iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

A high-risk pregnancy. An unexpected child. A sudden death. Government red tape. An alleged fraudster with an ever-shifting story. Reporting this story, I found that the nation’s patchy laws do little to protect surrogates, parents or children.

A cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida, where one of the children is interred. Spanish moss hangs from trees over weathered gravestones.

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I first heard about Kyla Simpson’s story close to a year ago: A surrogate who gave birth to triplets for a father in China, then was left to raise the children after he never retrieved them from the US. The full story is stranger, and sadder, than I could have imagined.

A portrait of Kyla Simpson seen through a window curtain.

A picture of Chen Zhou taken at a court hearing.

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

NEW: A college student filmed the exciting moment he won $100,000 – except the bet wasn’t real. A flood of videos showing fake trades and fake wins, is fueling Polymarket’s hype machine, our @wsj.com investigation found. It's part of a secret campaign for Americans’ attention on social media.

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

NEW: We set out to learn who was making money on prediction markets. We found a small group of sharks feeding on a massive school of fish, including: > a lifetime problem gambler > a 31 y.o. in Indiana who lost $5,000 betting on sports > a Detroit man who now lives in a homeless shelter

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

When we asked the FTC about these contracts, it wiped the company names from the public portal. But when I FOIA'd for the scope of work statement for the Publishing.com contract, it showed clearly that the FTC had opened an investigation into the company.

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Typically, the public-facing descriptions of those contracts are bland: They just say things like "EXPERT WITNESS." What we found was that an FTC employee appears to have screwed up and put the name of some companies under investigation in public-facing contract descriptions.

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

I followed up. He said I'd reached the "wrong Dwayne." (Remember, we found this email address in exhibits to a lawsuit, showing his manager had been using it to send him business documents.) I sent this exchange to Lil Wayne's publicists. They didn't respond.

Screenshot of message continues. From reporter: "Not sure what you're referring to. Our email requested your comment related to the SHuttered Venue OPerators Grant program." From recipient: "🤦 apologies! This isn't kitty Katherine?? Well u must have wrong number and wrong dwayne"

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Some readers have zeroed in on this sentence in our reporting: "Reached by text, Lil Wayne made a sexually explicit overture to a reporter and did not respond to questions." I'm going to share the text he sent, but first some backstory...

text from a Business Insider article: "Lil Wayne's publicists didn't respond to numerous requests for comment on detailed questions. Reached by text, Lil Wayne made a sexually explicit overture to a reporter and did not respond to questions."

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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

idk man there are a lot of drones in new jersey, I think it's possible that people are just having a good time in the friendly skies (map is all FAA-certified drone pilots in NJ)

map of new jersey with 2,800 blue pins showing every certified drone pilot in in this silly state

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