Free Republic

BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. — A tiny bottle with a message inside traveled from Hawaii in ocean currents before being washed ashore in Bradenton Beach on Sunday and found by a girl visiting from Michigan. “It was in this tiny little glass bottle with cute little origami birds,” said Paris Hoisington, 31. “She was so surprised. Came running right towards me on the beach.” Hoisington said it’s every kid’s dream to find a message in a bottle at the beach. Her daughter, Josie Law, 11, said at first she thought it was a piece of trash floating in the water. “Then...

That gruesome sight in December 2015 soon became a crime scene, one that eventually implicated six students and recent graduates of a prestigious Honolulu prep school whose alumni include former president Barack Obama. While on a camping trip the night before the hiker’s arrival, authorities alleged, the boys and young men had hiked to the Ka’ena Point Natural Area Reserve and mercilessly slaughtered at least 15 Laysan albatrosses, federally protected birds that have been the focus of a 26-year-long conservation effort. Nearly a dozen of their eggs were crushed; six other eggs failed to hatch due to the death of...