Drew Griffin | BIO
CNN Investigative Correspondent
Just wanted to share with you some snapshots from the airport in DC - here are people at Reagan National looking across tarmac at Obama departing the nation’s capitol:

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Drew Griffin | BIO
CNN Investigative Correspondent
The Indiana secretary of state has not only found ACORN submitted hundreds and hundreds of fraudulent registration forms, but is now asking for investigations by the U.S. Attorney and the local prosecutor for possible felony violations by the group.
As we reported three weeks ago, the ACORN voter registration drive in northwest Indiana was fraught with problems, more than 2,000 voter registration forms turned in by ACORN were no good.
Now the Indiana secretary of state says his review of the ACORN submissions leads him to the opinion ACORN did indeed break the law. In a letter to the U.S. Attorney, the FBI and the local lake county prosecutor, Indiana’s republican secretary of state Todd Rokita says there is credible evidence that ACORN, “its officers, agents and employees, through direct action, conspiracy or inducement” - violated four Indiana state election laws, violated Indiana’s racketeer and corrupt organizations law, and violated federal election law.
Keep reading
Drew Griffin | BIO
CNN Investigative Correspondent
The press release form the New Orleans Police Department described him as an unidentified gunmen who was “confronted by a New Orleans Police officers” then “reached into his waist and turned toward the officer.” The New Orleans Police Department told us the officer on that day, Sept. 4, 2005, fired one shot killing the suspect.
I’m guessing the New Orleans Police thought we would just take their word for it. We didn’t.
It took us more than a year, but what we found out about Ronald Madison proved justice in New Orleans is only for those who wear a badge.
Ronald Madison was a 40-year old mentally disabled man who had survived Katrina flooding with his brother Lance. On a Sunday morning they swam out of their mother’s home and headed for the Danziger Bridge. You can read more about their ordeal, and Ronald’s tragic death, in the stories below.
What you need to know now, is three years after he was killed by police, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the
U.S. Attorney’s office in New Orleans finally announced they will investigate.
Well it’s about time.
Program Note: We know where Sen. Joseph Biden stands on Alaska’s ‘Bridge to Nowhere’… but see how he voted. Watch Drew Griffin’s full report tonight 10P ET
Drew Griffin | BIO
CNN Investigative Reporter
I’ve been hearing about the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska for three years now, and thought I had heard it all. The classic example of the Senator Ted Stevens insatiable appetite for pork barrel spending has become the perennial symbol of all that is wrong in Washington.
But thanks to Senator Joe Biden, tonight we open a new chapter. The vice presidential candidate has been trying to peg the bridge on his Republican opponent. While Gov. Sarah Palin did indeed flip-flop on supporting the bridge when she learned Alaska would need to foot the entire bill, Gov. Sarah Palin never actually cast a single vote in favor of it. She was only a candidate when she pledged her support.
So what? So it turns out the story on the Democratic side of the Senate chambers is a little murky under that bridge to nowhere. Joe Biden, it turns out, actually voted for the bridge to nowhere…and he did it twice. What else? It turns out Senator Barack Obama voted the same way.
Drew Griffin
CNN Investigative Reporter
The Alaska state trooper at the center of a probe into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power says he has “made mistakes, and I’ve learned from those mistakes.” But in an exclusive interview with us, Mike Wooten, Palin’s former brother-in-law, also denies some of the biggest allegations against him.
Wooten says he has been offered $30,000 to tell his story to a tabloid. The Obama campaign has reached out to the head of his union. And he no longer answers any phone number he doesn’t recognize for fear it is another pesky reporter who wants his story.
The story is how he married into, then divorced out of, Alaska’s first family. The trooper finds his life at the center of the one and only potential scandal I can find concerning Gov. Palin, John McCain’s choice for running mate.
The scandalous allegation is the governor used her power to try and get her sister’s ex fired. When that didn’t work, it’s alleged Gov. Palin fired the public safety commissioner.
In our interview, Wooten rattled off a disturbing number of “mistakes” he’s made in his career. He admits tasering his stepson, illegally killing a moose and admits to multiple reprimands in his file. A state trooper investigation even found credible evidence he was drinking in his patrol car.
But please tell me if you think his tale — dubbed Troopergate by Gov. Palin’s political enemies — is really the scandal that will bring down the newest star on the political scene.
By the way, I hear Gov. Palin is in Florida. Here’s a shot of the CNN crew using a fly-away satellite out of a U-Haul on a rainy, cold Friday in Anchorage.

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Drew Griffin
CNN Correspondent
Another sure sign this storm is over and a lesson from Katrina was learned.
After Katrina, garbage sat for weeks in the French Quarter.
This morning it’s already being picked up.
There are still plenty of problems with this city but you have to admit, the city was much more prepared for Gustav.
This is a shot at 8:45 Tuesday morning on Royal Street.

Drew Griffin
CNN Investigative Correspondent
It has been dumping rain for three live shots now. My professional earpiece is no longer functioning. And during my last shot I used iPod plugs which caused water to get in my ear. Anderson sounded like he was underwater.
Between shots we try to dry out in the car. This is me and my producer Marcus Hooper (producers are always on phones).

Anyway, this is the glamorous world we live in, currently at the end of St. Bernard Parish and the Mississippi river.
Stay dry ya’ll.
Drew Griffin
CNN Investigative Correspondent
Dutchtown High School, in Geismer, Lousiana, is the shelter here. It’s packed and it is dark. The gymnasium has no windows-good for avoiding broken glass-bad for potty breaks.
I ran in to, well to go, and two guys followed behind me. Why? I had a flashlight.
I must say it is the first time I guided grown men to a urinal (closing my eyes as I pointed my light).
Just a taste of life covering a hurricane.
Here’s the Red Cross Shelter director being interviewed by a local tv crew. We have driving rains and very strong gusts.

Drew Griffin
CNN Investigative Correspondent
News of possible breach sends New Orleans evacuees to TV’s.
When Gary Tuchman reported a possible breach flooding into 9th ward, there was an audible gasp in the lobby of this Baton Rouge hotel.
Drew Griffin
CNN Investigative Correspondent
For gulf coast evacuees, this is the worst time. Sitting in a hotel lobby, watching updates on tv and wondering how your home, neighborhood and city are holding up.
For most here, they won’t know the answer until the roads are clear, the power is back on and they can fight that inevitable traffic jam of the Gustav refugees heading home.
Here’s one of the refugees in the lobby of Baton Rouge’s Hyatt Place hotel, trying to stay up on the latest.
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