"A federal grand jury in Arizona has indicted 65 people on charges of defrauding the federal government and Rio Salado College to obtain more than a half million of dollars in student grants and loans," The Arizona Republic reports. "Federal authorities say that from July 2006 to October 2007, a Peoria woman recruited people to act as straw students who applied for federal grants or federally subsidized loans. The straw students, who never participated in classes at the online college, kept the money, and the Peoria woman, 37-year-old Trenda Lynne Halton, charged each enrollee a fee ranging from $500 to $1,050, authorities said. Rio Salado College is part of the Maricopa Community Colleges system and is the state's largest provider of online courses among public institutions. Financial aid staff members at Rio Salado reported the fraud to the U.S. Department of Education."