TRUCKEE, Calif. -- After two years of intense scrutiny and new federal regulations that have cut into booming enrollments at for-profit colleges, the industry's executives apparently felt the need for a restful break.

They found it this week at the palatial Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe resort, a wonderland of gondolas, heated...

The Florida Senate narrowly defeated a bill this week that would have handed over management of more than two dozen state prisons to private corporations -- the largest-ever attempt at prison privatization in the nation.

The contentious measure was defeated despite getting the endorsement of powerful...

As state governments wrestle with massive budget shortfalls, a Wall Street giant is offering a solution: cash in exchange for state property. Prisons, to be exact.

Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest operator of for-profit prisons, has sent letters recently to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons...

Auction 2012 is a weeklong series in collaboration with "The Dylan Ratigan Show" and United Republic.

As the Great Recession propelled millions into the ranks of the unemployed more than three years ago, one industry in particular saw a surge in new business: for-profit...

Florida this week faces a choice that is increasingly confronting much of the nation -- whether to hand over a major slice of its prison system to private, for-profit businesses that answer to Wall Street.

Lawmakers in Florida are taking a final vote on legislation that would result in the...

For-profit colleges have been in the hot seat over the past two years, with the federal government and more than a dozen state attorneys general probing fraudulent recruiting tactics and high student debt levels.

But there has been relatively little attention paid to how the Wall Street corporations that own...

Over the past two years, for-profit colleges have been aggressively recruiting returning veterans in an effort to tap into billions of dollars in federal benefits available for soldiers to pay for college.

Not only have the schools been eager to capture a new source of revenues, but former...

Four years ago, during the last presidential election, James "Bill" Heavener, CEO and co-chairman of the for-profit Full Sail University, served as a major source of campaign contributions for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, raising nearly $100,000 alongside members of his family.

So did Ed Haddock,...

Along the campaign trail during the past month, Mitt Romney has been offering up his answer to the soaring costs of higher education and student debt: competition from for-profit colleges.

Among other benefits, Romney said, "they hold down the cost of their education" by virtue of being in competition with...

"Boiler room" sales tactics at some for-profit colleges have attracted unprecedented government and law enforcement scrutiny over the past two years. But at Kaplan University, owned by the Washington Post Co., marketing techniques such as preying on the "pain" and "fears" of low-income students should come as no...

Students attending for-profit colleges wind up with much higher student-loan debts, are less likely to be employed after graduation and generally earn less than similar students at public or private nonprofit schools, according to a recent paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The study,...

ONTARIO, Calif. -- Just after she started working for an ambulance company in this suburban enclave east of Los Angeles, Cierra Nelson came to admire the quick decision making and street smarts of the nurses she met on runs to local hospitals. She soon opted to pursue a nursing degree,...

Over the past three years, lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee have investigated bonuses and executive pay at companies that benefited from billions in taxpayer dollars: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and others bailed out after the 2008 financial crisis.

Now, Democrats on the committee have turned...

Cass Sunstein, President Obama's top regulatory czar, said a parade of for-profit college lobbyists and executives who marched through his office last spring had nothing to do with the administration's eventual weakening of regulations on the industry.

"The haranguing had zero effect," Sunstein told The New York Times,...

The federal government has moved to crack down on aggressive recruiting and crippling student debt levels at for-profit colleges over the past two years, yet major inconsistencies exist in the way state governments protect students from being deceived by unscrupulous institutions, according to a report released Thursday.

The...

For nearly five years, federal law has set strict guidelines on risky loans doled out to members of the military, after numerous reports documented how payday lenders were preying on soldiers and saddling them with enormous debts.

But traditional banks that are now offering payday loan-style products have...

In his three months in the national spotlight, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has presented himself as a champion of government deregulation, an advocate of paring back rules and agencies that he says prevent Americans from improving their fortunes.

But back in his home state, Perry has proven a...

The chief executive of one of the nation's largest chains of for-profit colleges resigned earlier this week, following an internal investigation that revealed Career Education Corp. was artificially inflating job placement rates at several of its health and arts schools in order to remain in good standing with college accreditors.

Education Management Corp. was already a swiftly growing player in the lucrative world of for-profit higher education, with annual revenues topping $1 billion, but it had its sights set on industry domination. So, five years ago, the Pittsburgh company's executives agreed to sell its portfolio of more than 70 colleges...

The day before Steve Jobs’ death, newly minted Apple chief executive Tim Cook strode across the company’s vaunted showroom stage in much the same way as his predecessor: decked out in black and prepared to unveil a highly anticipated gadget.

The reviews of his first performance were less than stellar....