, and blue extravaganza in the sky above Irvine. Happy Birthday, America.

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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.

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