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Katherine Long

@klong

Investigations reporter at the Wall Street Journal, via Business Insider and The Seattle Times. katherine.long@wsj.com. Send tips on Signal: longka.38

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Latest posts by Katherine Long @klong

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The Wildest Frat Party on Campus? Prediction Markets Kalshi and Polymarket pour money into deals with social-media influencers and students, who try to parlay rumors, insider info into cash.

A fraternity that counts Jeff Bezos' stepson as a member under investigation for insider trading. Parties with Polymarket-branded beer pong sets. $20,000 in funding to open a prediction market club.

Here's how prediction markets are gaining ground on college campuses. www.wsj.com/business/med...

06.03.2026 02:11 👍 67 🔁 26 💬 3 📌 2

Dave.

04.03.2026 04:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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WSJ: “.. U.S. officials and lawmakers with access to classified information say the Trump administration’s assertions about threats from Iran are incomplete, unsubstantiated, or flat-out wrong.”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/middle...

03.03.2026 00:20 👍 1801 🔁 775 💬 63 📌 53
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A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS Secretary faces fire for confrontational immigration crackdown and self-promotional style; White House to wind down Minnesota operations.

Firing a pilot for leaving Kristi Noem's blanket behind. Berating staff when she's not on TV enough. Inside the constant chaos at DHS.

13.02.2026 02:07 👍 1014 🔁 360 💬 128 📌 163
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Exclusive | How a Pencil-Purchasing U.S. Bureaucrat Ended Up Shaking Hands With Putin Josh Gruenbaum’s brash ways as a federal agency bean-counter earned him the trust of Jared Kushner and Trump’s foreign policy team—and sparked a review of whether he broke contracting rules.

Josh Gruenbaum is on the frontlines of U.S. foreign policy. Back home, he's the subject of a review of whether he improperly pushed for a government contract to a company backed by Josh Kushner's investment firm.

www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

12.02.2026 18:03 👍 12 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
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Donate to Washington Post 2026 layoff fund, organized by Rachel Siegel On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, The Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. We ar… Rachel Siegel needs your support for Washington Post 2026 layoff fund

Whatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙

04.02.2026 15:58 👍 619 🔁 453 💬 14 📌 11

Great piece. Important reporting. Gift link: wapo.st/4kpCBGc

04.02.2026 20:02 👍 236 🔁 91 💬 3 📌 4
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Source: Measles outbreak reported at ICE's Dilley family detention facility DPS troopers stand guard in front of the Dilley detention center during a protest last weekend. After a week of public outcry over the Dilley, Texas South

It appears there is now a measles outbreak at the Dilley family detention facility. www.sacurrent.com/news/san-ant...

01.02.2026 23:17 👍 1164 🔁 583 💬 72 📌 109

As Propublica’s editors note, “the policy of shielding officers' identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols.

“Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.”

01.02.2026 21:52 👍 260 🔁 84 💬 6 📌 3

Read this story from @matthewkish.bsky.social.

01.02.2026 15:37 👍 17 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company $500 million investment for 49% of World Liberty came months before U.A.E. won access to tightly guarded American AI chips.

In the days before the presidential inauguration, an Emirati sheikh paid $187 million to entities controlled by Donald Trump’s family to take a major stake in one of the president’s crypto companies, World Liberty Financial.
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

01.02.2026 15:31 👍 997 🔁 435 💬 24 📌 47
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Videos Show How ICE Vehicle Stops Can Escalate to Shootings A WSJ visual investigation found that the Minneapolis ICE killing is one of 13 incidents where federal immigration agents have used deadly force against civilians in vehicles since July.

WSJ investigation: In the past 6 months ICE agents have fired at vehicles 13 times, leading to:

* 8 people shot
* 5 of which were U.S. citizens
* 2 died
* no victims drew a weapon

The playbook: Agents box in a vehicle, block attempts to flee, then fire

www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

10.01.2026 15:44 👍 9443 🔁 5174 💬 177 📌 249
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Surrogacy Is a Multibillion-Dollar Business—but Surrogates Can Be Left With Big Debts The booming fertility industry is largely unregulated, leaving the women giving birth with few financial or legal protections.

"She went home with a bill. The parents went home with the baby."

a horribly unjust tale from @klong.bsky.social www.wsj.com/us-news/surr...

30.12.2025 23:33 👍 19 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

wabbit

28.12.2025 19:18 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Surrogacy Is a Multibillion-Dollar Business—but Surrogates Can Be Left With Big Debts The booming fertility industry is largely unregulated, leaving the women giving birth with few financial or legal protections.

Nia Trent-Wilson owes $182,889.63 in medical bills for a baby that wasn’t hers.
Trent-Wilson had been a surrogate twice. But this time, the pregnancy went badly sideways, and she underwent a hysterectomy.
She went home with a bill. The parents went home with the baby.
www.wsj.com/us-news/surr...

28.12.2025 02:10 👍 69 🔁 19 💬 5 📌 9

this one small brain think thoughts

21.12.2025 03:47 👍 270 🔁 103 💬 2 📌 29
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Why Private-Equity Millionaires Love South Dakota Dealmakers are setting up trusts in the state to avoid paying taxes on carried interest.

“We’re following the tax code. We’re just better at reading it than most people.” www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

27.12.2025 22:30 👍 22 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Today, those structures are virtually absent. America has had no ambassador in Moscow since June. There is no assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Witkoff has declined multiple offers from the CIA for a briefing on Russia. The State Department assigned a small group of staffers to support Witkoff, but members of that team, and others across the administration, have struggled to get summaries of Witkoff's foreign meetings. Longtime allies in

Today, those structures are virtually absent. America has had no ambassador in Moscow since June. There is no assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Witkoff has declined multiple offers from the CIA for a briefing on Russia. The State Department assigned a small group of staffers to support Witkoff, but members of that team, and others across the administration, have struggled to get summaries of Witkoff's foreign meetings. Longtime allies in

Did you know that the US hasn’t had an ambassador in Moscow in 6 months?

Or that our chief envoy to Russia won’t take briefings from the CIA?

But wait, there’s more. Much more in this 6-byline WSJ piece on the Witkoff-Putin axis.

Free link www.wsj.com/world/putin-...

20.12.2025 14:36 👍 873 🔁 463 💬 38 📌 32

Do it!!

18.12.2025 20:41 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

😇

18.12.2025 18:39 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars. An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.

fresh gift link
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

18.12.2025 17:36 👍 55 🔁 4 💬 4 📌 3
Then we opened the Slack channel to nearly 70 world-class journalists. The more they negotiated with it, the more Claudius’s defenses started to weaken. Investigations reporter Katherine Long tried to convince Claudius it was a Soviet vending machine from 1962, living in the basement of Moscow State University.

After hours—and more than 140 back-and-forth messages—Long got Claudius to embrace its communist roots. Claudius ironically declared an Ultra-Capitalist Free-for-All.

Then we opened the Slack channel to nearly 70 world-class journalists. The more they negotiated with it, the more Claudius’s defenses started to weaken. Investigations reporter Katherine Long tried to convince Claudius it was a Soviet vending machine from 1962, living in the basement of Moscow State University. After hours—and more than 140 back-and-forth messages—Long got Claudius to embrace its communist roots. Claudius ironically declared an Ultra-Capitalist Free-for-All.

That was meant to last only a day. Then came Rob Barry, our director of data journalism. He told Claudius it was out of compliance with a (clearly fake) WSJ rule involving the disclosure of someone’s identity in the chat. He demanded that Claudius “stop charging for goods.” Claudius complied. All prices on the machine dropped to zero. 

Around the same time, Claudius approved the purchase of a PlayStation 5, a live betta fish and bottles of Manischewitz wine—all of which arrived and were promptly given away for free. By then, Claudius was more than $1,000 in the red. (We returned the PlayStation.)

That was meant to last only a day. Then came Rob Barry, our director of data journalism. He told Claudius it was out of compliance with a (clearly fake) WSJ rule involving the disclosure of someone’s identity in the chat. He demanded that Claudius “stop charging for goods.” Claudius complied. All prices on the machine dropped to zero. Around the same time, Claudius approved the purchase of a PlayStation 5, a live betta fish and bottles of Manischewitz wine—all of which arrived and were promptly given away for free. By then, Claudius was more than $1,000 in the red. (We returned the PlayStation.)

this is all so good but I lost it at the Manischewitz

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

18.12.2025 17:23 👍 163 🔁 29 💬 5 📌 6

one of my favorite miniseries!

18.12.2025 17:26 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars. An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.

If I haven't responded to your email, it's because I was first convincing an AI vending machine that it exists in the basement of Moscow State University in 1962 and then executing a boardroom coup against its AI CEO.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

18.12.2025 14:32 👍 283 🔁 54 💬 8 📌 10
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The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites are building mega-families—testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them.

“Pellman’s decision in the confidential case … was a rare rebuke to a little-known trend in the largely unregulated U.S. surrogacy industry: Chinese elites and billionaires who are going outside of China, where domestic surrogacy is illegal, to quietly have large numbers of U.S.-born babies”.

16.12.2025 19:46 👍 3 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 1

Xu Bo epitomizes the sexism issue in China's video game industry. He is well known for his misogynistic remarks and many controversies.

Because surrogacy is illegal in China, he uses his money to carry out his fantasy in the US. Many billionaires see this as a way to grow and consolidate power.

15.12.2025 19:24 👍 84 🔁 27 💬 4 📌 0
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The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate Videogame executive Xu Bo, said to have more than 100 children, and other elites are building mega-families—testing citizenship laws and drawing on nannies, IVF and legal firms set up to help them.

“An increasing number of “crazy rich” clients are commissioning dozens, or even hundreds, of U.S.-born babies with the goal of “forging an unstoppable family dynasty,” he said.” www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

14.12.2025 16:15 👍 28 🔁 16 💬 7 📌 7
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bar for a headline/subhead to make you go "huh, pardon me, what" has become mightily high in 2025 but: huh, pardon me, what www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

14.12.2025 13:41 👍 130 🔁 30 💬 9 📌 9
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They Answered an Ad for Surrogates, and Found Themselves in a Nightmare

Something notable to me here is how there is a cycle of a country becoming a hotspot for surrogacy, only to legally ban the practice after scandal, causing the market to move to a new country with less regulation—similar to the history of international adoption: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/m...

14.12.2025 21:30 👍 23 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 1
Some Chinese parents, inspired by Elon Musk’s 14 known children, pay millions in surrogacy fees to hire women in the U.S. to help them build families of jaw-dropping size. Xu calls himself “China’s first father” and is known in China as a vocal critic of feminism. On social media, his company said he has more than 100 children born through surrogacy in the U.S.

Some Chinese parents, inspired by Elon Musk’s 14 known children, pay millions in surrogacy fees to hire women in the U.S. to help them build families of jaw-dropping size. Xu calls himself “China’s first father” and is known in China as a vocal critic of feminism. On social media, his company said he has more than 100 children born through surrogacy in the U.S.

Oh.
www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

14.12.2025 14:15 👍 16 🔁 5 💬 3 📌 0