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Coast guard rescues four men and a dog

By TIMES WIRES
Published December 23, 2006

When water poured over the stern of their 93-foot recreational tugboat Chelsea and it began sinking, four men and a dog abandoned ship and inflated a survival raft Thursday. Coast Guard air crews were able to locate them after they fired a signal flare and sent the cutter Key Biscayne to their rescue, 14 miles northwest of Dry Tortugas National Park.

TALLAHASSEE

Governor leaves Capitol office for the last time

With the family cat in tow, Gov. Jeb Bush headed Friday for the next chapter of his life, leaving his Capitol office for a holiday trip to South Florida with no plans to return to the office.

Gov.-elect Charlie Crist takes over Jan. 2. Bush will return to Tallahassee that day to attend the inauguration.

Bush's wife, Columba, joined him at the airport, carrying the cat, Sugar, onto a state plane.

Bush, who plans to live in Coral Gables in the Miami area, said he's not sure exactly what is next. "I'm going to take some time off, hopefully do a little fishing, golfing, resting, reading, exercising. And I've got to make a living, so I'll figure it out probably in January," he told reporters before boarding the plane.

Bush, who has been governor since 1999, has joked that fully adjusting to private life will take a while. He said he was buying furniture for his new place when he caught himself trying to suggest a better way the furniture store could do things.

And he will miss the ease of living in the Governor's Mansion, he said this week: "Most of the time, most people, you know, you take showers and you use towels like six or seven times before you put the next one out. Here, although I've been trained to do otherwise, it's any time I want, I can have a new towel."

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

Botched execution decried at Diaz funeral

A Puerto Rican man whose botched execution in Florida renewed opposition to the death penalty was buried Friday in a ceremony attended by about 100 people.

Angel Nieves Diaz, condemned for killing a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, was given a second dose of deadly chemicals as he took more than half an hour to die on Dec. 13.

Family members said they hoped the case would boost the campaign against capital punishment.

"God chose my uncle to change history," said Jackeline Nieves. "Now the death penalty isn't seen as something normal. It's seen as the worst, most inhumane method."

PANAMA CITY

Four people killed in small plane crash

Four people died when a twin-engined Cessna Golden Eagle 421, en route from Destin to the Bahamas for Christmas, crashed about 20 miles north of here during a thunderstorm Friday.

Washington County sheriff's officers and aviation authorities were investigating.

[Last modified December 23, 2006, 00:46:02]