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, nine National Edward R. Murrow Awards, and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal. Lee is a New Orleans native and a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.
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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.
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Questions have been raised over NOPD captain Sabrina Richardson's position on a state board that oversees punishments for state police troopers, as she is currently under investigation by the Orleans District Attorney's office.
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FOX 8 combs through license plate-reader cameras showing NOPD officers' vehicles miles away at times from the details they were getting paid for.
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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.
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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.
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An audit performed by the city of Kenner backs up findings from FOX 8. The audit accuses former Deputy CAO Chad Pitfield of double-dipping, then falsifying documents in an attempted cover-up.
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A FOX 8 investigation raises questions about connections between a now-fired Kenner employee and a contract worth Millions. Kenner paid its trash collector $5.5 million last year, but we found close to $1 million in payments were made without proper backup documentation.
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Five NOPD officers got target letters from the FBI as part of an investigation into detail work, sources say.
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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.
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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.
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FOX 8 looks into a spike in the number of people who are released from their bond obligations or let out of jail when the District Attorney's office doesn't bring charges in the allotted time.
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Programs bridging public schools and homeschooling are growing fast, but critics worry about what that means for the future of education.
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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.
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Entergy has a secret it has been keeping from its customers and the New Orleans City Council.
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The lack of access to dental care plagues many parts of rural America.
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15 of over 800 nursing home residents evacuated to a makeshift shelter ahead of Ida have died, according to LDH.
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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.
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Officials have revoked the licenses of seven nursing homes involved in an evacuation that crammed elderly and vulnerable residents into a warehouse.
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As lawmakers debate including female drivers in more crash test standards, the agency in charge is staying quiet.
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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.
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Bridging the Great Health Divide explores issues in rural America through the lens of residents, doctors and other health care providers.
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A New Orleans company, applied for and received a Paycheck Protection Program loan of nearly $200,000, but a FOX 8 Investigation found that at the time of the application, the company likely had no employees on staff.
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Gray Television stations will air a documentary about disparities in rural health care and the people working to bridge the great health divide.
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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.
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The purpose of the food stamp program is to help low-income families access healthy foods, but in rural America, that can be difficult.
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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.
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Before last year food insecurity impacted about 10% of all U.S. residents. Experts estimate that number has at least doubled since the pandemic.
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.
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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.
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Experts say one of the most advertised safety standards largely doesn't account for more than half of all licensed drivers.
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An investigative unit made up of three state agencies exists to curb the amount of insurance fraud in the state. But a FOX 8 Investigation found all of the spending by one of those agencies doesn’t seem to be going to insurance fraud cases, in possible violation of the law that founded the unit.
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In nearly every Appalachian and Delta community, residents die on average before their 78th birthday, which is the average life expectancy in the United States. Health care providers are working on innovative ways to combat the unique disparities in the regions.
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A former state senator awaiting sentencing on a charge of making false statements to a federal agency is asking a federal judge for a lighter sentence due to COVID-19 concerns.
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A statement from from La. Sen. Wesley Bishop's public relations representative raises serious questions about use of sick leave.
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How did some shareholders of the lucrative red snapper quota force a Florida congressman out of office? It's another tale of campaign cash and public resources in this latest installment of FOX 8's "Hooked Up" investigation.