Drew Griffin | BIO
CNN Investigative Correspondent

(Documents courtesy of Seattle Times and the Arkansas Parole Board)

AC360°

Police are still looking for the perpetrator in the deaths of four uniformed police officers who were shot Sunday in a coffee shop prior to going out on patrol.

A manhunt was under way Monday for a suspect in the shooting deaths of four police officers after he apparently eluded authorities in an east Seattle neighborhood.

Following a standoff that stretched to nearly 12 hours, Maurice Clemmons was not found in the home in the Leschi neighborhood, Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel told reporters. There is evidence that Clemmons was outside the home Sunday night, but apparently fled the area, he said.

Clemmons was given a 95-year prison sentence in Arkansas in 1989 for a host of charges, including robberies, burglaries, thefts and bringing a gun to school. His sentence was commuted in 2000 by then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The Seattle Times has obtained documents released by the Arkansas Parole board including the application Clemmons originally filed for clemency. Clemmons wrote at the time:

Please keep in mind that before this crime spree I had at no time in my life ever been into any kind of problems with the law. I come from a very good Christian family and I was raised much better than my actions speak. (I'm still ashamed to this day for the shame my stupid involvement in these crimes brought upon my family's name.)
But, as mentioned I was only (16) sixteen years old and had just moved into a very crime ridden neighborhood. Where I was unable to resist the negative influence of the other neighborhood boys because I only wanted to fit in and be accepted because I'd just moved away from all my childhood friends and had no friends in Arkansas.

Clemons also added:

Where once stood a young (16) sixteen year old misguided fool, who's own life he was unable to rule. Now stands at 27 year old man, who has learned through the 'school of hard knocks's to appreciate and respect the rights of others. And who had in the midst of the harsh reality of prison life developed the necessary skills to stand along and not to follow a multitude to do evil, as I did as a 16 year old child.

Read Maurice Clemmons parole information and appeal for clemency...

Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was both sympathetic and critical of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

Sarah Palin has complained repeatedly that she was given unfair treatment by the media during her rapid political ascent last year.

But Mike Huckabee – a potential rival for Palin in 2012 should they both decide to seek the White House – apparently doesn’t agree.

In an interview in the current issue of Esquire, Huckabee speaks sympathetically of Palin, saying she had been subjected to “sexist things that would never have been asked of a male candidate.”

But he pushed back against Palin’s assertion that high-profile journalists – particularly Katie Couric of CBS – were biased in their interviews with her.

Read more...

Steve Brusk
CNN Senior assignment editor

Here’s a little comparison of Hillary on the stump this week compared to Mike Huckabee in his final days.

Just wanted to share:
________________

Please debate me

Huckabee in Cleveland February 26th:

“I wish Senator McCain was debating me this weekend. I wish we were going to be in Cleveland tonight on stage or in Dallas or in Houston or San Antonio or ustin or somewhere between now and Tuesday having a debate. I think Republicans deserve that across the country, I think certainly Republicans in these states that are voting deserve that.”

Hillary in Central Point, OR late Thursday:

“They asked would we be willing to debate. I said absolutely, anytime, anywhere. I heard that my opponent just changed his schedule. He’s going to be in Portland tomorrow. I’m going to be in Portland tomorrow. I’ll meet him anywhere for a debate. There should be a debate about Oregon’s issues. I think that all of you deserve to have a debate particularly about these specifically Oregonian issues."

________________

What’s the rush?

Mike Huckabee in Houston on March 2nd:

“All of these people who for the last two or three weeks have been saying, let’s hurry and get ours over with. Well, what’s the hurry? It’s March. It’s barely March. The convention isn’t until September.

Clinton at the women’s fundraiser Wednesday in Washington:

“There is no cause for alarm, sometimes you got to calm people down a little bit. My husband did not get the nomination until June 2nd.”

________________
Keep reading

Good morning folks!!! Another political primary day. Today is the battle is along the Potomac. Voters in DC, Maryland and Virginia will head to the voting booths. Will Barack continue his sweep? OR will Hillary rally back? AND will Huckabee continue to be a "nuisance," as some political pundits are saying.... SOOO watch CNN tonight for full coverage!!!

In Top Stories a new study out about how the U.S. military is deficient in meeting "the threat of Islamic insurgencies"...AND the steroid controversy continues...baseball player John Rocker is admiting steroid use...so we are Keeping Him Honest!!!

AND thing are looking really gloomy on the real estate front and it ain't because of sub-prime mortgage rates! If you are living in Oklahoma or Florida, you may want to move!! Folks in those states have been repeatedly hit by natural disasters over the last 30 years. AND are you living in a miserable city? There is a new study out of the worst cities to live in...so scroll down and check out What YOU will be talking about today...There are lots of headlines to get through this morning... including why Dolly Parton is postponing her tour....so grab your coffee and let's get started.... Top Stories
U.S. vs. Muslim insurgents...
The U.S. military is seriously deficient in meeting "the threat of Islamist insurgencies," says a Pentagon-commissioned study released Monday.
Outcry over U.S. marine arrest...
Condemnations rang out from several corners in Japan Tuesday after a 38-year-old U.S. Marine was accused of raping a 14-year-old local girl on the southern island of Okinawa.Terror plot...
Danish authorities have arrested several people who allegedly were plotting a "terror-related assassination."

Immigrants flee...
The signs of flight among Latino immigrants here are multiple: Families moving out of apartment complexes, schools reporting enrollment drops, business owners complaining about fewer clients.

A changing face...
If present trends continue, within two decades the nation’s foreign-born population will surpass the historic 19th-century peak of nearly 15 percent of all residents, according to projections released Monday.

Repeated disasters...
When it comes to bad weather — or just bad luck — some parts of the USA seem to attract disaster.

Raw Politics
What is at stake?
Presidential candidates in both parties have a lot at stake in these Potomac primaries.Coming off his sweep in five weekend contests, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois will be aiming for a political hat trick over Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

Battle along the Potomac...
Democratic presidential hopefuf Barack Obama offered himself as "something new" at a pair of spirited, arena-size rallies in Maryland yesterday, while his primary rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, portrayed herself as a "battle-scarred" fighter for the middle class at more intimate events held across the region on the eve of today's primaries.

Obama favored in Potomac primaries...
A new battleground looms in a state where picnickers still flock to venerated fields of Confederate glory. The campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are gearing up for today's presidential primary in Virginia, a key Southern state rife with knotty demographics and shifting party loyalties.

Bid hinges on Texas and Ohio...
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers increasingly believe that, after a series of losses, she has been boxed into a must-win position in the Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4, and she has begun reassuring anxious donors and superdelegates that the nomination is not slipping away from her, aides said on Monday.

New Poll: Dems happy with choices...
Democratic voters haven't settled on a nominee but are enormously excited about both their prospects. Republican voters have made a choice but aren't thrilled with him.

Crime & Punishment
L.A.P.D cannot police itself...
Los Angeles Police Department investigators routinely fail to fully investigate citizens' complaints against allegedly abusive officers, often omitting or altering crucial information in ways that help exonerate the officers, according to a report to be released today.

Ex cop takes the stand...
A former police officer accused of killing his pregnant lover sobbed on the witness stand Monday that he accidentally struck her when she wouldn't let him out of her house.

Keeping Them Honest
More Sterioid use in MLB...
John Rocker claims he flunked a drug test ordered by Major League Baseball in 2000 and that he, Alex Rodriguez and other Texas Rangers were advised by management and union doctors following a spring training lecture on how to effectively use steroids.

Medication mix up...
When Tabitha Jones picked up her stepson's medicine at a Walgreens store near Nashville in 2004, she had no way to know the pharmacy was so busy that its manager had asked for more staffing months earlier to "decrease the pharmacist's stress."

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Dolly Parton postpones tour....
Dolly Parton’s breasts may be two of the wonders of the entertainment world, but the country music icon says they are a pain in her back.

Patty Hearst at Westminster dog show...
Far, far removed from the days when her image as a machine gun-toting revolutionary captivated a nation, Patricia Shaw Hearst was in more genteel surroundings Monday. She was tending to Diva at Madison Square Garden, petting her soft head on dogdom's biggest day.

Do you live in a miserable city?
Imagine living in a city with the country's highest rate for violent crime and the second-highest unemployment rate. As an added kicker you need more Superfund dollars allocated to your city to clean up contaminated toxic waste sites than just about any other metro.

Morning Folks....Happy Monday!!!  A few more victories for Obama and Huckabee over the weekend on the Raw Politics front...NOW it is onto Maryland, Virginia and DC. Is the former Democratic front-runner now the underdog? AND if McCain is the assumed nominee, why is Huckabee still pulling in votes?  PLUS we are keeping the Bush budget honest, this morning...Sooo grab your coffee and take a look at today's headlines...

Top Stories
Future of U.S. troops in Iraq...
A pause in the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq after the current reduction is completed in July "makes sense," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Baghdad Monday.

Death penalty for 9-11 roles...
Military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for six GITMO detainees who are to be charged with central roles in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government officials who have been briefed on the charges said Sunday.

Iraq War planning buried...
The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.

Get out of Iraq to boost economy...
The heck with Congress' big stimulus bill. The way to get the country out of recession — and most people think we're in one — is to get the country out of Iraq, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

New problems in the market...
A widening array of financial-market problems threatens to trigger a new phase in the global credit crunch, extending it beyond the risky mortgages that have cost banks and investors more than $100 billion in losses and helped push the U.S. economy toward recession.

Paintings stolen...
Works by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh were stolen from an art foundation's gallery in Zurich, Switzerland, according to Bernd Quellenberg, a spokesman for the Kunsthaus, a major art museum in Zurich.

Raw Politics
Obama wins Maine...
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Obama was leading Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York 59 percent to 40 percent. At stake are 24 delegates to August's Democratic national convention in Denver.

Huckabee wins again...
Just as Senator John McCain appeared poised to become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, he was reminded over the weekend that many Republican voters still have not climbed aboard his bandwagon.

Clinton staff shakeup...
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton has replaced her campaign manager with a longtime adviser, Maggie Williams, the campaign announced Sunday.

DC, Maryland blitz...
Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, their family members and surrogates swept through the Washington region yesterday, appearing in packed churches, schools and retirement communities in a blitz of activity two days before the high-stakes "Potomac Primary" in Virgina, Maryland and the District.

Keeping them Honest
Bush earmarks...
President Bush often denounces the propensity of Congress to earmark money for pet projects. But in his new budget, Mr. Bush has requested money for thousands of similar projects.

Clemens doping denials...
A lawyer for Brian McNamee believes the Justice Department will open a criminal investigation into Roger Clemens' denials of doping.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
And the Grammy goes too...
Winehouse, the troubled singer and songwriter who was let out of rehab to perform via satellite at the 50th annual Grammy Awards Sunday night, took home awards in five of the six categories in which she was nominated, including three of the big four general categories: record of the year, song of the year (both for "Rehab") and best new artist.

It was good to see Ed Rollins on the show tonight. A few months ago he became the campaign manager and strategist for Mike Huckabee, and from the results this past Tuesday, you can see how effective a team he and Huckabee have become.

Ed and I go way back to Reagan days, and I haven't seen him this excited about a candidate since the Gipper.

With the race down to two candidates now, Ed is clearly hoping that Huckabee can win some of the big states upcoming like Texas, Virginia, and even Pennsylvania. But I wonder whether there won't soon be a built-in conflict for Huckabee: If he truly would like to be the vice presidential candidate – as is widely believed – isn't it pretty clear that McCain will grow increasingly disenchanted with Huckabee winning anything? I am not sure how even Ed Rollins can square that circle.

Recently Anderson and I taped a conversation about the extreme challenges facing the next President. I hope that viewers will have a chance to see – we are entering a dramatically important time for the country, and the more we talk this year about what the choices are - and the more we hear from the candidates - the better prepared we will be to face the future squarely.

- David Gergen, CNN Sr. Political Analyst

Program note: Watch David Gergen's conversation with Anderson "Extreme Challenges: The Next 4 Years" on 360° at 11p ET

Just when I thought covering Mike Huckabee's campaign couldn't be any more unpredictable, the press plane traveling from Little Rock to New York Thursday morning had to make an emergency landing.

The plane with Gov. Huckabee and his staff, including his daughter Sarah, arrived at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey without incident.

The press plane, a midsize (Hawker, I believe), traveling seven members of the press, landed early at Morristown Municipal Aiport in New Jersey, just south of Teterboro.  No one was injured.

It was a smooth flight from Little Rock, but as we flew over Philadelphia the plane suddenly dipped, losing a lot of altitude. Steve Coppin, CNN photojournalist, described the sensation as free-falling on a roller coaster and being lifted from your seat.  Everyone on the plane gasped loud enough for the pilots to hear.

I shook it off as bad turbulence or the consequence of being on a small plane.  At one point the sound of an alarm could be heard from the cock-pit. Newsweek reporter Matthew Philips looked at Coppin and said, "that didn't sound good."

Being veteran flyers, we shook it off as just another really bumpy flight.  We began descending earlier than we expected and the plane began swaying from side to side like a seesaw.  It was unsettling watching the pilots in the cock-pit quickly adjusting controls as they made the difficult landing. 

It wasn't until the plane came to a stop on the tarmac that the pilots told us there was a problem with the plane and they had to make an emergency landing. One of the pilots said it was "pretty serious" and explained that they lost flight controls and had trouble maintaining altitude.

The pilots said they both needed all their strength to land the plane manually.  A fire truck was on the tarmac as a precaution, and when the cabin door opened we were greeted by a firefighter in a protective silver fire suit.

Only hours later, this frightening experience became an afterthought, as former Gov. Mitt Romney suspended his campaign. 

- Shawna Shepherd, CNN Political Producer

Morning Folks....IT was a late night out on the campaign trail. McCain appears to be the clear Super Tuesday winner on the GOP side, but do NOT count Huckabee out...He still seems to be the choice for conservatives.  On the Democratic side, Hillary clearly won the most delegates, but Obama won more states.... GO FIGURE!!!

Mother Nature took no mercy on Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee...and now there are Tornado warnings in Alabama...the death toll continues to climb.  And another day of Britney dominating the headlines...poor girl!! PLUS, the toxicology report is due out in the Heath Ledger death... SOO grab your coffee and take a look at today's headlines...

Top Stories
Deadly Tornadoes....
Tornadoes that roared through parts of Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee killed at least 27 people and injured nearly 100 more Tuesday night, authorities said.

Three were waterboarded...
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said publicly for the first time Tuesday that his agency had used the harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three Al Qaeda suspects, and he testified that depriving the agency of coercive methods would "increase the danger to America."

Al Qaeda strengthening?
Al Qaeda is gaining in strength from its refuge in Pakistan and is steadily improving its ability to recruit, train and position operatives capable of carrying out attacks inside the United States, the director of national intelligence told a Senate panel on Tuesday.

Military stressed?
The military's top uniformed officer says U.S. forces are "significantly stressed" by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan while simultaneously trying to stem the tide of violent extremism elsewhere.

Raw Politics
Super Tuesday results...
Sen. John McCain cemented his front-runner status Tuesday, piling up big wins coast-to-coast, according to CNN projections. Democratic voters remain evenly split over which of their candidates they would rather see get the nomination.

Super Tuesday FULL state by state results....
Twenty four states held primaries or caucuses....

No real losers...The fight goes on...
Not long ago, political strategists viewed Super Tuesday as a day that would likely crown the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, a 24-state extravaganza that would bring the long primary campaign to an orderly conclusion.

Huckabee still alive...
Sen. John McCain of Arizona won the most states and appeared poised to win the most delegates on Tuesday with impressive primary victories in the delegate-rich states of California, New York and Illinois. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, revived his candidacy with victories across the South.

Youth vote...
Interviews across the country on Tuesday produced anecdotal evidence that some younger people did carry their enthusiasm into the polling place.

Crime & Punishment
Female remains identified...
A severed head and other dismembered remains found stuffed in trashed bags and scattered along Pocono Mountain highways have been identified as those of a missing woman, state police said Monday.

Keeping Them Honest
Steroids...
Roger Clemens emerged from nearly five hours of questioning by congressional investigators Tuesday repeating his denials that he never used steroids or human growth hormone and thanking them for the chance to say so under oath.

Deficient Kevlar in Military Helmets...
A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit saying it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including those for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Cartoons getting serious?
You could call it a sit-in, of sorts. Perhaps a sketch-in would be more appropriate, a comic call to arms, with cartoonists of color protesting for greater presence in newspaper pages. Protesting in the best way they know: drawing about it, en masse, all on the same day.

Britney...
A restraining order against the man who's been at Britney Spears' side during her downward spiral portrays him as a Svengali figure who held her a virtual hostage in her home, drugged her, took over her finances and controlled the ravenous paparazzi "like a general."

How many times have you said one thing and really felt another?

Well guess what? Voters do it all the time and may not even be aware of it.

It’s referred to as the “Unspoken Truth” and a cutting edge market research firm called Lucid Systems has figured out how to tap into it.

We teamed up with Lucid and gathered eight undecided voters. They let us hook them up to all these gadgets that measure the sweat on their skin and the micro muscles in their face where they frown.

Botox users don’t quality for this test because they can’t frown!

Several times, the voters told us they felt one way but their brain images showed something else.

We showed them both recent California debates and found in one case, a voter told us he liked Mike Huckabee’s stand for the common man but on our graphs his brain flatlined, which meant he wasn’t moved at all.

Another surprise: our group told us they did not like Hillary Clinton’s opening statement, but their brains showed a very positive response.

How does this happen? Lucid taps into the emotional reaction below the level of conscious awareness, which is really what determines our likes and dislikes. So when voters tells pollsters they feel one way, and their brain shows another, it’s not a lie, but an inarticulated truth they may not even be aware of.

It’s really fascinating stuff and you’ll get to see a lot more of it tonight on AC360. You can see for yourself why this new technology could change elections in the future.

Let me know what you think.

- Randi Kaye, 360° Correspondent