TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush has decided not to pursue a plan that would eliminate advisory boards that oversee the distribution of the $2.5-billion Lawton Chiles Tobacco Endowment for Children and Elders.

Katie Baur, Bush's spokeswoman, made the announcement Monday, saying the governor would like to reach a compromise with board advocates who criticized him for the plan last week.

The panels were the result of a compromise reached last year between Rhea Chiles, Lawton Chiles' widow and a child advocate, and medical researchers, led by state Sen. Jim King. The Legislature, which added biomedical companies as a recipient of endowment funds despite protests from Bush, now gives children's health programs 50 percent of the funds and biomedical research 33.3 percent.

Insisting that he only wanted more money for quality health programs for children and the elderly, Bush wanted to get rid of the boards in favor of a state panel made up of himself, Comptroller Robert Milligan and Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher.

Mrs. Chiles and other child program advocates see the boards as a safeguard against the Legislature or the governor's trying to use the money for other programs.

The endowment was created from a $13-billion tobacco settlement in 1997 between the former governor and tobacco companies.

Indian's parents appear at trial, get subpoenaed

MIAMI -- The testimony of a Miccosukee Indian accused of drowning his two young sons was delayed Tuesday after his parents showed up in the courtroom and the prosecution subpoenaed them.

Prosecutors said they had previously been unable to depose Wayne and Margaret Billie, the parents of Kirk Douglas Billie, 32, who is being tried on charges that he murdered his sons by driving their mother's Chevrolet Tahoe into a canal as they slept on the back seat the night of June 27, 1997.

Billie claims he didn't know the boys were in the vehicle. Prosecutors are eager to talk to Billie's father on that point.

The elder Billie had a conversation with his son in a jail holding cell a few hours after the drownings, and prosecutors think the exchange could help shed light on whether Kirk Billie knew his sons were in the back seat.

The defendant Billie's testimony was delayed until this morning.

He faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of 3-year-old Keith and 5-year-old Kurt.

The 500-member Miccosukee tribe has tried to thwart the murder prosecution, refusing to allow subpoenas to be served on the reservation. Tribal elders say the drownings were addressed under tribal law and that Billie has been forgiven.

Botched robbery keeps Publix, school closed

MIAMI -- Three men were arrested Tuesday after a botched robbery that kept police at bay outside a north Miami-Dade County Publix for more than eight hours, shutting down the store and a nearby high school.

The three suspects abducted Publix manager Lisa Carmouze outside her home at 2:45 a.m. and forced her at gunpoint to drive to the grocery store, Miami-Dade police said.

"Two of the men currently work or had worked at Publix," said Rudy Espinosa, Miami-Dade police spokesman. "They obviously know her routine."

Once at the store, the trio locked Carmouze in a restroom. They did not know she had a cellular phone. She used it to call 911.

Police arrived in a few minutes and found Carmouze okay.

Two of the suspects, Craig Hebbert, 20, of Miami Lakes and Ricardo Fernandez, 20, of North Miami ran to a nearby apartment building and hid in an elevator shaft, where police dogs sniffed them out, Espinosa said.

The third suspect, Kawayna Williamson, 19, stayed holed up in the supermarket, prompting an eight-hour standoff that kept the store and nearby American Senior High School closed throughout the day. Police finally forced him out with tear gas just before 3 p.m.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk