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Taylor Barnes

@tkbarnes.bsky.social
1.2K followers 930 following 730 posts

Field Reporter, @inkstickmedia.bsky.social. Equity Rises grantee, Ploughshares Fund. Atlanta. Military-Industrial America newsletter: inkstick.substack.com/s/taylors-tips Signal: tkbarnes.10

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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
maggie-lee.bsky.social @maggie-lee.bsky.social · 8h
“Make friends with the person who spends their retirement doing open record requests “ ⬆️ this person exists in every community and is your friend, reporters
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 8h
Absolutely! And in the same vein, the Dispatch's "Fireside Chat" with an Anduril exec (www.acg.org/columbus/eve...) And their front page the day the plant was announced:
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 8h
Local media's credulous coverage of Anduril has been bad for years, but this fawning profile is really a new low: "In the end, Stephens finds morality in choosing to help stop others’ plans to destroy America and its people." Not a word of skepticism - just shameful work from Dispatch Magazines.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 8h
Also this headline! A textbook example of how local media so often covers the arms industry: "Anduril Industries' Trae Stephens Brings Big Business and Jobs to Ohio"
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 8h
I've been noticing the AI weapons company Anduril doing a lot of media like this in Ohio -- really trumping up any execs with childhood/ family ties to the state. The purpose seems to be to de-emphasize that they're nowadays tech bros from California: www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifest...
columbusmonthly.com
Anduril Industries' Trae Stephens Brings Big Business and Jobs to Ohio
After 9/11 rerouted his career plans, the Ohio native and Anduril co-founder is proud the company's $1 billion drone factory landed in Pickaway County.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Inkstick Media @inkstickmedia.com · 07/10/2026
In Ohio, a needy public school’s board quietly greenlit a multimillion-dollar tax cut for the AI-powered weapons company Anduril – all while asking cash-strapped locals to pay more. Inkstick Media obtained key documents that shine light on the deal: inkstickmedia.com/an-ohio-scho...
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
45 asylum seekers imprisoned in Georgia's Folkston ICE detention center went on hunger strike today. Some have been in this concentration camp for three years. They demand immediate release into the US, protection from re-detention and deportation, and reunification with loved ones.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The measure being voted on tonight in Ashville: files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com/documents/as...
files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Wow: A village council vote tonight may cancel an upcoming referendum on a controversial Ohio data center entangled in a school funding story that also involves Anduril. If it sounds familiar... here's how Anduril quashed a local referendum in the same place: inkstickmedia.com/in-ohio-who-...
inkstickmedia.com
In Ohio, Who Really Gets a Say in Anduril Weapons Factories?
Residents of a small township in Ohio wanted a vote on a new Anduril weapons factory. Then the state changed the rules.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Inkstick Media @inkstickmedia.com · 30/09/2026
How a factory for AI-powered weapons, a data center, and a needy public school collided in rural Ohio. By: @tkbarnes.bsky.social inkstickmedia.com/an-ohio-scho...
inkstickmedia.com
An Ohio School Needs Funds. It Voted to Cut Anduril’s Tax Bill, Anyway
In smalltown Ohio, the defense manufacturer Anduril is receiving tax breaks even as locals are left to foot the school bill.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Sarah Lazare @sarahlazare.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Teays Valley School District in Ohio needs more funds to better serve its students. Yet, the school district still voted in favor of 30+ years of property tax breaks for Anduril. Incredible story by @tkbarnes.bsky.social about how weapons companies are literally taking money from needy schools.
inkstickmedia.com
An Ohio School Needs Funds. It Voted to Cut Anduril’s Tax Bill, Anyway
In rural Ohio, the defense manufacturer Anduril is receiving tax breaks even as locals are left to foot the school bill.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Matter News @matternews.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
How a factory for AI-powered weapons, a data center, and a needy public school collided in rural Ohio. New at Matter from Taylor Barnes (@tkbarnes.bsky.social) at Inkstick Media. matternews.org/community/de...
matternews.org
An Ohio school needs funds. It voted to cut Anduril’s tax bill, anyway – Matter News
How a factory for AI-powered weapons, a data center, and a needy public school collided in rural Ohio.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Liliana Segura @lilianasegura.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
It’s sickening to me that we put people through this, including my journalist colleagues who have witnessed multiple executions, who have to try to make sense of what they’ve seen. Grateful to @iamstevenhale.bsky.social and everyone else for bearing witness to this barbarism masquerading as justice.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Liliana Segura @lilianasegura.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The tortuous, botched execution of Christa Pike is truly horrifying. And while it feels unique in some ways, in reality it is also only the latest in a history of botched executions going back years — YEARS — in numerous states. Please know: this is the reality of the death penalty in this country.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Save Ohio Parks @saveohioparks.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Manipulation of state law; Anduril's $1 B tax break; secretive Jobs Ohio. $77 B "donation" to Ashville schools for gas plant to power hyperscale data center. @tkbarnes.bsky.social @inkstickmedia.com: bit.ly/4yHdMvP @ccbecker271.bsky.social @commoncauseohio.bsky.social @davidpepperoh.bsky.social
bit.ly
An Ohio School Needs Funds. It Voted to Cut Anduril’s Tax Bill, Anyway
In smalltown Ohio, the defense manufacturer Anduril is receiving tax breaks even as locals are left to foot the school bill.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Those local tax cuts to weapons companies provoke backlash across the country  Like Elbit in Charleston, SC inthesetimes.com/article/sout... h/t @sarahlazare.bsky.social Raytheon in Asheville, NC www.facingsouth.org/2021/07/honk... Saronic in Brownsville, TX www.texastribune.org/2026/06/18/t...
inthesetimes.com
South Carolinians Wage May Day Protest of the Israeli Weapons Factory in Their Back Yard
The International Workers’ Day protest targets Elbit America, a subsidiary of the largest weapons company in Israel, now supplying munitions used in Lebanon.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
At the federal level, defense contractors of course benefit from the trillion-dollar Pentagon budget. But at the local level, they're getting millions and even a billion+ in state and local subsidies. inkstickmedia.com/an-ohio-scho...
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Thank you to colleagues at @goodjobsfirst.org + @policymattersohio.bsky.social for helping me to dig into the story of how Anduril's expansion comes at the expense of a needy public school district.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It's rapidly taking over a small farming town to do so. ICYMI, check out our last investigation into the plant – about how a company lobbyist and key state lawmaker maneuvered to block farmer-led referendums challenging the autonomous weapons factory: inkstickmedia.com/in-ohio-who-...
inkstickmedia.com
In Ohio, Who Really Gets a Say in Anduril Weapons Factories?
Residents of a small township in Ohio wanted a vote on a new Anduril weapons factory. Then the state changed the rules.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Why are are we reporting on this Anduril plant in this small town? The company is the leader of the pack of the new cohort of tech bros-turned defense contractors rapidly gaining influence in the trillion-dollar Pentagon budget era. And it claims this Ohio plant will be its manufacturing epicenter
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A needy school in Ohio quietly greenlit decades of tax breaks to an autonomous weapons company – all while hitting up local taxpayers for more! Our @inkstickmedia.com exposé dives into the role of Anduril's lobbyist + backlash against a related data center deal inkstickmedia.com/an-ohio-scho...
inkstickmedia.com
An Ohio School Needs Funds. It Voted to Cut Anduril’s Tax Bill, Anyway
In smalltown Ohio, the defense manufacturer Anduril is receiving tax breaks even as locals are left to foot the school bill.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Cc @saveohioparks.bsky.social @rooster.info @matternews.bsky.social @taylordorrell.bsky.social @nataliehastings.bsky.social
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“After nursing home industry donates $4.8 million to MAGA Inc., Trump administration abandons rule requiring increased staffing levels” Just devastating - this is how we treat our elders
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 27/09/2026
Google finally updated some of its satellite images of Gaza and my god, it's horrific. The entirety of Rafah has been demolished. The majority of Khan Younis is in ruins. Entire towns completely leveled and erased of the map.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Terrific reporting that highlights what arms industry lobbyists are up to at statehouses. In this case, brokering a meeting between none other than Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and a key Republican candidate. Both Luckey and the lobbyist donated $40,000+ to his ally's gubernatorial campaign
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Global Investigative Journalism Network @gijn.org · 20/09/2026
🤖 Modern warfare is conceived, financed & coded far from the battlefield. At #IJWeek, join this session featuring Dr Sebastian Ben-Daniel, @iainoverton.bsky.social, @tkbarnes.bsky.social, @sandrine-rigaud.bsky.social on how to investigate Tech and AI in conflict. 🎟️ twp.ai/9OaJrK
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 18/09/2026
Exclusive: More American service members have died in the Middle East during the ongoing Iran war than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly, according to six U.S. officials familiar with the data.
washingtonpost.com
More U.S. troops have died amid Iran war than Pentagon has disclosed publicly
Officials who spoke with The Post expressed frustration that the additional loss of life in the Middle East is not reflected in the Defense Department’s casualty database.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Montana Free Press @montanafreepress.org · 04/09/2026
Brixtel Defense came to northeast Montana in 2024 forecasting a $125 million investment and 350 local jobs. Two years later, those ambitions look like a shot in the dark.
montanafreepress.org
An ammunition manufacturer’s misfire in Glendive
Two years after launching a new facility in northeast Montana, Brixtel Defense’s ambitions look like a shot in the dark.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Save Ohio Parks @saveohioparks.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
How things work in Ohio: @anduriltech.bsky.social lobbyist influenced Rep. Brian Stewart to get drone maker across finish line in farming community denied the chance to vote on local zoning. @tkbarnes.bsky.social @inkstickmedia.com @farmanddairy.bsky.social: bit.ly/44Q6p7D @ccbecker271.bsky.social
bit.ly
In Ohio, Who Really Gets a Say in Anduril Weapons Factories?
Residents of a small township in Ohio wanted a vote on a new Anduril weapons factory. Then the state changed the rules.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 08/09/2026
The military wanted a version of OpenAI's models that would not refuse directives from military officials, a metric called the "minimal refusal rates." This kind of stuff is extremely dangerous. theintercept.com/2026/09/08/p... archive.ph/iKdbn
theintercept.com
The Pentagon Asked OpenAI for Artificial Intelligence Designed to Rarely Say No
The U.S. military’s desire for an AI tool with “minimal refusal rates” was revealed through a FOIA lawsuit filed by The Intercept.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Patrick De Klotz @patdeklotz.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Sept. 2, 2026
Updated 7:56 p.m. ET
It began like any traditional wedding in southern Iran.
The women arrived with their hands elaborately decorated with henna. Children played in the courtyard. A festive meal was about to be served in a room draped with carpets and pillows.
It ended when a bomb brought down the roof, turning a night of celebration into a jumble of dust-coated sandals, torn garlands and blood-soaked rugs.
Dozens of guests, according to a witness and accounts in local news media, had already arrived at the Malahi family's home and surrounding buildings in the southern city of Kuhestak to celebrate a young bride and groom.
Around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the wedding was struck by a bomb that, according to a weapons expert and a visual analysis by The New York Times, had been released by American forces as they carried out intense attacks in southern Iran. At least five wedding guests were killed, including a 6-year-old boy, and at least 67 other people were wounded, according to Iran's Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian aid group.
Among the guests was a woman named Motahareh, whose identity was verified by The Times. The night of the wedding, she posted a selfie on Instagram from the women's henna party the night before - beaming in perfectly applied makeup, a lilac head scarf and flowery robe.
"Last night was the first night!" she wrote. "For the coming nights, should I make these sorts of stories for you or what!!!"
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Really pleased to see our @inkstickmedia.com exposé featured in Farm and Dairy Newspaper. It detailed how a lobbyist for weapons manufacturer Anduril and a powerful state lawmaker quashed the voting rights of farmers who tried to put the plant to a vote: www.farmanddairy.com/news/ohio-fa...
farmanddairy.com
Anduril weapons factory puts Ohio farmers in fight for local control - Farm and Dairy
Pickaway County farmers fought to vote on an Anduril weapons plant, but a lobbyist-backed Ohio law blocked local zoning referendums.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
When I got bodycam image of police responding to an explosion at Northrop Grumman's missile plant in Utah, the attorneys had interns review and redact it and charged me nothing. inkstick.substack.com/p/the-reveal...
inkstick.substack.com
The Revealing Tidbits Buried in Defense Contractors' Local Records
Here’s some gems about Northrop Grumman's fire equipment, RTX's ethics and Anduril's wildlife challenges I discovered in public records last year.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
cc @wyomingpublicmedia.bsky.social @wyofile.com @billingsgazette.com @highcountrynews.org @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social @nebraskaexaminer.com
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Hi! I'm giving a series of nuclear weapons journalism trainings in Montana + Wyoming in mid-September in Great Falls, Helena, Billings + Cheyenne. Please message here or email me at tbarnes@inkstickmedia.com if you'd like an invitation. The Cheyenne location is also for nearby Nebraska newsrooms
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Devastating. And the Camden, Ark. weapons hub producing these supposedly "precise" missiles is also the same one claiming they will manufacture the "precise" ones for the... Golden Dome. To "shield" Americans from incoming nuclear weapons.
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
Erin Cunningham @erinmcunningham.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Three munitions weapons experts believe were Lockheed Martin's new PrSM missiles killed civilians more than 160 feet from where they detonated in the Iranian city of Lamerd on Feb. 28, according to research conducted by @airwars.bsky.social and verified by @apnews.com. apnews.com/article/iran...
apnews.com
New US missile appears to have killed Iranian civilians far from its blast site, expert report says
Lockheed Martin has touted the pinpoint accuracy of its Precision Strike Missile. But the conflict monitor Airwars says a close look at what is believed to be its first use in combat highlights the po...
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
#NukeSky Here's some more recent weapons swag, this one edible -- ICBM cupcakes at an Air Force ribbon-cutting ceremony in Cheyenne
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Thank you @alixdunn.com @themaybe.org for featuring our story! inkstickmedia.com/in-ohio-who-... It's made the rounds in local, agricultural, and tech media. Folks care when corporations, flush with $ and political allies, take over their towns, be it the arms industry, data centers, Amazon, etc
inkstickmedia.com
In Ohio, Who Really Gets a Say in Anduril Weapons Factories?
Residents of a small township in Ohio wanted a vote on a new Anduril weapons factory. Then the state changed the rules.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Hi @rooster.info! Has Acton taken any positions or made comments on Anduril/JobsOhio/ ever-increasing tax abatements for corporations?
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
It’s in rural South Carolina and has been described as “the beating heart of the new nuclear arms race” bc the US wants to manufacture thousands of new warhead cores there: inkstickmedia.com/rare-referen...
inkstickmedia.com
Rare Referendum on Nuclear Warheads Begins in South Carolina
In South Carolina, local opponents and supports of a pit producing plutonium for nuclear warheads will get a say.
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
What’s really amazing about this “national security is not my thing” answer is that Graham inherited this seat from her brother who was the patron saint (ie funneled $ toward it) of one of the most controversial nuclear weapons plants in the country, the Savannah River Site
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
ICE and CBP are full of rapists and child predators. A new report details it in horrific detail.
forever-wars.com
The Sex Criminals and Child Abusers of ICE and CBP
Rape. Domestic violence. Epstein friendship. It's all tolerated by our valiant homeland-security apparatus. PLUS: COINTELPRO 2026
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Yes happily thank you!
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Hi Paul, greetings from Atlanta! A reader/source of mine is interested in being connected with the Stop Killer Robots Campaign - may I ask if you have a media contact there? Thank you!
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Terrific reporting from our fellow Hannah Bowlus in Los Angeles, an epicenter of the Golden Dome contractor bonanza. (Deja vu – it was for Star Wars back in the 80s, too.) The failures of interceptors in the war on Iran bolster Golden Dome critics who say a missile shield is magical thinking
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Reposted by Taylor Barnes
John Carl Baker @johncarlbaker.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Wow - I missed this: "Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois, argued that the Golden Dome should be investigated for large-scale fraud." Foster, by the way, is the only physicist in Congress. inkstickmedia.com/is-trumps-go...
inkstickmedia.com
Is Trump's Golden Dome Missile Defense System a Pipe Dream?
US President Donald Trump's highly touted 'Golden Dome' will cost taxpayers untold sums of money. Will it even work?
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Terrific quote in a university dean email here: Alleyne recommended against using the phrase “national security" in the title of the new University research institute... "we just make ourselves a target. A target for activists... It’s much better to be generic… ‘nothing to see here, move along’.”
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
This reporting on the university's role in the hypersonic missile arms race got its start by @pate1080.bsky.social at a student newspaper: mndaily.com/top-story/em... mndaily.com/uncategorize...
mndaily.com
Emails between University officials reveal efforts to downplay military applications of hypersonics
This January, the University of Minnesota and St. Paul-based aerospace company North Wind revealed to the Rosemount Planning Commission plans to build the Minnesota Aerospace Complex, an aerospace res...
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Taylor Barnes @tkbarnes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Pro tip from this reporting: If you notice that your otherwise anti-war member of Congress suddenly has a former chief of staff-turned arms industry lobbyist, how can you see what's going on behind closed doors? A MoC isn't subject to FOIA, but a public university tangled up in their dealings was
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