Taylor Barnes

Exclusive: We Followed the Money to Raytheon in North Carolina We got hundreds of pages of public records about a controversial deal to offer tens of millions of state and local subsidies to a new Raytheon/Pratt & Whitney plant in Asheville.

@tkbarnes.bsky.social reports: “Raytheon was allowed to claim about half a million dollars in tax refunds for jobs it did not create due to a loophole in its economic development contract with Buncombe County.”

Essential work by @tkbarnes.bsky.social

“The executions have been driven by politics. DeSantis reactivated Florida’s death chamber in 2023 — just a few months before announcing his run for president.”

Barbaric.

I read the story hoping to hear about the mother meeting her son, and was devastated to read the update at the end.

“The executions have been driven by politics. DeSantis reactivated Florida’s death chamber in 2023 — just a few months before announcing his run for president.”

Barbaric.

I read the story hoping to hear about the mother meeting her son, and was devastated to read the update at the end.

Special Treatment Lines Defense Giant's Pockets in North Carolina Records show that Pratt & Whitney was able to claim tax refunds for jobs it didn’t create and bypass public comment for new grants.

RTX underperformed on job creation projections at a new North Carolina plant but was allowed to claim about half a million dollars worth of local taxpayer subsidies anyway due to a loophole in its economic development contract, public records obtained by Inkstick reveal.

By: @tkbarnes.bsky.social

Defense contractor got special treatment in NC. But local legislators say they don't know who did it. Measure let companies affected by Helene skip local incentives, bypassing public comment. Pratt & Whitney the only company to take the deal.

We teamed up with @janesartwell.bsky.social at Carolina Public Press to report this, and she did a terrific job digging into the mystery of who was behind the narrowly written provision that benefitted Raytheon:

carolinapublicpress.org/73527/defens...

How Trump’s trillion-dollar war machine enriches the 1% Congress will decide in the coming weeks whether to approve a $1 trillion military budget for 2026.

Some context on why locals in a place like Asheville find it incredible that they need to offer tax deals to the likes of Raytheon to "incentivize" it to set up shop – the company is already flush w/ taxpayer funds and highly profitable

popular.info/p/how-trumps... h/t @stephensemler.bsky.social

How Trump’s trillion-dollar war machine enriches the 1% Congress will decide in the coming weeks whether to approve a $1 trillion military budget for 2026.

-More than half of the pending $1 trillion military budget will go to contracts

-Over a quarter of the contracts will go to just four firms

-One in ten federal dollars those firms get will go to their shareholders

My latest for @juddlegum.bsky.social’s @popular.info
popular.info/p/how-trumps...

The records show the company was able to use a loophole to claim tax refunds for jobs it did not create.

They also show that a narrowly written provision to a Hurricane Helene relief bill allowed it to bypass public comment as it got approval for millions in new grants during the genocide

I got hundreds of pages of records about a controversial deal to offer millions in state + local subsidies to Raytheon (Pratt & Whitney) for a new plant in Asheville, NC.

The company produces the engine for the F-35, which Israel has used during the Gaza genocide

inkstickmedia.com/special-trea...

Special Treatment Lines Defense Giant's Pockets in North Carolina Records show that Pratt & Whitney was able to claim tax refunds for jobs it didn’t create and bypass public comment for new grants.

Records show that Raytheon was able to claim tax refunds for jobs it didn’t create and bypass public comment for new grants in North Carolina.

inkstickmedia.com/special-trea...

Really terrific reporting here from @hurwitz.bsky.social @inkstickmedia.com that dives into the breakup of the US's largest LGBTQ rights group/ centrist Dem funder and Northrop Grumman, the world's largest weapons manufacturer and a supplier to the Israeli military.

Will St. Louis Continue to be Known as Fighterland, USA? As Boeing machinists strike, St. Louis confronts its deep reliance on defense jobs and the future of “Fighterland, USA.”

A picket line in St. Louis becomes a window into America’s shrinking defense jobs — and the growing debate over who they serve.

inkstickmedia.com/will-st-loui...

Largest LGBTQ+ Rights Group in US Parts with Arms Manufacturers Following two years of activist pressure, Human Rights Campaign is not sponsored by the weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman.

"There are people that make cupcakes for a living at a local bakery that have, like, a sign up that says ‘no to genocide.' How can you call yourself the Human Rights Campaign and say nothing?" inkstickmedia.com/largest-lgbt...

Terrific reporting @mjgault.bsky.social!

I have a bunch of records about Lockheed Martin in Cobb County using this arrangement for its second-largest aircraft plant worldwide -- so byzantine to dive into (and that AJC article really helped me get my bearings!)

Meet the Democratic Socialist Winning in a Lockheed Town Democratic socialist Gabriel Sanchez recently won Democratic statehouse primary in a Georgia Lockheed stronghold.

We've written about changes afoot in the area, including, remarkably, the upset victory of a democratic socialist in a statehouse race to represent the district that includes the entire Lockheed Martin plant: inkstickmedia.com/meet-the-dem...

Atlanta establishment prevails in city races, despite strong progressive challenges DSA's Kelsea Bond wins big in D2. Five council and school board races head to runoffs

Very remarkable news from the town of Lockheed Martin's second-largest aircraft plant: a progressive challenger, Sam Foster, to a four-term Republican mayor in Marietta, Ga came within just 87 votes of ousting him in last week's election:

atlantaciviccircle.org/2025/11/05/a...

And now a new generation, motivated by US support for Israel's genocide in Gaza, is also calling on the church to divest from the weapons industry.

They've sent hundreds of postcards directly to the investment manager's office.

inkstickmedia.com/gaza-genocid...

The Tribune cites our exposé, copublished with the Salt Lake City Weekly, dove into the LDS church being a very rare faith-based investor to hold stock in nuclear weapons manufacturers:

inkstickmedia.com/cracks-in-th...

Harking to the MX, Utahns call on LDS Church President Oaks to speak out against nuclear missile being developed in Utah Could the LDS Church end an ongoing nuclear weapons project? These veteran activists think so.

Terrific Salt Lake Tribune article about Utahns calling on the Mormon church to re-affirm its Cold War-era nuclear weapons opposition and to divest from Northrop Grumman.

Noteworthy that the Tribune asked church leadership to comment on its holding stock in NG:

www.sltrib.com/religion/202...

And in a Republican district (MTG)

Armed US immigration agents drive off with toddler after arrest of father ‘Devastated’ family demands answers after two-year-old driven by armed agents from LA Home Depot parking lot

Masked, heavily armed federal immigration agents arrested a US citizen in the parking lot of a Los Angeles Home Depot store, then entered his car and drove away with his toddler, who is also a US citizen, in the backseat.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Update: the Atlanta city council president promoted in these attack ad mailers apparently funded by pro-Israel donors won her election last night, but somewhat narrowly

A friend who teaches an elective course on photography says her students use AI to write their responses/critiques to photos she asks them to respond to. Why even take the elective arts class?!

And the rise of non-union/explicitly Republican Department of War contractors like Anduril and SpaceX will likely just further the trend of the weapons industry's long breakup from its labor unions

It means a lot that Lockheed Martin – nothing short of the largest corporate recipient of US taxpayer money and the world's largest weapons manufacturer – is creating such low wage jobs that workers live in extended stay motels!

Union Strength Dwindles at Top Defense Contractors Lockheed Martin to workers: "We are actively looking for ways to outsource your job.” New Inkstick datasets detail anti-labor trends at top Pentagon contractors.

And just to zoom out for the bigger context: the military-industrial complex of nowadays is radically different from the Cold War era, when these were often highly unionized shops + jobs that could support a family.

inkstickmedia.com/union-streng... @inkstickmedia.com

@stephensemler.bsky.social on what those billions of stock buybacks add up to -- US taxpayer money to Lockheed and RTX and Northrop Grumman shareholders:

bsky.app/profile/step...