Kate Knibbs
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knibbs.bsky.social
Kate Knibbs
@knibbs.bsky.social
Live in Chicago, write for Wired, got a great attitude

Send me tips: kate_knibbs@wired.com / Signal: kateknibbs.09
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Went deep on the first AI streaming music fraud case. Mike Smith, the defendant, had more ties to the industry than you'd think. He worked with Snoop Dogg and RZA. And his former business partner suspects he'd been up to sneaky stuff for a while: www.wired.com/story/ai-bot...
‘A Billion Streams and No Fans’: Inside a $10 Million AI Music Fraud Case
A chart-topping jazz album! Loads of Spotify and Apple Music plays! Just one problem: The success might not be real.
www.wired.com
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
bluesky branding refresh unveiled
November 8, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
Great read about Chicago’s growing resistance movement against Operation Midway Blitz. Story of community, solidarity, and empathy bringing the children of day laborers together with suburban moms. Gift link. By Andrew Carter @chicagotribune.com
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/08/c...
Inside Chicago’s growing resistance movement against Operation Midway Blitz: ‘Small acts have huge consequences’
In Chicago, the resistance to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation mission has taken many forms. A movement has grown through acts large and small.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
we talk too much about the male loneliness crisis and not enough about the male suckerfication crisis maxread.substack.com/p/prediction...
November 7, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
state legislators should be paid more. otherwise the legislatures are full of dilettantes, cranks, and nepobabies. this is why you keep hearing about the craziest fucking state laws
people hate hearing this but it's 100% true, creating a huge pay gap between political leaders, their staffs, and other elites is a recipe for corruption. of course the flip side of that is taxes on the rich should be jacked way the hell up
The Mayor of New York only makes $260k. I bet there are police that make more than that in NY with overtime.

We need to pay elected leaders more money and stop pretending it's some sort of calling. They're managing hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and millions of people's lives.
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
Hey everyone, thank you so much for the outpouring of support.

I need to pay rent, and I launched a GoFundMe spot.fund/LahutRentFund
Click here to support Jake Lahut's story *LahutRentFund
*spotfund is the easiest place to create beautiful and free online fundraisers. It takes just minutes to start raising money today.
spot.fund
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
The man who ended USAID is the world's first trillionaire
November 7, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
NEW: Billions of pounds of food are imported to the U.S. each year.

The FDA inspects foreign producers to ensure what we're eating is safe from pathogens and dangerous manufacturing practices.

But now, after Trump's drastic staff cuts, these inspections have plummeted to a historic low.
🧵/
Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts
The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...
www.propublica.org
November 6, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
I helped make a film, out this week, called “Rovina’s Choice,” about the deaths this man without conscience or accountability has caused — already 600,000, ⅔ of them children.
November 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
No GoFundMe, but I am thinking about rent for this month, so if you don’t wanna subscribe to the newsletter and just feel like chipping in some beer money or whatever:

Venmo is @ Jake-Lahut straightfromthehut.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
she’s literally me
November 6, 2025 at 9:02 PM
I respect Jake so much, I loved working with him, and I encourage you all to subscribe to his newsletter
I was one of the four people who got canned.

In the interim, you can subscribe to my newsletter, Straight From The Hut. No paywall, but feel free to choose the pay to support model. I'm not going anywhere — the show goes on, and I'll be back on MSNBC Saturday night. straightfromthehut.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
SCOOP (free, as it's FOIA-based!): I obtained 1,665 pgs of documents about "Bicken Ben," a growing private school the Zuckerbergs ran illegally out of their Palo Alto compound

Neighbors complained the school for years. Then, in 2024, they reached their breaking point:
www.wired.com/story/mark-z...
Mark Zuckerberg Opened an Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. His Neighbors Revolted
Neighbors complained about noise, security guards, and hordes of traffic. An unlicensed school named after the Zuckerbergs’ pet chicken tipped them over the edge.
www.wired.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
“The network of veterinary labs that's responsible for testing ceased its regular meetings because of the shutdown, Poulsen says.
"The shutdown just kind of pours gas on a smoldering fire and makes us vulnerable," he says. "It's a national security issue."
Bird flu surges among poultry amid a scaled back federal response
Migrating wild birds are spreading the virus to domesticated flocks, increasing the risk of eventually seeing a human outbreak. Scientists are troubled by the muted federal response.
www.npr.org
November 6, 2025 at 12:41 PM
This BI article refers to NEAL KATYAL as “John Mulaney’s lawyer friend” and the writer seems to have very little idea of who Katyal is. Open the schools.
November 6, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
Federal agents pulling a woman out of Rayito Del Sol, a daycare by Lane Tech high school
November 5, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
I bear full responsibility for the intra-South Carolina beef that continues to escalate because of Nancy Mace.

Original story here: www.wired.com/story/nancy-...
November 4, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Love u forever nyc
November 5, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
I cannot tell why it was exactly
November 4, 2025 at 5:47 AM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
Because of an onslaught of AI-generated research, specifically in the computer science (CS) section, arXiv is going to limit which papers can be published.

@mjgault.bsky.social has more:
November 3, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
NEWS: Federal agents crashed with woman’s car, pointed guns at her, dragged her out by legs, tossed her in a minivan, held her and (eventually) let her go without charges. This as Chicagoans say the immigration blitz is out of control. (DHS blames her.)
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/03/c...
Chicago woman dragged out of her car after colliding with ICE demands accountability
The arrest of Dayanne Figueroa highlights growing concerns about the use of force against U.S. citizens and due process. She was released after a few hours without charges.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Kate Knibbs
At Broadview ICE detention facility for Mass today, Fr. David Inczauskis, SJ reveals “tragic” and “devastating” news that a member of group bearing Guadalupe Banner to Mass today, was detained by ICE this morning in procession to detention facility.
November 1, 2025 at 3:57 PM