Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 1

Devil Rays Hold Off Red Sox; Yankees Bounce Back Against Royals Sports, CI IP AmericJTOldest Continuously Published Newspaper WEATHER Partly Sunny. High Of 73. BIO VOLUME CLXVIII, NUMBER 259 COPYRIGHT 2004, THE HARTFORD COURANT CO. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2004 IS New Haven CountyShore'ine $100 it Fairfield County and outade Connecticut 50 State Puts Some Colleges On Its Dishonor Roll By ROBERTA. FRAHM COURANT STAFF WRITER out there who think they need credentials to advance in their careers, and they become involved with institutions that provide them credentials in the fastest way possible," he said.

"They're doing a disservice to people who actually earn their credentials, and it's a deep disservice to people who employ them or who have professional contact with PLEASE SEE COLLEGES, PAGE A8 cation department, often acting on tips or complaints, has ordered more than 170 colleges, occupational schools and other organizations to stop calling themselves colleges or offering unlicensed degrees or courses in the state. The most serious issue, Zdanys said, involves schools that churn out phony diplomas a problem that has cropped up across the nation. "The sad fact is there are lots of folks nas Zdanys, chief academic officer for the state Department of Higher Education. The department issued cease-and-desist orders to, among others, a Bible study program offering degrees in Hartford, a program affiliated with a business and technology school in Nigeria and a Stamford-based Internet marketing operation known as zUniversity. In the past three years, the higher edu not licensed to operate in Connecticut and have been ordered to stop doing so over the past year.

A few, such as Salem State College in Massachusetts, are recognized institutions that failed to get approval to offer programs in Connecticut But others, including Suflield University, are little more than unlicensed diploma mills, says a state report to be issued today. "It's major consumer fraud," said Jo You can get a degree from Suffield University or even buy a sweat shirt from the school store, but the campus is nothing to write home about It's mailbox No. 274 at the UPS Store in West Hartford. Suffield University is one of nine colleges and occupational schools that are IRAQ CONFLICT BOMBERS STRIKE POLICE Two Allies Disputed Plofeky Statements Backed Lawyers' Position 1 If a 13 a 1 i By JON LENDER COURANT STAFF WRITER 7. x.

0 'x -v Sworn statements by two State Ethics Commission employees longtime loyalists to ousted executive director Alan Plofeky undercut key elements of their ex-boss's defense against the complaints by three agency whistleblowers that led to his firing last week, sources have told The Courant The two employees, commission clerk Cynthia Cannata and public information officer Brenda Lou Mathieu, each gave an independent statement when approached by a state personnel administrator who investigated misconduct complaints by three staff lawyers against the longtime ethics chief. Plofeky disputed the charges in a detailed and emotional statement at his termination hearing Friday. After the hear-ing some observers including Plofsky's lawyer, Gregg Adler criticized the commission for voting to fire Plofeky shortly after hearing his statement without discussing the substance of his defense. Tm just flabbergasted that these guys had the chutzpah to do this to Alan Plof-sky," said state Rep. David McCluskey, D-West Hartford, a member of the legislative committee that oversees the com MA -1- mission.

GETTY IMAGES AN IRAQI WOMAN cries at the site of a car bomb explosion outside the headquarters of a police station Tuesday in Baghdad, Iraq. The car bomb claimed at least 47 lives, injured more than 100 others and devastated a busy shopping area. Insurgents have been targeting the men lining up for jobs with the new security services. Insurgents Use Rigged Cars To Deter Security Recruitment PLEASE SEE PLOFSKY, PAGE A10 VIOLENCE THREATENS IRAQ ELECTIONS. PAGE A3 April 2003, according to figures compiled by Iraq's In Some Bid Kerry To Increase Firepower terior Ministry, most were Kiiiea in suiciae Domain gs, and many were simply applying for jobs.

Since May, at least an additional 180 people have been killed in attacks targeting police facilities. Insurgents also have kept up a steady drumbeat of smaller scale attacks on police checkpoints and police As violence surged in Iraq, the Bush administration sought to transfer nearly $3.5 billion from reconstruction projects in the country to pressing security, economic and electoral programs, acknowledging that increasing violence has forced a sharp shift in its rebuilding effort In Iraq Tuesday, guerrillas also struck security services in Baqouba, northeast of the capital, when gunmen shot up a van carrying policemen, killing 11 officers and a civilian, hospital officials said. More than 700 policemen and recruits have been killed in insurgent attacks since U.S. forces toppled former president Saddam Hussein's government in Combined Wire Services BAGHDAD, Iraq Insurgents have targeted the young men lining up for jobs in the country's fledgling security services, killing scores of them in a campaign that poses a direct threat to U.S. efforts to increase the size of Iraq's police and National Guard.

In the latest attack Tuesday, a suicide car bomb laden with artillery shells tore through a crowd of young men who had been forced to stand outside concrete barriers at a police headquarters in central Baghdad, killing at least 47 people and wounding 114, police and public health officials said. Crowds at the scene of the Baghdad explosion PLEASE SEE IRAQ, PAGE AlO By DAVID LIGHTMAN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF New Orleans, where more than a million people live below sea level, is in Hurricane Ivan's projected path and residents have been warned to get out of town. Page A3. "You're doing yard work and they tell you your daughter's gone." BILL PAYNE, RACHEL'S FATHER College Freshman Killed 1X1 VA. 3 MO, Sunday i i A 0 8a.

n.r. i Hurricane Ivan atllpjuEST Location 25JN, 7.TW Movement Klf.V Umph Max. wind 140 mph i By KATIE MELONE, DANIELA ALTIMARI And DAVID OWENS COURANT STAFF WRITERS IV' S.tv WASHINGTON Terry McAuliffe had a point to make Tuesday, and he made it blunt tough and straight from thegut "He lied and told the American public he pulled no strings to get into the National the Democratic chairman said of President Bush. "He lied when he said he didn't skip National Guard duty." And in case the listener didn't get the message, McAuliffe added, "He lies about his guard service, he lies about his tax plan, he lies about the It's the kind of rant the kind of visceral outrage some Democrats privately wish John Kerry would allow himself.Speaking forcefully and frankly from the heart, some strategists argue privately, is the only way Kerry can wrestle the agenda back from President Bush, who seems to have been controlling it for weeks. Kerry loyalists publicly dispute that analysis and Insist that his sag in the PLEASE StE KERRY, PAGE A7 ALA.

few rW-- 30 tetems r8a.ra.-i 80 70 Hurricane warning s. FLA. sSajn. Today But in a mystifying accident, the 18-year-old was struck by a train and killed as she walked along a railroad trestle early Sunday morning. Police in Newark, Del, said they believed Payne got lost try ing to find her way back to her dormitory from an off-campus fraternity party, but are still working to unravel the circumstances of the accident In that instant her parents' world shattered.

"You're doing yard work," Bill Payne said, red-eyed, seated on a PLEASE SEE ARTIST, PAGE A4 Gulf of h-ua Rachel Payne, a talented young artist from. West Hartford, went off to college just a few weeks ago, full of promise and potentiaL The quiet llall High School graduate who expressed herself through her prize-winning sketches was flourishing as a freshman at the University of Delaware. "All the doors were opening for her," her dad, Bill Payne, said. PAYNE Gifted Hall High graduate struck by train BAHAMAS 11 p.m. Tuesday MEXICO SOURCES: NCAA; ESRI fcnttS C'jr A All times Ml EDT ASSOCIAltDPRLSS 4091 5 Breaking news.

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