JEB BUSH'S DAUGHTER FACES DRUG PROBE

ORLANDO, Fla. - Noelle Bush, the daughter of Florida's governor, Jeb Bush,
and a niece of President Bush, was under investigation yesterday for
cocaine possession while attending a drug treatment center, Orlando police
said.

Noelle Bush, 25, has had several brushes with the law over drugs this year
and is serving a mandatory term at a drug rehabilitation center in Orlando.

Police were called to the center Monday evening to investigate a complaint
that Noelle Bush "was in possession of 2 grams of a small, white-rock
substance," and a field test showed it was cocaine, said a police
spokesman, Sergeant Orlando Rolon.

The matter remained under investigation, and Noelle Bush has not been
charged. Rolon said she might not face charges if the judge overseeing her
case decides to intervene.

Noelle Bush spent three days in jail in July after violating the terms of a
drug treatment program. The treatment was ordered after she was arrested in
the state capital, Tallahassee, in January for allegedly trying to buy the
antianxiety drug Xanax using a false prescription.

"In this case I'm not a governor; I'm a dad," her father told reporters in
Orlando, where he attended a meeting on the state's security.

"All I can do is pray. She needs to change," he said. "She needs to accept
responsibility. She knows we love her."

The incident occurred as Florida Democrats voted in a primary yesterday to
pick who will run against Jeb Bush in the November election. The
front-runners in the Democratic primary are Janet Reno, who was US attorney
general in the Clinton administration, and Tampa lawyer Bill McBride.