David Mattingly | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

I took this photo late Saturday night. I didn’t know it at the time but this was the moment when hope of finding survivors was beginning to fade.

A U.S. search and rescue team was punching holes in the rubble of the collapsed school looking for “voids.”

These are spaces large enough where people could have escaped fatal injury. But unlike other building collapses, there turned out to be very few voids…and none of them held any survivors.

Read more about the Haiti school collapse on CNN.com

David Mattingly | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

The air inside the hospital is hot and humid. There is no air conditioning. At the crowded trauma ward there is not a single empty bed.

They are filled with injured children, survivors of the collapse of a school building on the outskirts of the capitol of Haiti.

Most lie quiet. When they try to move their young faces wince from the pain. This is a heartbreaking sight and yet these children are the fortunate ones.

At least 90 of their friends, teachers, classmates and siblings died under the fallen rubble.

Dixville Notch voters cast their votes simultaneously, each in their own voting booth.

David Mattingly
CNN National Correspondent

A cheer went up when the results were announced. The voters of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire — all 21 of them — had spoken.

Since 1960, this tiny town has made big headlines by being the first in the country to vote in the presidential elections and send in its results. The polls opened at midnight and closed at 12:01am. And this year the town’s voters produced a surprise.

Barack Obama won this precinct easily with 15 votes to the 6 cast for John McCain. Ralph Nader was on the ballot but received no votes.

You would have to call this an upset because Dixville Notch had not voted for a Democratic candidate in 40 years.

This tiny town is off the beaten path in northern New Hampshire — I passed at least a dozen signs on the drive up here warning me to be alert for moose — but the national issues seemed to hit home.

One McCain voter told me she wanted a president who would appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court. One Obama voter told me he was worried about the economy.

The midnight voting was started as a publicity stunt in 1960. The owner of the town’s luxury resort thought it was a good way to get some free attention. He was right…the people watching this year’s voting outnumbered the actual voters at least 2 to 1.

It’s impossible to look at the minuscule vote totals here and see a trend or predict an outcome. But Dixville Notch once again has its headline as the first vote in a very big election.

Editor’s Note: CNN has establish a national voter hotline for individuals to report potential voting problems and irregularities on Election Day. On air, viewers will see a map that highlights irregularities across the country. In addition, CNN.com users can zero in on specific counties in each state experiencing the largest number of Election Day complaints, as well as the most commonly occurring type of problems. The toll-free voter hotline number will be

1-877-GO-CNN-08

(1-877-462-6608)
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David Mattingly | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Election day is two weeks away…TWO WEEKS.

Imagine my surprise to find a TWO HOUR WAIT to vote early (see photo…that’s me on the lower right). My home precinct is just outside Atlanta and in previous elections there had been a line on occasion but nothing like this.
Keep reading

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David Mattingly | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

Angelo Mozilo testifying at the government hearing on 'CEO Pay and the Mortgage Crisis' on March 7, 2008.

Angelo Mozilo founded Countrywide Financial and built it into a national mortgage giant. His ambition and drive to open the “American Dream” of home ownership to millions of families was unrivaled. But somewhere along the way his many critics say he turned that dream into a nightmare.

Mozilo stands accused by Attorneys General in multiple states of selling risky mortgages to thousands who could not afford them, leading to the current foreclosure crisis.

Mozilo told Congress the bad economy is to blame, but his critics blame Mozilo for the sinking economy.

He is the latest addition to our list of the 10 Most Wanted–Culprits of the Collapse.

Watch David Mattingly's report earlier this year on a Chicago cop says he was wrongly convicted for his role in an off-duty fight.

Editor’s Note: The Iowa Court of Appeals overturned the assault conviction of former Chicago police officer Michael Mette and ordered him acquitted. Mette was a four-year veteran of the police department when he was found guilty in 2007 of assault causing serious injury in connection with a fight two years earlier. Jacob Gothard was left with brain hemorrhages and a broken nose, cheekbone and jaw. Mette has served 11 months of a 5-year sentence.

David Mattingly | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

After 11 months behind bars, Mike Mette is vindicated.

The Iowa appeals court ruling agrees that he acted in self defense when he punched a drunk college student during an off-duty argument. It is a day of celebration for a large group of his supporters in Chicago.

Led by Mette’s father, the movement to “free Mike Mette” even reached the mayor of Chicago.

It will be interesting to see if Mette will return to being a police officer.

A Chicago cop says he was wrongly convicted for his role in an off-duty fight. We look back at CNN's David Mattingly’s report.

David Mattingly | BIO

AC360° CorrespondentRemember Michael Mette? He’s the Chicago cop I profiled a year ago. Mette is serving 5 years in an Iowa prison for — he says — punching a guy once. The local prosecutor says Mette must have hit the victim repeatedly. Mette was off-duty with some friends and says he hit the guy once in self-defense. Mette just got finished appealing his sentence and could hear any day now that Iowa’s Court of Appeals has reversed his conviction.

He sat down with local Chicago site, Windy Citizen. Check it out.

David Mattingly | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

What did you do this weekend? Like many in Atlanta, I spent my afternoons sitting in lines at gas stations.

All stations within a couple of miles from my house were empty.

Stations that had gas also had lines ringing the block. Some wait times exceeded an hour.

It’s not unusual to hear of motorists following tanker trucks hoping they will lead to a gas station that will soon have gas.

I was one of the lucky ones. My wait times were under a half hour. I wonder what will happen the next time my tank is going dry?

David Mattingly
AC360° Correspondent

I’m at a pub just outside Atlanta watching the debate. This is a place where every television is normally turned to a sporting event. Tonight every screen is on the debate and the pub is full but uncharacteristically quiet.

The crowd is listening intently but seems to be unmoved. With the exception of occasional applause from two tables of Obama supporters, this debate doesn’t seem to be winning this crowd over to either candidate.

David Mattingly | Bio
AC360° Contributor

Three more members of a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs are now facing sexual assault charges associated with the “marriage” of teenage girls to adult men.

That brings the total number of FLDS men indicted by the Texas grand jury to 9. Does that sound like a lot to anyone?

It’s been eight months since Texas authorities raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch–taking 400+ children into custody. It’s been four months since the courts ordered the state to send them all home.
We don’t know the names of the three new defendants. The other six, including Warren Jeffs haven’t gone to trial yet..

Texas authorities say the investigation is on-going. I hope we will learn soon where this investigation is actually going and when they plan to get there.