Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell released pieces from a
remarkable e-mail from Wesley Snipes, who has been hard to reach since his
indictment in Tampa last month for evading $11m in federal income tax via a
lame loophole "discovered" by people you wouldn't trust to explain how a
toothbrush works, much less tax law. Why did the feds indict you, Wesley?
"[T]hey were trying to steal the Florida house, it's a lot deeper than that!
This is the second attempt, after the failure in New York with that
paternity lie, they've come after me." Yr Editor agrees. Those "they" guys
are dangerous as hell. (Alternative explanation: Ten tax "experts" say
domestic income is not taxable; virtually all federal and state judges,
legislators and law professors since the tax was enacted say it is.) Wesley's
problem is that actors getting $13m a picture always have in their entourage
at least one competent suck-up advising them, but not Wesley.
[Orlando Sentinel]

Yo, A Note From C-Weird (Yr Editor) The F State, which normally publishes Monday through Friday, will
be on hiatus until Monday, November 27. It's not that nothing stupid will
happen in Florida until then; it's just that you probably have better things
to think about.

Lethal Injection for Her Is Out, But All Other Punishments
Are on the Table Pinellas-Pasco judge Crockett Farnell ordered a hearing December 14 at which
Dept. of Children and Families chief Lucy Hadi must show why she should
avoid being held in contempt of court for deliberately ignoring state law
and court orders. Yr Editor suggests jailing her in one of the cells with
mentally ill prisoners, who by state law should be there no more than 15
days before being transferred to a mental health facility, which DCF says it
can't do because it has no vacant beds [The F State, 11-16-2006,
11-17-2006]. Of course the reason it has no beds is because the current
governor decided when he first took office that he'd save money by closing
one of the four state hospitals and getting chintzy with the others. Hadi
told the Miami Herald that no one could have predicted the huge, recent wave
of mentally ill arrestees (which might be true but is barely relevant
because Hadi and her predecessors have been blatantly violating the law for
years, only with not as many victims). Hadi's mouthpiece, Al Zimmerman, said
"The secretary being led off in handcuffs is not going to help add more beds
. . .." (Is he crazy? If Judge Farnell says she doesn't sleep in her own bed
until the mentally ill prisoners get their beds, things will get fixed
rather quickly.) [Miami Herald] [St. Petersburg Times]

Florida's Crisis in Technology Moves from the Voting Machine
to the Intoxilyzer 8000 Sarasota County judge David Denkin said no this week to his 300 defendants
challenging their .08-and-above readings on the often-unreliable Intoxilyzer
8000, but it's not over yet in Sanford, where a judge is still mulling
whether DUI defendants are entitled to examine the machine's computer code
to prove its flaws. (The company won't release the code voluntarily because
it's a trade secret, it says.) Statewide, there are hundreds more holding
out on appeal. A defense attorney stood firm: "They [can't] use flawed
software to prove someone is guilty." A Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement
spokesperson said any problem that exists is associated only with the Intox
8000. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune] [WFTV-TV (Orlando)]

More Things To Worry About Today Devil-may-care incumbent Gary Siplin of Orlando took his Senate seat in
Tallahassee this week, even though he is a freshly convicted felon (misusing
taxpayer funds), because he needn't step down until his appeals are
exhausted [Orlando Sentinel] . . . . . While the Florida head of the Latin
Kings is locked up for ordering a beatdown in Tampa, police in Port
Charlotte arrested a member (on "inactive" status, he said) of the even more
vicious Salvadoran MS-13 gang [Tampa Tribune] [WBBH-TV (Fort Myers)] . . . .
. . Yikes! A "fast-spreading, highly lethal disease that turns a [citrus]
tree's leaves yellow and its juice rancid, then kills the tree in as few as
five years. Citrus greening, carried by the Asian citrus psyllid, a flying
insect slightly bigger than a gnat" has spread to 12 Florida counties in
just over a year. [St. Petersburg Times]

This article appears in Nov 22-28, 2006.