Morning News Bytes

Broward County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin used her public office to help her husband make big money. I know she did because I investigated it and broke the story that led to the ethics charges (thanks to a good citizen, Ray McKinney, who filed the complaint).

And for this obvious violation of the public trust, the ethics board fines her ... $1000. Net profit: Many thousands of dollars for Wasserman-Rubin, who still sits in office collecting an $84,000 annual paycheck (or something like that) off the public dime. But I don't have to rant about it this morning because Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo has written a most excellent piece about it in this morning's newspaper.

Ah, what else? Law enforcement is still under siege in South Florida, only now it's more of an internal thing. The female BSO sergeant who was all over the TV this weekend for being stabbed? Well, she stabbed herself (read Sofia Santana's story here). And two deputies in Palm Beach County were killed when a fellow deputy in a cruiser hit them during a chase. It's like the bad moon won't go away.

What else? Oh, the Herald's Natalie P. McNeal gives us the latest on the Fitzroy Salesman gun incident. Just to clear this up: The reason the Miramar commissioner isn't charged with a felony is because they apparently can't find the guy who Salesman drew his weapon on in the Winn Dixie checkout line. Without a victim, you got no felony (or so they say -- a case could possibly be made on the videotape alone). Now police are hunting for a victim and they have found one in an 18-year-old who was present during the wild west moment.