NEW YORK, NY - In another horrifying attack in the New York City subway system, a 23-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shoving a commuter onto the tracks just as a train arrived at the 18th Street subway station in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan.

Kamel Hawkins, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday after allegedly pushing the 45-year-old man at roughly 1:30 p.m. on the southbound No. 1 train platform, the NYPD reported.

Violet Paley, aboard the 1 train when it stopped, told CNN: “All of a sudden there was an abrupt stop and because of everything I’ve been seeing on the news, the first thing that came to my mind was that someone probably got pushed in front of the subway, which is such a dark thought.”

She added that after roughly 10 minutes, a conductor told passengers they had to evacuate the train because there was a man under the subway. She noted, “They pulled him out, and he was laying there, and I saw his hands and fingers move. I was in so much shock that he was alive. It was unbelievable.” Click here to read more.

 

NAPA, CALIF - The Auberge du Soleil, a five-star hillside hotel and spa with a panoramic view overlooking the vineyards of Napa Valley, appears to be first-rate in all ways but one. While the glamorous resort, an hour’s drive from San Francisco, fills rooms that routinely go for $2,000 a night with A-list celebrities and tech titans, financial records suggest it did not provide much of a return to at least two of its investors – Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul. That changed when it received millions in congressionally authorized COVID-19 relief in 2020 and 2021.

The Auberge du Soleil investment, held for decades by Paul Pelosi, has rarely turned a significant profit, according to Nancy’s financial disclosure forms. In some years, he has recorded a loss or a profit of between $50,000 to $100,000. But the year of the bailout money stands apart. In 2021, Pelosi’s ethics forms show that her family’s income from the resort surged to a range of $1 million to $5 million.

The French Riviera-themed resort may not be most people’s idea of a struggling business in need of a government bailout, yet the Auberge du Soleil – which shuttered briefly at the outset of the pandemic before swiftly rebounding – received about $9 million from a series of special taxpayer-funded emergency relief programs. Click here to read more.

 

NEW YORK, NY - Americans defaulted on their credit card loans at levels not seen since 2010, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Credit card lenders wrote off $46 billion in seriously delinquent loan balances in the first nine months of 2024, according to a Financial Times report citing industry figures from BankRegData. That is an increase of 50% from the same period in 2023 and the highest level in 14 years.

“High-income households are fine, but the bottom third of US consumers are tapped out,” Mark Zandi, the head of Moody’s Analytics, told Financial Times. “Their savings rate right now is zero.”

Americans’ credit card debt climbed to $1.17 trillion during the third quarter of 2024, according to a November report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Credit card delinquencies remained high in the third quarter, with 3.5% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency, according to the New York Fed. Click here to read more.

 

OLYMPIA, WASH - A collection of state trucking advocacy groups is calling on Gov. Jay Inslee and incoming Gov. Bob Ferguson to put the brakes on implementing new regulations that they warn could severely disrupt operations in Washington and elsewhere.

Washington state is tied to California’s Advanced Clean Trucks program, which directs the trucking industry to transition to zero emissions for medium and heavy-duty trucks. Depending on the class of truck and the year, electric vehicles must make up a certain percentage of sales. For Class 4-8 trucks, for example, half of all sales must be EVs by 2030.

However, in a Dec. 17 letter to Inslee, Ferguson, and several other state governors, the trucking advocates warn that while they’ve sought to reduce carbon emission from both fuels and vehicles, “the damage that our industry will incur by implementing ACT on its current rushed timeline will curtail these critical efforts as clean diesel truck availability will become limited, keeping older, heavier polluting trucks on the road. It will also lead to the inevitable loss in jobs and businesses.” Click here to read more.

 

LAPORTE COUNTY, Ind. (WNDU/Gray News) - A school bus driver in Indiana is facing charges following a months-long investigation, officials said.

According to the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office, 38-year-old Kayla Pier is charged with operating while intoxicated and neglect of a dependent.

On Sept. 20, Pier was driving a bus with 32 middle and elementary school students when the students reported her driving behaviors and mannerisms.

Administrators removed Pier from the bus and she reportedly resigned from the school corporation later that day.

The LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation in late October after the school corporation received Pier’s toxicology report. An arrest warrant was issued for Pier after the investigation last week. Click here to read more.

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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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