Here's a great story about one of my favorite corporate governance outhouses, Reddy Ice (NYSE: FRZ).

Yesterday, the company announced that it had hired a new chief operating officer. Then, in a stunning display of corporate spin, the company buried this bombshell at the bottom of the 8-K disclosing the new COO:

Effective September 13, 2008, Ben D. Key, the Company's Executive Vice President - Sales & Marketing, has been placed on a paid leave of absence and relieved of his duties at the direction of the Special Committee of the Company's Board of Directors (the "Committee"). The Committee found that Mr. Key has likely violated Company policies and is associated with matters that are under investigation. The Committee's investigation is ongoing and no conclusions have been reached that any illegal conduct occurred. Further action may be taken by the Committee prior to or following the conclusion of its investigation.

That'll teach him! Violate company policies? You're going on a paid vacation! The move is believed to be related to an investigation by federal prosecutors and attorneys general in 19 states into alleged price fixing. The company also announced that it was suspending its dividend, and the stock closed down nearly 14% on Monday.

Obviously that's a lot of bad news for one day but what's most troubling to me is the company's efforts to bury bad news in regulatory filings.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: U.S. Auto Parts, DealerTrack and AspenBio Pharma were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Piper downgraded shares of U.S. Auto Parts (NASDAQ: PRTS) to Neutral from Buy following the company's Q4 results.
  
• JMP Securities cut DealerTrack (NASDAQ: TRAK) to Market Perform from Strong Buy as they believe future market share losses to RouteOne are more significant than previously believed.
  
• Oppenheimer has concerns that most of AspenBio Pharma's (NASDAQ: APPY) market value is tied to the AppyScore test for appendicitis, while available clinical data may not be sufficient to drive adoption. The firm lowered APPY to Perform from Outperform.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Wachovia cut Reddy Ice (NYSE: FRZ) to Market Perform from Outperform.
  
• Deutsche Bank lowered its rating on Valspar (NYSE: VAL) and Airgas (NYSE: ARG) to Hold from Buy.
  
• Goldman downgraded Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) to Neutral from Buy.

National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM) is trading up almost 9% on strong earnings.

Ambac (NYSE:ABK) is down almost 10% on news of a financial package which is less than many analysts had hoped for.

Reddy Ice (NYSE:FRZ) is trading off 24% on news that federal authorities raided that company's offices.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) is off almost 13% on weaker-than-expected earnings.

PeopleSupport (NASDAQ:PSPT) is down 25% on a weak forecast.

Stocks may trade differently in the pre-market than they do in regular session.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

ThinkEquity has upgraded VMWare (NYSE:VMW) to "accumulate" according to Briefing.com. The news service also reports that Friedman Billings downgraded Alcoa (NYSE:AA) to "market perform" from "outperform"

Wachovia downgraded Reddy Ice (NYSE:FRZ) from "outperform" to "market perform" after the company's offices were raided by government authorities according to the AP.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.