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.
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A surprise phone call in the middle of the night from a town mayor to a contractor raises questions about how business is done in Jean Lafitte.
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Fox 8 sought documentation to support recent assertions from the mayor's office
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A decades-old ordinance allows Lucky Dogs to be the only pushcart vendor in the French Quarter
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Every year, the CPSC finds thousands of everyday household products for sale online or arriving at shipping ports that fail to meet federal safety standards. It is illegal to sell products in the U.S. that have been banned, recalled or failed to meet federal safety standards.
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Lafourche Parish will get a new coroner, after sources tell FOX 8 the current coroner, Dr. John King missed the deadline to qualify.
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Zurik: St. Tammany Coroner claims concerned citizen group, ex-employee conspiring against his office
St. Tammany Parish Coroner Dr. Charles Preston accuses FOX 8, a group of concerned citizens, and former employees of trying to undermine his office. The accusations came in a recent radio interview and follow a series of FOX 8 reports that raised questions about whether his office was losing money by performing autopsies for surrounding parishes.
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An InvestigateTV analysis of Consumer Product Safety Commission data shows that since 2000, the agency has had to re-announce the recall of at least 46 products because the original alert did not reach the ears of consumers and, in many cases, continued to cause harm.
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Next month, the council is expected to vote on an ordinance to give the apartment back to the French Market Corporation.
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Council members plan to introduce a new ordinance in an attempt to take the Pontalba apartment away from Mayor Cantrell.
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Previous superintendent Shaun Ferguson retired last December
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Mayor Cantrell faces allegations of violating a city council ordinance by staying overnight in the Upper Pontalba apartment during Essence Fest weekend.
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Courts have ruled against Jeff Landry in 8 of 11 exoneree compensation cases he has opposed
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NOPD leaders say they had to manually inspect the timesheets and detail shifts of every officer, every day, for a nine-month time period. It comes as Interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork says a computer system that was supposed to prevent officers from double-dipping isn’t working as planned.
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The City of New Orleans accuses the Federal Consent Decree Monitor of political motivations, after a report from the monitor slammed the NOPD’s handing of an investigation into Officer Jeffrey Vappie, a former member of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s executive protection team.
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The drug benefit industry says it works to lower costs and improve outcomes, but critics say these 'middlemen' have too much control.
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The federal monitor in charge of overseeing the New Orleans Police Department’s compliance with the consent decree says the department’s Public Integrity Bureau has been “backsliding.”
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Vappie spent a year as a HANO board commissioner, despite no obvious public housing qualifications
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Despite claiming seven-figure profits, documents indicate that outside autopsies may be costing St. Tammany Parish taxpayers money.
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Inspector General Ed Michel's office says it has discovered no policies in place to regulate and guide the executive protection team’s operations.
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Michelle Woodfork defended the NOPD's decision to allow former Captain Sabrina Richardson to return to detail work while she remains under investigation for allegedly abusing the detail program.
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The Lafourche Parish President confirms the longtime parish coroner, Dr. John King is under criminal investigation. Despite that investigation, the council voted to officially raise King’s salary at a Tuesday night meeting.
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Permission to Practice: Doctors, patients say insurance prior-authorizations put profits over people
Insurance companies say these reviews lower costs and protect patients, but what requires advance permission varies plan to plan, and critics argue the policies get between a patient and their doctor.
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Officers said they always billed taxpayers for 16 hours while traveling with the mayor, regardless of how long they actually worked.
Prior to Officer Vappie joining the mayor's security team, no officer ever traveled with her. Another member of the team says he doesn't know of any other officer on a public board.
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Officer Vappie was interviewed for nearly four hours and repeatedly referred to Mayor LaToya Cantrell as his supervisor, but it’s clear investigators wanted to know if a more personal relationship existed between the mayor and a member of her executive protection team.
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City Attorney, NOPD say material inadvertently given to a HANO board member
Consent Decree Monitor Jonathan Aronie said he intervened in the reassignment request in December
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A city ordinance from April of 1972 prevents all but one company from getting a permit to sell food on the sidewalks and street corners of the French Quarter.
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Louisiana's Secretary of State says 25,000 active voter adjustment for recall purpose wasn't arbitrary
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The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to an attorney, but there’s a public defender shortage. The problem means delayed justice for victims and prolonged jail time for the accused not convicted of crimes. In some areas, vacancies are at an all-time high. It’s leaving both defendants and victims waiting for months, sometimes even years, for justice.
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Cantrell's Campaign Finance Report, filed just before the deadline, shows she spent $198,000 out of her campaign account in 2022.
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Kenner and IV Waste are now locked in a legal battle.
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Only one pushcart food vendor currently is permitted on the streets of the French Quarter
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Former NOPD officers and Police Association of New Orleans attorney Eric Hessler accuse the NOPD’s public integrity bureau of lopsided investigations and inconsistent enforcement of policies.
Stella Cziment wrote a letter warning of potential conflicts regarding the NOPD’s internal investigation into Officer Jeffrey Vappie's timesheets.
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Mayor LaToya Cantrell provided hardly any details about what members of her executive protection team are doing while logging long work days, sometimes nowhere near her.
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Zurik: Mayor Cantrell’s security detail sometimes outnumbered those policing an entire NOPD district
Records show Mayor Cantrell's protection officers on the clock in New Orleans even when she was out of state or in France
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In a pair of investigations Andy Pierrotti looks at flawed forensics and wrongful convictions.
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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.
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"It’s not fair. It’s an unlevel playing field. How can you expect Mr. Richard at $13.75 a can to compete with other contractors who are getting $23 to $28 a can? You just can’t, because those other companies can pay their people more money."
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For decades, service members and their families were essentially barred from suing the military for medical malpractice.
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.
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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
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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.
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Mayor LaToya Cantrell claims her use of a city-owned apartment is in line with past mayors. But now former Mayor Marc Morial says he never used the apartment the way Cantrell is utilizing it.
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Sabrina Richardson was the subject of a series of Fox 8 investigations into potential double-dipping and payroll discrepancies.
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New records obtained by FOX 8 have a crime watchdog calling for Mayor Cantrell to speak with investigators about how she and a member of her executive protection team spend time and taxpayer money. The city first denied a FOX 8 public records request for the documents but handed them over after a FOX 8 attorney threatened to sue if the records weren't immediately released.
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City of New Orleans allocates millions to pay down judgments following series of FOX 8 Drained investigations.
After a Fox 8 attorney got involved, the City of New Orleans released public documents Wednesday (Nov. 23) it initially refused to hand over.
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A political analyst and a crime watchdog believe Mayor Cantrell may have violated city policy with room upgrades, paid for by taxpayers, during her travel.
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