Taylor Barnes

NEW: U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for the strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children but have not yet reached a final conclusion, two U.S. officials tell Reuters

Northrop Grumman's share price rose 6% yesterday, increasing its market value by billions of dollars in just one day of trading.

Weapons makers cash in on Trump's Iran war Big Pentagon contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman saw billions added to their market value

Defense contractor stocks soaring in first days of US-Israel war on Iran, with Northrop Grumman leading the pack. On the homefront the war is causing gas prices and home mortgages to rise for ordinary Americans

responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-war-wea...

Via @janetabouelias.bsky.social + Ben Freeman

The Pentagon’s Favorite Tech Guy Is This Hawaiian Shirt-Wearing Founder

This glowing profile of the founder of weapons producer Anduril really is missing the context that his success in getting contracts from Trump’s Pentagon coincides with him… being a billionaire and major Republican donor.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/t...

The Pentagon’s Favorite Tech Guy Is This Hawaiian Shirt-Wearing Founder

This glowing profile of the founder of weapons producer Anduril really is missing the context that his success in getting contracts from Trump’s Pentagon coincides with him… being a billionaire and major Republican donor.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/t...

Pentagon tells Congress no sign that Iran was going to attack US first, sources say Trump administration officials acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff on Sunday that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack U.S. forces first, two people f...

we reached the “no WMDs” phase in two days.

Documenting U.S. planning for the Iran strike will be harder than documenting the lead-up to the Iraq War thanks to this admin's animosity to record-keeping.

Still, docs released through FOIA re Iraq provide offer a road map of what to ask for.

The best examples are from @nsarchive.bsky.social.

According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency - a DC based diaspora org - today’s strikes reflected a substantial focus on civilian targets, including but not limited to hospitals, which violates intl humanitarian law www.en-hrana.org/the-second-d...

Israeli strikes hit hospital in Tehran, witnesses tell Reuters Israeli strikes hit a hospital in Tehran’s Gandhi Street area, two witnesses told Reuters on Sunday, saying the hospital was badly damaged and patients were being taken out.

“Israeli strikes hit hospital in Tehran, witnesses tell Reuters”

Yesterday it was a school, today it is a hospital.

Yesterday children were buried under the rubble of their classrooms, today babies had to be moved from intensive care in their incubators.

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Death toll from Iran school bombing reportedly rises to almost 150 Strike on girls’ elementary school in south of Iran has killed 148 people and injured 95 others, according to Iran state media

Death toll from US-Israeli attack on girl’s school in Iran rises to 150 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

NEW from ProPublica:

Guards at Trump's family detention camp are grabbing kids' writing, artwork, and crayons.

They've even taken one kid's drawing of Bratz dolls.

www.propublica.org/article/dill...

by @mckenziefunk.com and @micarosenberg.bsky.social

Sigh. A Pentagon office that originally was meant to wean communities off economic dependence on military bases and weapons plants, nowadays... gives out grants to hire staff for "communications strategy" for locals to accept new nuclear missiles in their towns

theelectricgf.com/2026/02/06/f...

"But the line between legitimate business & graft is a blurry one in a system that outsources integral parts of public administration to the private sector. When gov't officials are nothing more than clients looking for vendors, where does democracy end and kleptocracy begin?"

@tylermcbrien.com

The US Immigration Industrial Complex is a Threat to Everyone If President Dwight D. Eisenhower were alive today, he very well may warn of the ever-growing immigration industrial complex.

"US immigration enforcement has evolved into a rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar industry in which profitability increasingly dictates policy and enforcement priorities."

By: @tylermcbrien.com

inkstickmedia.com/the-us-immig...

Trump Loves Golden Dome. His Own White House Is Slow-Rolling Spending Billions in approved spending held up by Office of Management and Budget.

"Given that we are nearly halfway through the fiscal year, it will be difficult to use much of this money for [fiscal year] 2026, which means the allocations will carry forward to [fiscal year] 2027"

Golden Dome is supposed to be operational by 2028. foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/23/g...

The Little Agency That Could Have Tamed the Military-Industrial Complex - The American Prospect The Pentagon’s Office of Economic Adjustment mostly missed its chance to wean communities off America’s dependence on defense economics.

Policy scholar Miriam Pemberton in @prospect.org on what nowadays is called the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, which was once the Office of Economic Adjustment:

prospect.org/2018/03/02/l...

Sigh. A Pentagon office that originally was meant to wean communities off economic dependence on military bases and weapons plants, nowadays... gives out grants to hire staff for "communications strategy" for locals to accept new nuclear missiles in their towns

theelectricgf.com/2026/02/06/f...

Palantir moves From Denver to Miami After mounting public pressure

They're rare, but success stories about local "site fights" changing the course of the arms industry do occur -- here's a fresh one about Palantir leaving Denver following pressure from anti-war groups, a labor union, Quakers, etc:

afsc.org/newsroom/pal...

Interview: 'My Dad Moved the Mormon Church on Nukes' A charismatic Mormon attorney lobbied Latter-day Saints leadership to oppose nuclear weapons at a critical moment in Utah and the Cold War.

And it's a dated story, but the most remarkable "site fight" against the arms industry that I know of -- the cattleman, homebuilders, Mormons, Native Americans, and hippies who came together to change the course of the Cold War nuclear arms race in the "MX battle"

inkstickmedia.com/interview-my...

Antiwar Activists Scored a Victory Against Boeing in Chicago. Let’s Spread This Struggle. The win against Boeing could inspire more organizing against corporations that fuel militarism on the public’s dime.

Another remarkable campaign against Boeing in Chicago in 2022. Particularly noteworthy that watchdogs found that the company wasn't delivering on job creation promises and Boeing stood down from claiming a $2 million tax break

truthout.org/articles/let...

Palantir moves From Denver to Miami After mounting public pressure

They're rare, but success stories about local "site fights" changing the course of the arms industry do occur -- here's a fresh one about Palantir leaving Denver following pressure from anti-war groups, a labor union, Quakers, etc:

afsc.org/newsroom/pal...

Concerned about ICE's $45 billion plan to convert warehouses into immigration detention centers? This is what they'll look like inside. From ICE's plan for the Social Circle, GA facility. Each little dot: a person. www.socialcirclega.gov/home/showpub...

8 in-custody deaths in 50 days—one every 6 days. This needs to be a much larger story.

We also dive into a troubling development in Utah, a Republican-sponsored amendment that will greatly restrict who the state considers to be a "journalist" presumed to be acting "to benefit the public"

The gov't has been calling @inkstickmedia.com a "blog" in court.

le.utah.gov/~2026/bills/...

Are Addresses of Northrop Grumman's Missile Plants a Secret? Utah Says So. A Utah government attorney told a judge that addresses for nuclear missile manufacturing facilities posed national security risks. But Inkstick published them years ago.

#nukesky Our latest @inkstickmedia.com updates from Utah and its nuclear weapons plants, which the government recently tried to claim were... secret.

inkstick.substack.com/p/are-addres...

Do you have a legal research or news reporting background and a passion for press freedom?

@freedom.press is hiring a research reporter for its @pressfreedomtracker.us team.

Learn more and apply here: freedom.press/careers/job/...

That the woman who was killed was a special needs teacher just adds another layer of devastation -- a community loses someone who educated and cared for children with disabilities, the exact kind of teacher that schools so sorely need.

Devastating. Could be any of us here in Georgia, could be me on my bicycle commute, if ICE raids are sowing panic nearby.

How Journalists Are Killed in Gaza | Inkstick At least 234 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.

"Being Palestinian is already a sufficient cause for death. And when I became a journalist, I discovered that it could serve as an additional factor. We are treated as suspects despite there being no crime."

We also dive into a troubling development in Utah, a Republican-sponsored amendment that will greatly restrict who the state considers to be a "journalist" presumed to be acting "to benefit the public"

The gov't has been calling @inkstickmedia.com a "blog" in court.

le.utah.gov/~2026/bills/...