Heck of a Job

There have been a lot of FEMA fraud stories since Hurricane Katrina, but none like this. Late yesterday, Ken McLain, 33, of Dallas, was found guilty of scheming the disaster relief agency out of more than $70,000 in claims connected to Katrina and that other hurricane, Rita. McLain went by a lot of aliases (including Roosevelt Hicks, Lonnie Smith, Keith Perry, Paul Linder, Cory Arness, and finally, Jessie), which I guess is something you have to do when you're recruiting homeless people to assist in the scheme. For his chicanry, McLain was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, which U.S. Attorney Richard Roper said "is the stiffest sentence imposed to date in a hurricane fraud case." He also said McLain "deserves every one of the 126 long months he received." --Jesse Hyde