By Emily Featherston, Jamie Grey, Lee Zurik, Bailey Williams and Payton Romans
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.
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.
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.
FOX 8 obtains a new document that experts say appears to provide proof that Mayor LaToya Cantrell misused tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.
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.
The Lafourche Parish coroner has charged taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars each year in addition to his salary. But some sources claim he created a staffing crisis, and is performing extra work himself to pad his paycheck.
According to a ChildCare Aware study, in 2021 the national average price of child care in the U.S. was more than $10,000 annually. Availability has also become an issue post-pandemic as childcare providers struggle to meet staffing needs. These factors both play a role when it comes to parents choosing the best option for their kids, with some turning to in-home daycares to fill in the gap. However, some home daycares are unlicensed with little or no regulation.
One company picks up trash for about half of New Orleans but gets paid millions less each year than the two other companies that split pickup in the other half of the city. Now, some city leaders say it is time to level the playing field.
One state lawmaker plans to file a proposal to pull the tax exempt status of property owners who run non-profits, but who lawmakers say are slumlords. The idea for the bill came after our FOX 8 Defenders investigations exposed what residents said were deplorable living conditions at apartments owned by a religious non-profit. Now, one group hits the pavement trying to help tenants who feel they have nowhere else to turn.
Bowling Green State University in Ohio agreed to a $2.9 million settlement with the family of Stone Foltz, who died in 2021 following an alcohol-fueled fraternity hazing event. The university vowed to unite with the Foltzes in their mission to eradicate hazing. The Foltzes sued Bowling Green, in part, for its failure to punish the bad actors on its campus in the years prior to Stone’s death. Their lawsuit listed dozens of examples in which allegations of hazing weren’t fully investigated by the university or cases in which fraternities and sororities were merely placed on probation for serious violations. It's a similar story at other campuses across the country.
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.
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.
New Orleans taxpayers own one of the units in the Upper Pontalba Apartments, but newly obtained emails appear to show Mayor LaToya Cantrell using the unit as a guest house for family members.
A lawyer for NOPD Officer Jeffrey Vappie would not deny that an affair occurred, only that his client did not admit to having an affair with anyone to his wife.
"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."
Mayor Latoya Cantrell denies having an affair with NOPD Officer Jeffrey Vappie. That denial comes after a divorce filing saying Vappie admitted to having an affair with the mayor to his wife.
A former trash contractor for the city of New Orleans believes LaToya Cantrell's administration may have orchestrated the recent trash crisis in order to move the trash contract out of his company's hands.
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.
A new complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges nursing home owner Bob Dean swept millions of dollars from the homes into his personal banking accounts.
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.
Some New Orleans residents say they're fed up after weeks of no trash pick-up from Richard's Disposal. Others say their pick-up is sporadic and they have no idea when the trash company is coming to their house.
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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