Lee Zurik
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As the city of New Orleans's most honored investigative reporter, Lee has been uncovering and reporting impactful stories on WVUE since 2009. Following up his tenacious inquiries with detailed analysis and powerful storytelling, Lee delivers unprecedented accountability of government officials, private citizens and corporations. Lee has been honored with journalism’s top honors including two George Foster Peabody Awards, three Alfred I. duPont Silver Batons, twelve National Edward R. Murrow Awards, and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal. In addition to his work at WVUE, Lee is Gray Television’s Vice President of Investigations. In that role for WVUE’s parent company, he oversees Gray Television’s National Investigative Team – InvestigateTV. Lee is a New Orleans native and a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Updated: Jan. 30, 2023 at 1:22 PM CST
|By InvestigateTV staff and Lee Zurik
In a pair of investigations Andy Pierrotti looks at flawed forensics and wrongful convictions.
Updated: Jan. 23, 2023 at 2:45 PM CST
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Lee Zurik and Conner Hendricks
More than two decades ago, the death of a toddler in a recalled portable crib prompted Congress to pass a new consumer protection law. Yet today, children still are dying in unsafe products, recalls remain largely ineffective at ridding homes of dangerous products, and the CPSC website that was supposed to help creates a false sense of security, an InvestigateTV analysis of federal records shows.
Updated: Jan. 18, 2023 at 3:19 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik
For decades, service members and their families were essentially barred from suing the military for medical malpractice.
Updated: Jan. 17, 2023 at 4:02 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
New details of a divorce petition obtained by Fox 8 imply New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was involved in an extramarital affair with Officer Jeffrey Vappie.
Updated: Jan. 9, 2023 at 4:06 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik
Joce Sterman exposes how the system meant to keep doctors in check is letting physicians keep their licenses even when they come to work impaired. Plus, non-profit hospitals claim they charge privately insured patients more to make up for losses on Medicare reimbursements, but a new report says some hospitals are making money off Medicare
Updated: Jan. 4, 2023 at 10:04 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
Sources tell Fox 8 the FBI now is asking about Mayor LaToya Cantrell's schedule, use of a city-owned apartment and her time spent with a member of her security detail.
Updated: Nov. 23, 2022 at 12:21 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
After a Fox 8 attorney got involved, the City of New Orleans released public documents Wednesday (Nov. 23) it initially refused to hand over.
Updated: Nov. 16, 2022 at 10:11 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik, Ken Daley and Dannah Sauer
Clothing purchases on the mayor's behalf dating to 2017 are being scrutinized by the FBI, according to Fox 8 sources.
Updated: Nov. 14, 2022 at 11:13 AM CST
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik
When a company learns a product it sells could be defective and dangerous, it has 24 hours to let the federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission know about it. But it could take months or years for the public to find out about the company’s possible concerns, if they even come to light at all. InvestigateTV has been battling CPSC and companies to disclose information about the products companies have sounded the alarm on – an alarm that remains relatively silent.
Updated: Nov. 9, 2022 at 10:05 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
Surveillance video raises questions about how Mayor Cantrell is spending her time and taxpayer money outside the office.
Updated: Nov. 7, 2022 at 10:55 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik
The FBI is now investigating an NOPD Lieutenant accused of payroll fraud.
Updated: Oct. 27, 2022 at 10:01 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
In Louisiana, a judge can rule that a municipality owes a plaintiff money, but despite that, the municipality never has to pay. New data shows it is mainly a New Orleans problem.
Updated: Oct. 13, 2022 at 6:36 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
Six days after an Orleans Parish deputy was reassigned over an allegation that he stalked Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the Mayor has been unwilling to back up the allegations.
Updated: Sep. 29, 2022 at 4:37 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
A two-month-long FOX 8 investigation finds New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is possibly breaking city policy and maybe even state law, spending much of her time at a city-owned apartment, possibly without paying rent.
Updated: Sep. 19, 2022 at 4:03 PM CDT
|By Jill Riepenhoff and Lee Zurik
For many college coaches, it pays to get fired. Over a 17-year period beginning in 2005, public universities have shelled out more than $1.1 billion in buying out the contracts of college coaches, according to an InvestigateTV analysis of NCAA financial data collected by Syracuse University. Most of that money was spent on football coaches who play at the highest level of Division I athletics. As football coaches' annual compensation now stretches into seven digits, massive severance payments also grow bigger and bigger.
Updated: Aug. 15, 2022 at 4:19 PM CDT
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik
After the deaths of 13 children over the last 12 years, this summer, Fisher-Price and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned parents not to let their children sleep in certain rockers the company has made since the 1990s. Now, InvestigateTV has discovered that during a 2021 Congressional hearing, the company dodged questions about whether it currently had products on the market linked to children’s deaths.
Updated: Aug. 1, 2022 at 5:34 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Dannah Sauer
FOX 8 filed a lawsuit against the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and its Executive Director Ghassan Korban, after the board refused to provide public records and at times stopped responding to requests for updates.
Updated: May. 23, 2022 at 5:34 PM CDT
|By Jamie Grey, Lee Zurik and Payton Romans
Sometimes a surgeon is the salesman. Across the country, there are physician-owned distributorships where doctors own part of a medical device company and then buy (or have their hospital buy) that hardware to use in their own surgeries.
Updated: May. 9, 2022 at 1:13 PM CDT
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Conner Hendricks and Lee Zurik
A new federal law takes effect in July that aims to clean up thoroughbred horseracing, which for years has been plagued by scandals, drugs and equine fatalities. Racing insiders have pushed for decades for such a measure and they welcome the new oversight.
Updated: Apr. 25, 2022 at 5:18 PM CDT
|By Emily Featherston and Lee Zurik
Diabetes patients say they're being priced out of being able to afford live-saving insulin. Who's to blame is a matter of who you ask.
Updated: Feb. 14, 2022 at 5:18 PM CST
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Lee Zurik and Jamie Grey
It takes years for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to remove dangerous products from the market because of its cumbersome rule-making process and ineffective recalls that don’t incentivize consumers to return or destroy dangerous items.
Updated: Feb. 14, 2022 at 5:09 PM CST
|By Jill Riepenhoff and Lee Zurik
The federal agency created to watchdog consumer products - from crock pots to xylophones - is muzzled by its governing law, which gives all the power to manufacturers, including those with dangerous toys, appliances and other items on the market. The Fisher-Price Rock N Play – an inclined sleep product that defied the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for safe infant sleeping – exposed all that is wrong with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Updated: Jan. 31, 2022 at 5:08 PM CST
|By Emily Featherston, Lee Zurik and Jamie Grey
Programs bridging public schools and homeschooling are growing fast, but critics worry about what that means for the future of education.
Updated: Jan. 24, 2022 at 4:02 PM CST
|By Jamie Grey, Emily Featherston, Lee Zurik, Jon Decker and Cory Johnson
Foreign entities have bought 13 million more U.S. farm acres in 10 years, but agriculture policy scholars say the total could be far more.
Updated: Nov. 23, 2021 at 10:29 PM CST
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
Nine months after an explosion of a tank battery in Southwest Louisiana that claimed the life of a fourteen-year-old girl, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources announced a new rule is now in effect that could prevent another tragedy.
Updated: Nov. 3, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
As lawmakers vow to push changes following the evacuation of more than 850 nursing home residents to a warehouse to ride out Hurricane Ida, one former lawmaker cautions that change is not easy in the industry.
Updated: Oct. 28, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
Eight months after an explosion of an oil tank in Southwest Louisiana killed a teenage girl, a state agency hopes to have a new rule in place soon that could prevent another child from being injured or killed.
Updated: Oct. 18, 2021 at 5:17 PM CDT
|By Daniela Molina, Jill Riepenhoff and Lee Zurik
The lack of access to dental care plagues many parts of rural America.
Updated: Oct. 4, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Jeff Duncan
While the Saints’ latest post-hurricane homecoming did not end with a win like they had envisioned, it was a homecoming game after Hurricane Katrina that likely sealed the Saints’ future in New Orleans for many years.
Updated: Sep. 30, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Jeff Duncan
Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, says there is no way the basketball franchise will be sold as long as she is alive.
Updated: Sep. 29, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Jeff Duncan
It’s a topic that seems to come up at least once a decade -- what is the future of the New Orleans Saints and will they stay in New Orleans?
Updated: Sep. 23, 2021 at 10:22 AM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Mykal Vincent
15 of over 800 nursing home residents evacuated to a makeshift shelter ahead of Ida have died, according to LDH.
Updated: Sep. 17, 2021 at 4:31 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
Bob Dean, the owner of seven nursing homes that evacuated more than 800 residents to a warehouse ahead of Hurricane Ida, plans to appeal the state’s decision to revoke the licenses for the facilities, his attorney said Friday.
Updated: Sep. 7, 2021 at 10:25 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
Evacuation plans from the seven nursing homes that had licenses revoked showed they claimed to be prepared for a large evacuation with plans for supplies and food, but the Louisiana Department of Health and families of those evacuated ahead of Hurricane Ida disagree.
Updated: Sep. 7, 2021 at 3:34 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
Officials have revoked the licenses of seven nursing homes involved in an evacuation that crammed elderly and vulnerable residents into a warehouse.
Updated: Sep. 6, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
Nursing home residents who were crammed inside of a warehouse shelter in Tangipahoa Parish where seven people died describe conditions inside as a ‘nightmare.’ The residents were among hundreds evacuated from seven nursing home facilities on the Southshore to the warehouse facility in Independence, La. ahead of Hurricane Ida.
Updated: Aug. 10, 2021 at 2:05 PM CDT
|By Emily Featherston, Lee Zurik, Jon Decker and Jamie Grey
As lawmakers debate including female drivers in more crash test standards, the agency in charge is staying quiet.
Updated: Aug. 5, 2021 at 1:47 PM CDT
|By Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik
Updated daily, this COVID-19 hotspot map illustrates where the largest number of new cases (relative to population) have been reported in the last seven days.
Updated: Aug. 4, 2021 at 4:56 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik, Jamie Grey, Jill Riepenhoff, Daniela Molina and Owen Hornstein
Bridging the Great Health Divide explores issues in rural America through the lens of residents, doctors and other health care providers.
Updated: Jul. 28, 2021 at 12:17 PM CDT
|By Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik
Gray Television stations will air a documentary about disparities in rural health care and the people working to bridge the great health divide.
Updated: Jul. 21, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
Thousands of so-called ‘Shut-In Future Utility’ wells litter the Louisiana landscape with little enforcement to permanently plug them. One of those wells claimed the life of a Louisiana teenager, whose family says there was no warning of the site being dangerous.
Updated: Jul. 19, 2021 at 5:24 PM CDT
|By Jamie Grey, Lee Zurik and Daniela Molina
The purpose of the food stamp program is to help low-income families access healthy foods, but in rural America, that can be difficult.
Updated: Jun. 30, 2021 at 12:28 PM CDT
|By Emily Featherston, Jon Decker, Lee Zurik and Jamie Grey
Bills in both the U.S. House and Senate look to update crash test dummies and testing procedures to make sure drivers are equally protected.
Updated: Jun. 14, 2021 at 4:05 PM CDT
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Daniela Molina, Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik
Before last year food insecurity impacted about 10% of all U.S. residents. Experts estimate that number has at least doubled since the pandemic.
Updated: Jun. 14, 2021 at 4:01 PM CDT
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Daniela Molina, Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik
Antes del año pasado, la inseguridad alimentaria afectó a aproximadamente el 10,5% de los residentes de EE. UU. Una vez que la pandemia cerró en gran medida la economía, los expertos estiman que el porcentaje de personas que sufren de inseguridad alimentaria al menos se duplicó.
Updated: May. 25, 2021 at 10:00 PM CDT
|By Lee Zurik and Cody Lillich
A major oil company’s offer to plug so-called orphaned wells, left for dead in Terrebonne Parish was passed up by the state Department of Natural Resources and now the state could end up paying millions to do the work themselves.
Updated: May. 17, 2021 at 3:01 PM CDT
|By Emily Featherston, Lee Zurik, Jackson Hicks and Jamie Grey
The federal government gives out subsidies to help farms through tough times, but much of the information about these taxpayer-funded payments is kept secret.
Updated: May. 10, 2021 at 1:47 PM CDT
|By Emily Featherston, Lee Zurik, Jon Decker and Jamie Grey
Experts say one of the most advertised safety standards largely doesn't account for more than half of all licensed drivers.
Updated: Apr. 8, 2021 at 9:03 PM CDT
|By Jill Riepenhoff, Daniela Molina, Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik
In 207 counties in 2018, there wasn’t a family, general or internal medicine doctor – the primary care doctors mainly for adults, according to an InvestigateTV analysis of federal data.
Updated: Feb. 15, 2021 at 3:37 PM CST
|By Daniela Molina and Lee Zurik
DNA paternity labs are not regulated by the FDA; rather, there is a voluntary accreditation process. The records about those labs are kept largely under wraps.
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