My legal eagle, Riley, has kept me abreast of the latest breakdown in the institution called government here. Florida is no different than any other state in its financial woes, it just flaunts it better as always. A state split between a southern half that produces most of the wealth and a northern half that spends it with abandon, it is the most likely state to break apart and go to war with each other since the Civil War.

Yesterday, Dade County public defender, Public Defender Bennett Brummer, announced that the state has so underfunded his department that it would start refusing most felony cases. Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein (of the popular news show, "Help Me Howard" is considering a similar measure.
''No public defenders office can provide effective assistance because we are overwhelmed with cases and have inexperienced lawyers and have high turnover,'' Finkelstein said. ``There is a line as public defenders we cannot walk across. The judicial system is crumbling.''

So, thousands of accused will now be languishing in the Netherworld of the "Justice" system, while politicians dance to magnificent projects like the Great Tunnel to connect the port with the highway and--of course--a new stadium for football fans. Each have about as likely a chance of being funded as at bridge to the moon, but no one cares; it is better to underfund public defenders and grease the palms of public leaches. This is the most corrupt and scandalous county in the nation. Some day, some one will do something about it, but I don't think it will be done without mob violence.