News and notes

1. More FEMA related news here. Yesterday Judge Altonaga sentenced a woman (represented by Miguel Caridad) to five years of probation for fraudulently collecting nearly $10,000 in federal disaster funds.

2. The Sun-Sentinel reports: "U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks in Miami sentenced Ricardo Contreras, 33, to serve 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and Rogino Sánchez, 24, to 15 months in prison and two years of supervised release for illegally transporting people into the United States," almost two months after a young woman they snuck into the country hanged herself in Boynton Beach.

3. Fred Grimm writes about the Abramoff case here. He explains how the federal case is being used in "as a vise to squeeze" out some information about the deal and about the death of Gus Boulis.