A mother and daughter who worked at the Alabama Fire College, in Tuscaloosa, have been arrested on federal charges of conspiracy and theft, bringing to four the number of arrests made as part of a continuing investigation of the college.

Doris Phillips and her daughter, Melinda Phillips Sexton, were charged with theft and conspiring to obtain state property by fraud, according to the Associated Press. Alabama’s system of two-year colleges has been dogged for months by accusations of nepotism among top officials, questionable spending practices, and outright fraud.

In another development, Yvonne Kennedy, president of Bishop State Community College, told the Press-Register, a newspaper in Mobile, Ala., on Monday that she had directed money from the college’s nonprofit foundation to a scholarship for her niece. Ms. Kennedy defended the practice and said she had channeled scholarship money to other students as well, according to the report.

The unfolding controversy led the Alabama State Board of Education to fire the system’s chancellor in July (The Chronicle, July 13).