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Bark Air, a new airline for dogs, will take its first flight Thursday
Bark Air, a new airline that puts dogs before their human companions, will take its first flight Thursday.
Bark, a pet company founded in 2011 that sells dog food and other products, announced the new aviation experience for canines in April. It’s the second air travel service to market itself as catering to pets before human passengers, recognizing how stressful and uncomfortable commercial air travel can be for animals. United Kingdom-based public charter operator K9 jets also lets passengers’ pets travel next to them in the aircraft cabin, versus in crates in commercial aircraft cargo holds.
“We are excited to take the insights we’ve learned over the years to create an experience that is truly dog-first, which is drastically different from just accepting dogs – from the ground to the skies,” Bark co-founder and CEO Matt Meeker said in April. “We believe this initiative will elevate awareness of our brand’s mission and values, introduce more dog lovers to the Bark family, and help enrich the lives of dogs and their people around the world.”
Joe GALL
The first flight from New York to Los Angeles Thursday is sold out, according to Bark’s booking website. The company said it launched the air travel experience to make long-distance travel more comfortable for dogs that don’t fit under the seats in front of passengers on commercial aircraft.
“Too often, dogs are denied travel, confined to a duffle bag, or endure the stress of flying in cargo,” the company said in announcing the flights in April.
Joe GALL
Bark Air says it will offer “white paw service” to its canine customers — who’ll even get to socialize with other dogs in what the company calls a “dog-centric” cabin configuration. Like first-class human passengers, dogs on board will be offered treats, noise-canceling ear muffs, a beverage of their choice and other surprises, the company said.
Initially, the service will fly between the New York City metro area and Los Angeles, as well as from New York to London. More routes will be added soon, the company said.
Bark Air will operate as a public charter service, flying on spacious Gulfstream G5 jets. It does not own or operate any aircraft. Each dog ticket comes with a pass for one human. Families may also purchase additional passes. Children under the age of 18 are not permitted aboard. There are no size or breed restrictions for dogs.
Joe GALL
Not cheap
The service doesn’t come cheap. A one-way flight from New York to Los Angeles in June costs $6,000 for one dog and one human. A New York to London ticket costs $8,000.
Meeker acknowledged the service’s high cost in a May letter, but said he expects prices to come down as demand climbs.
“This is cost-prohibitive for most families, but less expensive than most options today. And this is also how most innovative products and services began,” he said. “Televisions, telephones, VCRs and DVD players, to automobiles, train and boat travel, and, yes, even human air travel — all of these started with very high prices until demand was proven and the costs could be brought lower by serving the masses.”
CBS News
Israel retrieves bodies of 5 hostages believed killed during Oct. 7 Hamas attack, military says
Israeli forces recovered the bodies of five people believed to have been killed during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel and brought into the Gaza Strip, where they were being held hostage, the military said Thursday.
The army said the bodies of hostage Maya Goren as well as four soldiers had been returned to Israel. The troops were identified as Sgt. Oren Goldin, Staff Sgt. Tomer Ahimas, Sgt. Maj. Ravid Aryeh Katz and Sgt. Kiril Brodski.
The bodies were recovered on Wednesday during an operation in Khan Yunis, the main city in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said.
The military had announced Goren’s death in December.
The Hostages Families Forum / Handout via REUTERS
Thursday’s announcement came after two Israeli kibbutzim, Nir Oz and Nir Yitzhak, said in separate statements that the army had retrieved the bodies of Goren and Goldin.
“Last night, we were informed that in a military rescue operation, the body of the late Maya Goren was recovered,” kibbutz Nir Oz said, adding that her family had been informed and more information would follow. Goren was a 56-year-old kindergarten teacher.
Later, kibbutz Nir Yitzhak said the army had returned Goldin’s body.
“This evening, we were informed about the rescue operation for the late Oren Goldin, a member of the kibbutz emergency team, who fell on October 7 during the attack by Hamas militants,” Nir Yitzhak said.
On October 7, Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli communities, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom remain in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,145 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The Missouri Supreme Court halted the immediate release Wednesday of a man whose murder conviction was overturned — just as the man was about to walk free.
A St. Louis Circuit Court judge had ordered Christopher Dunn, now 52, to be released by 6 p.m. CDT Wednesday and threatened the prison warden with contempt if Dunn remained imprisoned. But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has been fighting Dunn’s release.
The situation was chaotic as the deadline set by the judge approached. Corrections Department spokesperson Karen Pojmann told The Associated Press that Dunn was out of the prison facility and waiting for a ride. His wife told the AP she was on his way to pick him up. Minutes later, Pojmann corrected herself and said that while Dunn was signing paperwork to be released, the Missouri Supreme Court issued a ruling that put his freedom on hold.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser overturned Dunn’s murder conviction Monday, citing evidence of “actual innocence” in the 1990 killing. He ordered Dunn’s immediate release then, but Bailey appealed, and the state Department of Corrections declined to release Dunn.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore had filed a motion Wednesday urging the judge to immediately order Dunn’s freedom.
“The Attorney General cannot unilaterally decide to ignore this Court’s Order,” Gore wrote.
An attorney for the Department of Corrections told a lawyer in Gore’s office that Bailey advised the agency not to release Dunn until the appeal plays out, according to a court filing. When told it was improper to ignore a court order, the Department of Corrections attorney “responded that the Attorney General’s Office is legal counsel to the DOC and the DOC would be following the advice of counsel.”
Dunn’s attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, the executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, expressed her frustration.
“What is this bringing to taxpayers in Missouri? What is this use of our resources and our state’s time getting us?” she said. “All it’s doing is keeping innocent people in prison.”
Dunn’s wife said while driving to the prison that they were numb when he didn’t get out earlier this week.
“If you know a little about the story, you know we’ve had a lot of disappointments where we thought we’d finally get his freedom and it was snatched away,” Kira Dunn said. “So we were just bracing ourselves.”
Dunn’s situation is similar to what happened to Sandra Hemme.
The 64-year-old woman spent 43 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a woman in St. Joseph in 1980. A judge on June 14 cited evidence of “actual innocence” and overturned her conviction. She had been the longest held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to the National Innocence Project, which worked to free Hemme.
Appeals by Bailey — all the way up to the Missouri Supreme Court — kept Hemme imprisoned at the Chillicothe Correctional Center. During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court with contempt of court on the table. Hemme was released later that day.
The judge also scolded Bailey’s office for calling the warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemme after he ordered her to be freed on her own recognizance.
Dunn, who is Black, was 18 in 1990 when 15-year-old Ricco Rogers was killed. Among the key evidence used to convict him of first-degree murder was testimony from two boys who were at the scene of the shooting. Both later recanted their testimony, saying they had been coerced by police and prosecutors.
At an evidentiary hearing in 2020, another judge agreed that a jury would likely find Dunn not guilty based on new evidence. But that judge, William Hickle, declined to exonerate Dunn, citing a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only death row inmates — not those like Dunn sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole — could make a “freestanding” claim of actual innocence.
A 2021 law now allows prosecutors to seek court hearings in cases with new evidence of a wrongful conviction.
Although Bailey’s office is not required to oppose such efforts, lawyers for his office said at the hearing that initial testimony from two boys at the scene who identified Dunn as the shooter was correct, even though they recanted as adults.
He also raised opposition at a hearing for Lamar Johnson, who spent 28 years in prison for murder. Another St. Louis judge ruled in February 2023 that Johnson was wrongfully convicted, and he was freed.
Another hearing begins Aug. 21 for death row inmate Marcellus Williams. Bailey’s office is opposing the challenge to Williams’ conviction, too. Timing is of the essence: Williams is scheduled to be executed Sept. 24.
Steven Puro, professor emeritus of political science at St. Louis University, said Bailey is in a highly competitive race for the attorney general position with the primary quickly approaching on Aug. 6.
“Bailey is trying to show that he is, quote, ‘tough on crime,’ which is a very important Republican conservative position,” he said. “Clearly, he’s angering members of the judicial system that he will have to argue before in the future. But he’s making the strategic notion that he needs to get his name before the voters and try to use that to win the primary election.”
Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court judge and chief justice, agreed, saying it seems this has become political for Bailey.
“But one of the things is that no matter what your beliefs are, if a court orders something to happen, it’s not your purview to say no,” he said. “The court has to be obeyed.”
The U.S. military intercepted several Russian and Chinese bombers in international airspace near the coast of Alaska Wednesday.
Two Russian Tu-95s and two Chinese H-6s entered what is known as the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement Wednesday night.
The aircraft were “detected, tracked and intercepted,” NORAD said. They remained in the Alaska ADIZ and did not enter U.S. airspace.
The bombers were intercepted by U.S. F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, along with Canadian CF-18s and other support aircraft, a U.S. defense official confirmed to CBS News.
The official said that this marks the first time ever that Russian and Chinese aircraft have jointly entered the Alaska ADIZ, and the first time Chinese H-6s have encroached off Alaska.
While the Alaska ADIZ is considered part of international airspace, it is defined as an area where sovereign U.S. airspace ends but “that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” according to NORAD.
The activity from the Russian and Chinese bombers was “not seen as a threat,” NORAD noted.
Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In February, the U.S. detected four Russian warplanes flying in the Alaska ADIZ, as was another Russian military aircraft in May 2023.
And in February 2023, Russian warplanes were intercepted there twice in one week. And that same month, a Chinese spy balloon was detected near Alaska before eventually making its way across the continental U.S. and being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
— Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
