BIRDS OF A FEATHER?

This is interesting, if only because Vin Weber, prominent wingnut, signer of PNAC and buddy of the current White House incumbent, is on the board. CEO Rand V. Araskog sits on the board of the Wall St. Journal and Shell Oil, and is a member of both the Trilaterial Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations (for you conspiracy buffs). Omer Waddles, the company's COO, is also a prominent Bush supporter - in fact, he was Bush's Upper Midwest Campaign 2000 chairman.

Not that I'm saying the company is guilty, mind you. And not that I'm making a connection between that and their current troubles.

But you have to wonder:

Federal agents on Wednesday searched the headquarters of ITT Technical Institutes and some campuses of its chain of technical schools in eight states. Shares of its parent company, ITT Educational Services Inc., plunged 33 percent.

ITT Educational Services said the investigation involved grand jury subpoenas of records concerning student placement, retention, graduation, attendance, recruitment, grades, graduates' salaries and tranfers of students' credits to other colleges.

Law enforcement officers did not allow students, staff and faculty to enter about 10 of ITT's 77 campuses in 30 states, ITT spokeswoman Nancy Brown said.

| |