As mentioned last week [The F State, 11-10-2006], the three-branches-of-gov't
thing is finally catching up to DCF. Hillsborough judge Debra Behnke is the
latest to arch her back at the agency's blatant screw-you's. She had ordered
DCF to move a mentally ill prisoner from jail to a mental health facility
within 15 days, as state law requires. [But just wondering, Judge: You
ordered it on August 9, and you got really indignant yesterday. How'd
you feel on August 25?] The New York Times featured this looming
crisis on page A-1 yesterday, citing even another ticked-off judge. The
metaphor here is overturning-the-rock in Jeb Bush's otherwise-picturesque
garden of good-gov't flora. When you try to save taxpayers money across the
board by attempting to reimpose individual responsibility, some things will
slip. The slippage might even be fruitful, the theory goes, because it
encourages previous beneficiaries of gov't to work extra hard to help
themselves. But it's kinda hard to do that if you're mentally ill.
Duh! [Tampa Tribune] [New York Times]

And Still More News About Florida's Most Dismal Agency An appeals court in West Palm Beach affirmed a 2005 court decision awarding
a brain-damaged kid $26.8M because DCF was totally asleep at the wheel when
it returned her to her miserable birth mother against a series of
screaming-social-worker pleas about the violent boyfriend. Oh, that, and the
fact that the kid would otherwise have had to stay in the hospital until a
new home was found and, well, refer to previous story about DCF saving
money. (Authorities concluded that the boyfriend beat the kid up pretty
good, but he hasn't been found.) And though Yr Editor knows about the "right
of appeal" as fundamental to due process, if there's anything more pathetic
than this DCF performance in early 2001, it's for the budget-conscious
agency to be spending taxpayer dollars for the last 5 yrs fighting this case
in court. [Miami Herald]

Yesterday's List Mania The incoming House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami said he had thought of 100
things that really need to be done in Florida, and he ordered some hardcover
volumes of the list, then teased reporters with a few of them
yesterday, revealing breathless generalities ("reward [health care]
providers that demonstrate better outcomes at lower costs") and low-hanging
fruit ("deny registered sex offenders and stalkers access to websites such
as MySpace.com"). Not to be outdone, the governor's special committee on the
insurance crisis said it had thought of 50 things that need to be done and
released that list. Also, Seminole Boosters Inc. was revealed to have
promised FSU offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden 537,000 reasons why he should
look for work elsewhere. [Miami Herald] [Tampa Tribune] [Florida
Times-Union]

Yr Editor's Suggested Education Reform: Better Reading If Rose Rocco could read better, she would have known that the plain
language of Florida law is that county commission candidates "must reside in
the district for which they are qualifying at the time of being elected to
office." Rocco was elected a Hernando County commissioner Tuesday, though
she lives in an adjacent district (but had promised to move "if" she were
elected). [St. Petersburg Times]

More Things To Worry About Today The former elections supervisor in Broward, Miriam Oliphant (who added fuel
to the 2000-fiasco fire with an anthology of bad judgments and obstinacy in
the 2002 elections) has finally had the criminal charges for her malfeasance
dropped [Miami Herald] . . . . . A decapitated body was found by the
railroad tracks in downtown Pensacola; police guess suicide-by-train and are
trying to identify any relatives (and, no, they're not looking for a family
of headless people) [Pensacola News Journal] . . . . . Jacksonville football
star Leon Washington (of FSU, now New York Jets) is in trouble for posing
for a trading card photo with what looks to be a middle-finger salute, but
he said he was making a three-finger salute (for "east"
Jacksonville, get it?) and two fingers were just out of the shot [Washington
Post] . . . . . The St. Petersburg Times continues to mention this
story while mysteriously omitting all-important details: Two Madeira Beach
inventors of a "sex toy" are continuing to sue a "Clearwater sex shop" for
ripping off their design [St. Petersburg Times, 11-16-2006, not online, that
Yr Editor can find].

This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2006.