Michael Grabell has been a reporter at ProPublica since 2008, producing stories for USA Today, Salon, NPR, MSNBC.com and the CBS Evening News. His investigative work has included stories on Obama’s economic stimulus package, the Federal Air Marshal Service, the Lance Armstrong doping allegations, chemicals stored near schools and neighborhoods, and a bus fire that killed 23 nursing home patients fleeing Hurricane Rita. Before joining ProPublica, he was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News. He has twice been a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. Grabell’s book about the stimulus, Money Well Spent?: The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History, was published in January 2012.
Articles
Jan. 31, 9 a.m.
The Obama administration helped build an American electric car and battery industry. The question is: Will it last? From ProPublica reporter Michael Grabell’s new book on the stimulus, Money Well Spent?
Jan. 27, 9:30 a.m.
From prisons to borders to the streets of New York, law enforcement officials are using X-ray scanners on people more often and with higher doses of radiation.
Jan. 26, 9:03 a.m.
Sen. Susan Collins is planning to introduce a bill that would require the TSA to conduct a new, independent health study of the X-ray body scanners used to screen airline passengers for explosives at airports.
Dec. 28, 2011, 9:42 a.m.
One type of scanner uses X-rays, and ProPublica and PBS NewsHour revealed questions about whether it might increase cancer cases. But a safer type of scanner has its own problems. ProPublica investigated the biggest change to airport security since the metal detector.
Dec. 22, 2011, 10:17 a.m.
While the Transportation Security Administration says that airport body scanners are highly effective at detecting explosives hidden underneath clothing, some studies and a congressman briefed on classified research suggest the machines could miss carefully concealed plastic explosives.
Dec. 19, 2011, 8:40 a.m.
One type of airport body scanner deployed by the Transportation Security Administration has raised health concerns, but a safer type has registered such high false-alarm rates that Germany and France have nixed it.
Dec. 7, 2011, 6:55 a.m.
A new Harris poll conducted for ProPublica shows that even if X-ray body scanners would prevent terrorists from smuggling explosives onto planes, 46 percent of Americans still oppose using them because they could cause a few people to eventually develop cancer.
Nov. 23, 2011, 4:36 p.m.
In letters to the Transportation Security Administration, Senator Susan Collins asked why the agency backed off its promise to conduct a new safety study of the X-ray machines, and recommended larger signs to advise pregnant women they can request a pat-down instead.
Nov. 16, 2011, 12:37 p.m.
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.
Nov. 15, 2011, 3:45 p.m.
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.
Nov. 2, 2011, 4:40 p.m.
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.
Nov. 1, 2011, 12:06 p.m.
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.
Aug. 18, 2011, 2:44 p.m.
Taxes are too high, the stimulus was too little. What’s true?
Aug. 9, 2011, 10:46 a.m.
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.
July 14, 2011, 12:56 p.m.
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.
July 6, 2011, 5:06 p.m.
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.
May 16, 2011, 1:11 p.m.
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.
May 5, 2011, 3:49 p.m.
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.
