As we welcome 2025, I want to take a moment to thank you for being an essential part of the Keeping It Real community. Your support, encouragement, and belief in independent journalism mean the world to me.

This past year, we’ve tackled important stories, challenged narratives, and delved into issues that truly matter. None of it would have been possible without your engagement and trust. Whether you’ve shared our stories, provided feedback, or supported this work as a paid subscriber, you’ve played a critical role in keeping independent journalism alive and thriving.

Looking ahead to 2025, I’m more determined than ever to continue working hard to bring you the hard-hitting investigative reporting and real conversations that you’ve come to expect. I’ll be diving deeper into the issues that impact our lives and our communities, giving a voice to those who are often overlooked.

Thank you for being on this journey with me. Together, we’re proving that honest journalism still has a place in the world. I’m excited for what we can accomplish in the year ahead, and I look forward to your continued support as we make 2025 a year to remember.

Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy New Year filled with health, happiness, and success!

Warm regards,
Dave Bondy
Keeping It Real

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LANSING, Mich - After spending $6 million of taxpayer money to prepare a site for an industrial development in Eagle Township, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced in November that it will end the project.

Michigan Farm News reported on Nov. 19 that the MEDC is squashing plans for the site, which the Lansing Economic Area Partnership once touted as a national frontrunner for attracting corporations.

LEAP boasted the project would be “America’s best megasite,” according to Bridge Michigan.

Michigan’s chief agency for distributing taxpayer subsidies initially backed the plan for the land in Clinton County. The MEDC disbursed $5.95 million to the Lansing economic development organization for site preparation, Otie McKinley, communications manager for the MEDC, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email. Click here to read more.

 

A former inmate is suing the Washington Corrections Center for Women, accusing the prison of forcing her to share a cell with a trans-identifying man who harassed and sexually assaulted her.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire, Mozzy Clark said that prison officials ignored her pleas for help and protection from the 6’4″ man, who repeatedly made sexual comments to her and asked her to engage in sexual acts with him. It wasn’t until she awoke to inmate Chris Williams sexually assaulting her that prison officials removed him as her cellmate — and even then, she still had to see Williams throughout the prison, according to Clark.

“I woke up to our officer pounding on my door and it scared me,” she told The Daily Wire in a Monday phone interview. Then she realized that Williams was hulking over her and “jerking” his hands out of her pants, and she says she froze.

“What are you doing down there?” she said the officer demanded of Williams. “Why are you sitting there? Get up in your bed.” Click here to read more.

 

COLUMBUS, OH - The Ohio State University (OSU) spends over $13 million on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff and hosts a multitude of “radical left-wing” courses and programs, a report released Monday found.

The school spent $13.3 million in 2023 on salaries for its 201 DEI employees, which is the equivalent of the cost of tuition for over 1,000 students at OSU, Open The Books found. OSU also highlights gender and sexuality topics in several courses, such as “Sexualities and Citizenship” and “Queer Ecologies.”

OSU’s two highest-paid DEI officials both made nearly $300,000 in 2023, with 29 others making over 100,000, according to Open The Book’s report. Several employees are part of the “Diversity & Inclusion” or “Institutional Equity” offices, while others are professors within departments such as the “women’s gender and sexuality studies.”

DEI courses at the university dive into topics such as the “lesbian experience in the United States” and seek to “disrupt the gendered and heterosexual assumptions embedded in how we understand the environment, nature, and bodies,” the descriptions read.

“From animal studies, queer and feminist social movements for environmental justice, trans*natures, and sexual politics, Queer Ecologies will articulate a commitment to new thinking about the challenges of planetary and climate change,” one class promises.

 

ZACHARY, La. - A man was shot after a hunter mistook him for a deer in Louisiana.

The incident happened on private property on Monday evening.

According to the Lousiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, two people who had permission to be on the property were unknowingly deer hunting at the same time and one of them accidentally shot the other with a buckshot from a 20-gauge shotgun, thinking he was shooting a deer.

Officials said the shooter immediately called authorities for help, and the person who was shot was airlifted to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge to be treated for injuries that are not considered to be life-threatening.

According to the authorities, neither hunter wore hunter’s orange and did not possess deer tags while hunting.

Officials said the shooter was cited for hunting deer without possessing deer tags and not wearing hunter’s orange.

Authorities are continuing to investigate this incident and further charges could be possible. Click here to read more.

 

A beagle mix named Copper celebrated his first Christmas safe and warm indoors with a loving family after being rescued from the end of a chain, where he lived neglected every day exposed to the elements without shelter.

The eight-year-old dog looked emaciated, and there was no water bowl, when rescuers approached him. They later discovered he was also plagued with parasites.

It all started with a winter phone call from an anonymous tipster who alerted the Twin County Humane Society in Galax, Virginia, saying there was a very thin dog tied up outside that may be in need of help.

The humane society asked two PETA fieldworkers—who were in town for an event that sterilized 229 cats and dogs for free—to investigate. A local animal control officer joined Adam and Jenny on the scene and discovered that Copper was kept unattended outside on a tether that allowed only 4 feet of movement with no doghouse or shelter.

Despite the neglect, from the moment the PETA coworkers met him, Copper was amazingly sweet-natured. After the dog’s owner understood that she could face a criminal charge of cruelty-to-animals, she signed over ownership of the pup.

They immediately secured veterinary care and the sweet animal was adopted by PETA staffers Katherine Sullivan and Dan Paden, who were newlyweds planning their first holiday together. (See the heartwarming video at the bottom…) Click here to read more.

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CHICAGO, IL - The reelection of Donald Trump as president of the United States promises great changes in the coming new year. However, there are politicians who have chosen to resist Trump and his administration. They often claim to do so because they believe they are more moral, virtuous, and human than the incoming president. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson is one of them.

On the morning after the election, after he had campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris in North Carolina, Johnson released an official statement from his mayoral office saying that "our president-elect has made direct threats against the most vulnerable and marginalized in our society."

He added: "Chicagoans can be assured that they have a mayor who will not bend, who will not break when it comes to protecting our city, our values, and our neighbors. When it comes to fighting back against any hate, we will not flinch."

There you have it: Brandon Johnson, the mighty moral man who would save us all.

Click here to read more.

 

BOISE, ID - A mother saved her infant son who was being attacked by a raccoon inside their home in Idaho, officials said.

The infant was sitting inside an infant carrier while the mother was settling in after returning home at the time of the attack, according to the Idaho Fish and Game.

“She heard a loud noise in the home and ran to the infant’s location. The mother found a raccoon attacking her infant. She was able to grab the animal to stop the attack,” the press release stated.

Officials say it is unclear how the animal got into the home.

The infant was later transported to a local hospital for “undisclosed injuries,” and later transferred to a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, officials said.

The baby’s father and a sheriff’s deputy returned to the residence and found the raccoon still inside the home. The two killed the animal and no other raccoons were found inside, officials said. Click here to read more.

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KALAMAZOO, MICH - WASHINGTON, DC (Michigan News Source) – President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed advocate of justice and unity, handed out early Christmas gifts to some of the most violent criminals in America. He commuted death sentences for 37 federal inmates, including Michigan’s sole death row convict, Marvin Gabrion.

The White House said in a statement, “[President Biden] believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases.”

Evidently, the actions of Marvin Gabrion weren’t heinous enough for President Biden to leave him on death row. Gabrion, as Michigan News Source reported two years ago, holds the grim distinction of being the only Michigander on federal death row. Although Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846, Gabrion’s case falls under federal jurisdiction. He was convicted in 2002 of the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman from Cedar Springs, a crime committed in a federal wildlife area, which led to his death sentence.

Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - As we prepare to enter the new year, we’re taking you back to some of The Daily Wire’s best reporting from 2024. This article was originally published on November 30.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to eliminate the Department of Education, an ambitious goal that comes amid backlash to what critics say is the agency’s runaway spending and focus on “woke” indoctrination as American children’s grades decline.

“I say it all the time, I’m dying to get back to do this. We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education,” Trump said during a September rally in Wisconsin. “We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing.”

The proposal was met with cheers on the campaign trail. But it’s also gotten support from experts like Jim Blew, who served as Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the Education Department during Trump’s first term. Blew told The Daily Wire there’s no doubt in his mind that his former workplace should be eliminated.

Click here to read more.

 

SHERMAN, Texas. (Gray News) - An 8-year-old girl is missing following a crash that killed her father on Christmas Eve in Texas, according to authorities.

Will and Kristen Robinson, along with their 4 kids, were driving to Texas from Oklahoma on Tuesday to celebrate the holidays, WOWT reported.

In heavy rain, the Robinsons’ vehicle slid off a highway and into a flooded drainage ditch near Sherman, Texas — a town with a population of 43,000 located about 50 miles north of the Dallas-Forth Worth metro.

“Will kicked out the driver’s side window because they were trapped underwater,” said Lindsey Perkins, a friend of the family told WOWT. “The car flipped back and forth.”

According to a GoFundMe page, due to the heroic actions of Will, the family was able to get out of the car.

However, after getting most of the family out, there was still one child in need.

The couple’s 8-year-old daughter, Clara, was swept away by the floodwaters.

Friends and family members said Will lost his life trying to save their 8-year-old daughter. On Tuesday, Will’s body was recovered, but Clara is still missing, KXII reported.