Florida

Jeb Bush’s daughter sentenced for cocaine

Gov. Jeb Bush’s daughter was sentenced to 10 days in jail and led away in handcuffs Thursday after being accused of having crack cocaine in her shoe while in drug rehab.

Noelle Bush, 25, above right, kissed her aunt Dorothy Koch, above left, as a sheriff’s deputy cuffed her behind the back. Koch is the sister of President Bush and the governor, who was not in court.

Later, the governor said he did not attend the hearing because he did not want to bring more media attention to the case.

Orange County Jail spokesman Allen Moore said Noelle Bush would be kept in protective custody, away from other inmates and under 24-hour surveillance. After she gets out of jail, she will go back to the drug treatment center.

Baltimore

Neighbor faces murder, arson charges

A man was charged with first-degree murder and arson Thursday in a row house fire that killed five children and their mother, who had crusaded against neighborhood drug dealers.

Police said the suspect, Darrell Brooks, 21, lived near the three-story home where Angela Dawson and her children died early Wednesday. Dawson’s husband was in critical condition with third-degree burns and injuries suffered when he jumped from a second-story window.

The home had been firebombed Oct. 3, but the family escaped injury. The (Baltimore) Sun reported that the family declined an offer of witness protection.

A neighbor said Angela Dawson had argued for weeks with teen-age boys dealing drugs in front of their homes.

“They had words, they had confrontations. She was threatened,” Gerlena Jackson said.

Philadelphia

Anthrax-letter suspect enters innocent plea

A man who once said he was on a mission from God to kill abortion providers pleaded innocent Thursday to charges that he mailed anthrax hoax letters to women’s clinics throughout the country last fall.

Clayton Lee Waagner also pleaded innocent in federal court to posting a message on an anti-abortion Web site that said he had been following clinic employees home and was “going to kill as many of them as I can.”

Waagner, 45, who is already serving a federal sentence on other charges, will remain in custody. He was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list when he was captured in December.

Authorities said Waagner posted the Web site message and mailed at least 550 letters to women’s clinics in 24 states. The envelopes, printed with “Army of God,” contained a harmless white powder.

Ohio

Charges for sunburn dropped against mother

Prosecutors dropped charges against a woman who drew national attention when she was arrested and spent eight days in jail on charges she allowed her children to become severely sunburned.

Eve Hibbits, 31, had faced a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment.

“The children are being well taken care of, and we’re satisfied with that,” prosecutor Bryan Felmet said Thursday.

Hibbits was arrested Aug. 14, the day after a sheriff’s deputy noticed her 2-year-old daughter, Rose, and 10-month-old twin boys, Thomas and Timmy, had sunburned faces at the Jefferson County Fair.

Hibbits was initially charged with three counts of felony child endangerment, but the charges were reduced after authorities said the children were not as badly burned as they had believed.