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.
Updated: Sep. 19, 2022 at 11:03 AM HST
|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 11:19 AM HST
|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: May. 23, 2022 at 12:34 PM HST
|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 8:13 AM HST
|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 12:18 PM HST
|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 1:18 PM HST
|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 1:09 PM HST
|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 1:08 PM HST
|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 12:02 PM HST
|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: Oct. 18, 2021 at 12:17 PM HST
|By Daniela Molina, Jill Riepenhoff and Lee Zurik
The lack of access to dental care plagues many parts of rural America.
Updated: Aug. 10, 2021 at 9:05 AM HST
|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 8:47 AM HST
|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 11:56 AM HST
|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 7:17 AM HST
|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. 19, 2021 at 12:24 PM HST
|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 7:28 AM HST
|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 11:05 AM HST
|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: May. 17, 2021 at 10:01 AM HST
|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 8:47 AM HST
|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.
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