FEMA paid for too many funerals

Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz and John Maines of the Sun-Sentinel used federal records to show that "the federal government has paid funeral expenses for at least 315 deaths" in the wake of hurricanes in South Florida last year, "including those of a man who shot himself and a stroke victim hospitalized more than a week before the last storm hit." A state official said that the actions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency constituted a "Free Funeral Payment Act". The total cost of the funerals was $1.27 million, according to the paper's analysis of FEMA data. The paper is suing to force disclosure of the names of all recipients of FEMA aid related to the hurricanes.