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"Jacki Steinhauer is one of the lucky ones. She has no damage at her Deer Park home, she has power and she doesn't have to work since her school is closed. "Life is great after a hurricane when nothing really happened to your house!" Steinhauer says in her blog, "The Secret Life of an Uninteresting Teacher." The most recent entries brag about all of the free MREs she's been eating -- MREs that are meant for hurricane victims who have no food because they have no power. Some of those victims have no homes. The teacher has it down to a science, according to her blog: "I got Schlotsky's today for lunch and went again to the courthouse in Baytown to get my water, ice, and food. This time, there were different meals, but hopefully as good as the others. Then, i came home, emptied my trunk and then headed off for the Deer Park POD (Point of Delivery)." "I think that I am falling in love with MREs. They are pretty darn good. I went around 5:30 to go get more MREs and actually got another box of real MREs, water, and ice," Steinhauer wrote on Wednesday. "Right now, I have five cases of water, two 20 pound bags of ice, four 10 pound bags of ice, and four boxes of MREs." While stocking her pantry and frig with taxpayer-funded freebies, Steinhauer has become quite the MRE connoisseur. "Yesterday I ate meatballs with marinara sauce, almonds, wheat bread with cheese sauce, pretzels, and the orange punch. Today's meal was chili mac, applesauce, a pop-tart, wheat bread with cheese sauce, fruit punch, and apple cider," she wrote. "It is so cool that you put a little bit of water in the bag with the food and in about a minute, there is hot food. This is great. I don't have school and getting free food!" What Steinhauer probably didn't bank on -- in between bites of meatballs in marinara and chili mac -- is that nothing is really secret in cyberspace. Her blog began making the rounds Wednesday and commenters from all over the country are ripping Steinhauer to shreds. Many of the comments contain language we can't quote. Here are some of the cleaner ones: "You are a disgusting excuse for a human being. I can't believe you are taking advantage at a time like this." "That is just disgusting what you are doing. How can you live with yourself?" "You are taking away food and supplies that people who really need them should get. Talk about spoiled and greedy. Karma will come back and slap you upside your head for that." "Hope you choke on those MRE's." We spoke with Steinhauer by phone on Thursday. She said she took the free food, water and ice because she "has no money." She initially said she's out of work right now, but then admitted she's a teacher at Baytown's Lee High School and is still getting paid while the school is temporarily closed because of Ike. "But I spent my last $20 yesterday," Steinhauer said. She said she wasn't aware of the flood of nasty comments. Some of the commenters have threatened to turn the "uninteresting teacher" in for fraud. It's not clear if she would face charges. We tried calling the FEMA fraud hotline to ask, but the line was busy. The blog disappeared Thursday evening, shortly after we talked with Steinhauer."

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080918_mh_teacher_MREs.8c4fa377.html

9/19/2008 6:07:13 PM

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9/19/2008 6:24:25 PM

DOUBLE POST SUSPEND

9/19/2008 6:25:10 PM