Maine

President joins dad for holiday weekend

President Bush began a long family weekend by hooking a drive off the first tee of a golf course and hooking a fish in the chilly waters of the Atlantic Ocean near his parents’ coastline estate.

Wearing blue sunglasses that mirrored cloudy skies, Bush and his father climbed aboard a white speedboat named “Fidelity II” and went fishing Friday just off Kennebunk Beach. Dad drove.

The president grimaced a few times, flicking his fishing rod in disgust, but soon scored a striped bass. After taking it off his hook, Bush leaned over and gently released the fish — about a foot long — back into the waters.

Bush, joined by first lady Laura Bush and their twin daughters, is spending four nights at his parents’ home at Walker’s Point. He arrived here Thursday evening after stopping in Connecticut to make a speech about Medicare. He leaves Monday for New Jersey, where he will make remarks to the business community before returning to the White House.

Miami

FBI agents discover missing Oscar statuette

FBI agents on a drug investigation were startled to find one of three missing Oscars stolen three years ago from a loading dock in Los Angeles, authorities said Friday.

The statuette, found Thursday, has been verified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of 55 stolen after they were shipped from their Chicago manufacturer to Los Angeles, the FBI said.

Fifty-two of the gold-plated statuettes were recovered next to a trash bin nine days after the theft — but three remained missing.

“There’s still two out there,” FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said Friday.

She said the statuette was found in the Fort Lauderdale area. She declined to say who had it because the investigation is ongoing.

Three California men pleaded no contest in the March 2000 heist.