EDITORIAL STAFF

Scott Michels

Scott Michels is a producer at Retro Report. He previously covered national legal news for ABC News. His work has also appeared in U.S.News & World Report, The New York Daily News and other publications. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he has also been an adjunct assistant professor.

@scottmichels1
Image from Combating the Myth of the Superpredator
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Combating the Myth of the Superpredator

In the 1990s, a handful of researchers inspired panic with a dire but flawed prediction: the imminent arrival of a new breed of “superpredators.”
Image from Trump’s Immigration Rhetoric Echoes a Bitter Fight from the 90s
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Trump’s Immigration Rhetoric Echoes a Bitter Fight from the 90s

Today's immigration policies echo an anti-immigration movement 25 years ago in California.
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A New Housing Program to Fight Poverty has an Unexpected History

Some cities are trying to help poor children succeed by having their families move to middle-income, so-called "opportunity areas" -- an idea that was once politically impossible.
Image from How Segregation Influenced Evangelical Political Activism
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How Segregation Influenced Evangelical Political Activism

While abortion is often cited as the motivation behind evangelical Christians becoming politically active in the 1970s, there's another little-known reason that involves the IRS and segregated schools.
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The Roots of Evangelicals’ Political Fervor

White evangelical Christians are among President Trump’s most important supporters. But more than 40 years ago, they were on the margins of American politics.
Image from Operation Ceasefire: Inside a Community's Radical Approach to Gang Violence
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Operation Ceasefire: Inside a Community's Radical Approach to Gang Violence

Our latest collaboration with The New Yorker, tells the story of cops, African-American pastors, gang members, and academics coming together to create positive change for Boston, while upending notions of traditional policing in a way that is especially pertinent today.
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The Back Story on Bad Forensic Science

With the Trump administration’s move to end a commission investigating flaws in forensic science, Retro Report looks at the history of one now-challenged method: hair analysis.
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Sanctuary Cities: Trump Renews an Uproar That Began Long Ago

As deportations rise under President Trump, churches and cities are declaring themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants. It’s the latest chapter of a movement with a long history.
Image from How Zero Tolerance Blurred the Lines Between Schools and Criminal Justice
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How Zero Tolerance Blurred the Lines Between Schools and Criminal Justice

Over the last 30 years, schools across the country have enacted tough new discipline policies. Some of those schools say they went too far.
Image from Bush v. Gore: How a Recount Dispute Affects Voting Today
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Why Bush v. Gore Still Affects Our Elections Today

The dramatic controversy surrounding the 2000 presidential election led to sweeping voting reforms, but opened the door to a new set of problems that continue to impact elections today.
Image from What Is a Healthy Diet? The Answers Are Unsatisfying
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What Is a Healthy Diet? The Answers Are Unsatisfying

Thirty-five years after the first dietary guidelines, how much do we really know about the science behind a healthy diet?
Image from Bliss Point: How Food Companies Make Us Crave Their Products
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Bliss Point: How Food Companies Make Us Crave Their Products

How did food companies get us to crave their products? They discovered the "bliss point."
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Is the Key to Obesity All in Your Gut?

Is there a hidden cause of obesity? A professor at Stanford thinks the answer might lie with the 100 trillion microbes living in our bodies.
Image from The Unexpected Science of Exercise
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The Unexpected Science of Exercise

Does exercise really make you lose weight? One scientist went to Africa and found an unexpected answer.
Image from Why Waco is Still a Battleground in the 2nd Amendment Debate
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Why Waco is Still a Battleground in the 2nd Amendment Debate

Twenty-six years ago, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and generated a legacy that continues to shape antigovernment groups today.
Image from E. Coli Outbreaks Changed Food Production, But How Safe Are We?
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E. Coli Outbreaks Changed Food Production, But How Safe Are We?

A 1993 E. coli outbreak linked Jack in the Box hamburgers sickened 700 people and acted as a wake up call about the dangers of food-borne illness. Decades later, how far have we really come in terms of food safety?
Image from Campaign Finance from Watergate, to Soft Money and Citizens United
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Campaign Finance from Watergate, to Soft Money and Citizens United

The Watergate campaign finance scandals led to a landmark law designed to limit the influence of money in politics. Forty years later, some say the scandal isn’t what’s illegal, it’s what’s legal.
Image from Flawed Evidence: The Limits of Science in the Crime Lab
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Flawed Evidence: The Limits of Science in the Crime Lab

Before DNA testing, prosecutors relied on less sophisticated forensic techniques, including microscopic hair analysis, to put criminals behind bars. But how reliable was hair analysis?
Image from The Lasting Impact of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster
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The Lasting Impact of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster

On a cold March night in 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground off the coast of Southern Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound and creating one of the worst oil spills in American history.
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Crime and Punishment: Three Strikes and You’re Out

After the 1993 murder of a California child, many states passed laws to lock up repeat offenders for life, but today those laws are raising new questions about how crime is handled in America.
Image from Toxic Waste in the Neighborhood: The Love Canal Disaster
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Toxic Waste in the Neighborhood: The Love Canal Disaster

In 1978, toxic chemicals leaking from an old landfill thrust an upstate New York community called “Love Canal” into the national headlines, and made it synonymous with “environmental disaster.”
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Richard Jewell: The Wrong Man

The 1996 Olympics in Atlanta were rocked by a bomb that killed one and injured more than 100. In the rush to find the perpetrator, one man became a target. There was only one problem. He was innocent.
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