What a huge bummer. David Corn is the guy who broke the 'Steele Dossier' story, and did a great job of it. Read the rest

Mother Jones is taking donations "to get to the truth on the Trump team's connections to Russia." The magazine plans on raising $500,000 through a crowdfunding campaign "to make sure truth prevails over power."

According to Mother Jones:

To be clear: We can't, and shouldn't, assume that where there's smoke, there's fire. But at this point, that doesn't matter. What Trump or any of his associates did in 2016 may or may not have been a scandal, but blocking the public from finding out most definitely is. Trump may turn out to have overreached with the Comey firing, prompting the kind of independent inquiry he was so desperate to avoid. But it's evident that Republicans on Capitol Hill—terrified of what such a probe would do to their agenda and their electoral prospects—will do everything they can to avoid going there.

That means it's up to the public—all of us—to make sure truth prevails over power. There are many ways of doing that, from showing up at town halls to calmly reasoning with friends or relatives. For us, as journalists, the call to action is an especially urgent one: We need to deploy every skill we've learned, from shoe-leather reporting to data dives. We need to go deep, stick with the story no matter where it leads, and resist getting tangled in conventional wisdom or distracted by sideshows.

The campaign just started and they've already received a $200,000 grant from the Glaser Progress Foundation, who will donate an additional $50,000 once Mother Jones reaches their goal. Read the rest

Mother Jones profiles Lynda and Stewart Resnick, central California megafarmers who grow water-intensive tree nuts, mostly almonds and pistachios. During a 1980s drought, they bought distressed groves, now part of a farming conglomerate grossing $4.8 billion annually, according to the article. Read the rest