Michael Grabell
Michael Grabell is a senior editor with ProPublica. Grabell has previously written about economic issues, labor, immigration and trade. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.
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Michael Grabell is a senior editor with ProPublica. Grabell has previously written about economic issues, labor, immigration and trade. He has reported on the ground from more than 35 states, as well as some of the remotest villages in Alaska and Guatemala. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New York Times and on Vice and NPR.
Grabell has won two George Polk awards and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize — in 2021, as part of a team covering COVID-19, and in 2019, with Ginger Thompson and Topher Sanders, for stories that helped expose the impact of family separation at the border and abuse in immigrant children’s shelters. The latter work also won a Peabody award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.
He previously won the Gerald Loeb Award for business journalism for his investigation into the dismantling of workers’ compensation and an ASNE award for reporting on diversity for his series on the growth of temp work in the economy.
TSA Puts Off Safety Study of X-ray Body Scanners
After promising an independent evaluation of X-ray body scanners, the head of the TSA now says he’ll put it off pending an inspector general report on the machines.
Europe Bans X-Ray Body Scanners Used at U.S. Airports
The European Union has prohibited the use of X-ray body scanners, which emit low levels of a type of radiation shown to cause cancer.
TSA to Conduct New Study of X-Ray Body Scanners
The head of the TSA testified today that the agency will perform a new, independent study on the safety of X-ray body scanners after senators at a hearing raised questions about a ProPublica investigation.
U.S. Government Glossed Over Cancer Concerns As It Rolled Out Airport X-Ray Scanners
A 1998 safety panel was reassured X-ray body scanners wouldn't see widespread use. Today, despite having a safer alternative that the U.S. government deems highly effective, the Transportation Security Administration is marching millions of airline passengers through the scanners, parting ways with European countries that concluded radiation from routine airport use poses a health risk.
Economic Myths: We Separate Fact From Fiction
Taxes are too high, the stimulus was too little. What’s true?
Could Unspent Stimulus Money Be Used to Fend Off a New Recession?
Taking back stimulus money committed to long-term infrastructure projects like high-speed rail and spending it on short-term stimuli like food stamps is easier said than done.
New Army Study Says Radiation From Airport Body Scanners Is Minor
The backscatter X-ray scanners, which the Transportation Security Administration uses to check for objects hidden under clothing, have been the subject of controversy about how safe they are and whether they create a cancer risk for the traveling public.
TSA Airport Scanners Wouldn’t Catch an Implant Bomber
Intelligence reports suggest terrorists may try to avoid airport security scanners by implanting explosive devices, and the Transportation Security Administration said that passengers flying to the United States may notice additional security measures.
Scientists Cast Doubt on TSA Tests of Full-Body Scanners
The Transportation Security Administration is confident that its full-body X-ray scanners are medically safe, but a group of scientists with expertise in cancer and radiation say the evidence made public to support those safety claims is unreliable.
Safety Reviewers Raise Questions About Construction of New Nuclear Fuel Plant
Two scientists say the NRC took construction and licensing shortcuts at a MOX fuel plant being built in South Carolina. The plant, which will convert plutonium from nuclear weapons into fuel for commercial reactors, is the first construction authorized by the NRC since the Three Mile Island accident.