PRESIDENT'S NIECE IS FACING NEW DRUG PROBE

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush's 25-year-old daughter was found with what
was believed to be crack at a drug rehab center where she was undergoing
court-ordered treatment, police said.

If confirmed, it would be Noelle Bush's second lapse since entering rehab
and could result in jail.

Police late Monday were called to the Center for Drug Free Living in
Orlando, where workers gave them a 0.2-gram rock they said they found in the
shoe of President Bush's niece, Sgt. Orlando Rolon said.

The rock tested positive for cocaine in a police field test, but Bush wasn't
immediately arrested because police couldn't get staff members at the rehab
center to cooperate and give sworn statements, Rolon said.

A patient had called police, but staffers tried to persuade the authorities
to let the center follow its standard policy of handling the matter
internally, Rolon said.

A spokeswoman for the center, Joan Ballard, refused to comment.

The governor said in Tallahassee: "This is a private issue as it relates to
my daughter and myself and my wife. The road to recovery is a rocky one for
a lot of people that have this kind of problem."

Noelle Bush's lawyer, Dean Cannon, didn't return calls seeking comment. She
was arrested in January at a pharmacy drive-through window on charges of
trying to buy the anti-anxiety drug Xanax with a fraudulent prescription.
She was admitted to the treatment center a month later, with the possibility
that charges would be dropped if she completed the program.

In July, she was found with prescription drugs that had been taken from a
cabinet at the rehab center. She spent three days in jail before being
allowed to return to rehab.

State Attorney's Office spokesman Randy Means said if Bush is charged with
drug possession, she could be kicked out of treatment and prosecuted on the
fraudulent-prescription charge, punishable by up to five years in prison and
a $5,000 fine.

Possession of less than 10 grams of cocaine carries the same penalty.