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McCain called the response to Katrina "a perfect storm" of mismanagement by federal, state and local governments.

The Arizona senator walked a few blocks of the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward, passing tidy rebuilt stucco houses standing next to abandoned structures, their facades still spray-painted with the markings of rescue workers who went door to door nearly three years ago searching for bodies. FEMA trailers still dot the neighborhood. McCain said his teenage daughter Bridget had been there with a volunteer youth group a few weeks ago to help in the recovery.

"Never again, never again, will a disaster of this nature be handled in the disgraceful way it was handled," McCain declared.

He made the same pledge over and over during the day: "I promise you, never again."

Clinton raises $10 million, aided by 80,000 new donors, after Pennsylvania win ... North Carolina expected not to matter, but is excited to help decide between Clinton and Obama ... Obama, Clinton battle third opponent: campaign fatigue

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Clinton raises $10 million, helped by 80,000 new donors

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton raised $10 million in the 24 hours after winning the Pennsylvania primary, aided by contributions from 80,000 new donors, her campaign said Thursday.

Jenna Bush told CNN's Larry King that she is open to learning about all the candidates - including the Democrats.

King asked Jenna Bush and her mother, Laura Bush, who appeared with her, whether they had a favorite between Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

"My favorite is the Republican," said Laura Bush.

Her daughter wasn't as sure.

Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group (USA), said Wednesday it will publish the former Arkansas governor and one-time Republican presidential hopeful's next book, to be released Nov. 18.

The book, not yet titled, will offer an insider's view of Huckabee's campaign and also offer his vision for the future, publishers said Wednesday.

"There's going to be a lot of untold stories and untold anecdotes," said Will Weisser, Sentinel's associate publisher. "But the other part is the governor's vision for the future of American politics and society and what should we be working towards? How does the (Republican) party become more unified?"

Huckabee, who served as governor for 10 1/2 years, dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination last month after John McCain won enough delegates to clinch the party's nomination. Despite a financially strapped campaign, Huckabee won the leadoff caucuses in Iowa and seven other states.

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are undeniably exhausted. They've been campaigning hard for more than a year, and their wall-to-wall schedules won't let up anytime soon. Neither wants to cede ground in their epic struggle for the Democratic nomination.

Fatigue, however, breeds unforced errors - and both candidates have made some in the past few weeks.

He turned in a weak debate performance in Pennsylvania, took heat for saying residents of small-town America were bitter and inadvertently praised Republican John McCain. She, too, had a sub-par debate and mistakenly claimed to have landed under sniper fire in Bosnia as first lady.

"Sometimes. Yes, of course," Obama, 46, acknowledged Tuesday when asked whether he was exhausted.

But the longer-than-expected race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination will thrust the state into the national spotlight when it has its say May 6. Indiana also votes that day.

The primary, offering 115 national convention delegates, comes two weeks after Pennsylvania gave the former first lady the win she needed to stay in the race. But Obama is favored to win North Carolina, the largest prize among the contests remaining.

"My crystal ball wasn't working well last year, and I certainly would not have anticipated this," said state Democratic Party chairman Jerry Meek. "But, in retrospect, having a May primary was a tremendously astute decision."

Voters, especially new ones, have taken note.

One day after Clinton's comfortable win in Pennsylvania, she and Obama looked ahead to contests on May 6 in Indiana and North Carolina and offered sharply contrasting assessments of the race to date.

"The big win that I had, the broad base of coalition that I put together, is exactly what we're going to need to have in the fall," the former first lady said, arguing that her Pennsylvania victory showed she was more electable than her rival. "And in fact that's what I've done, in big states, in swing states," since the campaign began, she told CBS.

Obama disputed that, saying he had defeated Clinton in primaries or caucuses in several general election battleground states and would "have a much better chance of winning" them in the fall. He mentioned Virginia, Colorado, Wisconsin and Iowa.

He also countered Clinton's suggestions that he's not tough enough to shoulder the presidency. "You know, I've always believed that if you're tough, you don't have to talk about it," he said.

Blevins, 55, of Martin County, was struggling to hear as U.S. Sen. John McCain, speaking without a microphone, answered questions from dozens of reporters.

Blevins had come to protest the Republican presidential candidate's presence, but when she politely asked him to speak up, McCain suggested that she come stand by his side.

"I didn't want to go up there," Blevins said. "But how could I tell him no in front of all those people?"

Red-faced and flustered, Blevins made attempts to shy away from McCain, but he kept asking her to stand next to him, saying he needed her help to answer the questions.

As two state universities approved proposed higher tuition rates Tuesday, a key state official said those requests and others will face tough scrutiny before gaining final approval.

Brad Cowgill, the embattled president of the state Council on Postsecondary Education, said the group has arrived at a consensus that tuition should generally go up 3 to 7 percent, with room for exceptions if schools successfully make their case at the council's tuition hearings April 30 and May 1.

On Tuesday, the University of Kentucky's Board of Trustees approved a 9 percent rise in tuition and Eastern Kentucky University's Board of Regents approved an 8 percent increase -- both for in-state students.

Officials at both schools said they regretted the increases but found them unavoidable after two rounds of budget cuts reduced their state funding by 6 percent.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, has embarked on a tour that will stretch through economically depressed areas such as Youngstown, Ohio; the hurricane-ravaged Ninth Ward of New Orleans; and the heart of Appalachia.

McCain's visit to Inez on Wednesday is particularly symbolic.

On April 23, 1964, the town of about 450 people famously served as a launching pad for Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, a campaign initially conceived by John F. Kennedy.

Once again, Inez will find itself in the context of a philosophical battleground -- but this time it's between Democrats and Republicans seeking the presidency by way of rural America.

The alleged theft, which took place from January 2007 to January 2008, totaled $6,877, Luallen said Tuesday during a news conference.

She said the investigation started after an anonymous caller used the auditor's public hotline -- 1-800-KYALERT --to question labor reimbursements for inmates in the Kentucky Correctional Industries program.

The program at the state reformatory in LaGrange houses six industrial plants employing 175 inmates. Their salaries range from 25 cents an hour to $200 a month.

The program is a self-supporting division of the state Corrections Department, which produces goods and services in state prisons. Products range from furniture to embroidery.

Wright said that, as an activist, he is accustomed to being "at odds with the establishment," but the response to the sermons has been "very, very unsettling."

The interview, scheduled for broadcast Friday night, is the first the pastor has given since video of his preaching gained national attention in March, putting Democratic presidential hopeful Obama on the defensive.

Among the most remarked upon sound bites was Wright proclaiming from the pulpit "God damn America" for its racism. He accused the government of flooding black neighborhoods with drugs.

The controversy forced Obama to explain his 20-year association with the minister, who is stepping down from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

But McCain says he was not hunting for votes in the Eastern Kentucky city, where Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly 3 to 1 and where even the Democratic judge-executive supports the likely GOP nominee.

At a time when President Bush is unpopular, McCain is visiting what he calls places forgotten by other presidential candidates. It is part of his strategy to brand himself as a different kind of Republican: one who cares about all the people, especially those in need.

"I want them to know that I will not forget my responsibility to the American people," McCain said. "I will not make promises I intend to forget and I will not make this my last visit to Inez, Kentucky."

On his tour of troubled areas around the country this week, McCain has already stopped in small towns in Ohio, West Virginia and Alabama. He plans to visit New Orleans on Thursday.

In an April 18 letter, former council President Tom Layzell urged Beshear to resolve his differences over who should lead the council "in a manner that best serves the long-term interests of Kentucky."

"I have been following the articles about the disagreement between you and the Council, and I write out of a profound concern for the potential it has to retard, perhaps even reverse, the progress Kentucky has made toward the achievement of its postsecondary reform goals," wrote Layzell, who now lives in retirement in Springfield, Ill.

The Herald-Leader obtained a copy of his letter through an open records request to the governor's office. Beshear spokesman Dick Brown said the governor was not going to comment on the letter.

Layzell said in an interview Wednesday night that he had also spoken with council members to emphasize the dangers of escalating the conflict.