Open Minds UFO Radio: Lee Speigel is a writer for the Huffington Post and works at the Weird News desk.

A lot of news is being made today about President Obama mentioning Area 51 last night at a reception celebrating the 2013 Kennedy Center Honorees. However, Bill Clinton has also made reference to the secretive base in the Nevada desert just short of mention the name of the base, which at the time was still classified.

The tiny town of Rachel, Nevada, famous for its proximity to Area 51, has become even tinier in the last few years. According to a recent report by 8 News Now investigative reporter George Knapp, someone has bought up local businesses and shut them down, reducing the population by an estimated two-thirds.

• Probing Extraterrestrial Abduction – Public Radio East
• Reports of UFO sightings after strange photo at Fullabrook – North Devon Journal
• Author A.R. Roberts Releases New Study of UFOs - DigitalJournal.com
• Area 51; Seeking Aliens & Conspiracy Theories – The Costa Rican Times
• Best places to go UFO spotting around the world – AOL

This week 60 documents were released concerning secret Air Force projects, many of which refer to Area 51.

According to a tweet last night from KLAS Las Vegas 8 News Now investigative reporter George Knapp, the government shutdown has even affected the workers at Area 51, the top secret Air Force base in Nevada that is rumored to house crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Open Minds UFO Radio: John Greenewald has spent the last 17 years filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information on UFOs.

We discuss the recent developments with Element 115. We also discuss the passing of Jesse Marcel, Jr. That and other space and UFO news on this episode of Spacing Out!

AIR DATE: 9/6/13

Scientists are one step closer to confirming the super-heavy Element 115.

Open Minds UFO Radio: Joe Rogan, a comedian and actor, is also a self proclaimed life-long paranormal mystery addict. He has a new show on the Syfy Channel titled Joe Rogan Questions Everything, in which he explores the evidence for various paranormal phenomena. The latest episode was on UFOs and featured Open Minds editor and writer, Jason McClellan.

• Beyond Area 51: 16 Secret UFO Locations – truTV (removed by source)
• CIA: UFO Sightings in 50s, 60s Were of Spy Planes – Military.com
• Several Report Strange Lights Over Monroe – Monroe Evening News
• UFO Days in Fyffe; A festival that's out of this world - WAAY
• Is it a bird, a plane, a UFO? It's a...red sprite - Phys.Org

We discuss the recently re-released CIA documents that mention Area 51 by name. We also discuss alleged UFOs over a swimming pool in Florida. That and other space and UFO news on this episode of Spacing Out!

AIR DATE: 8/23/13

• UFO Sighting or Planets? Indian Army Spots Mysterious Object in Ladakh Skies Again – IBTimes India
• C.I.A. Acknowledges Area 51 Exists, but What About Those Little Green Men? – New York Times
• Petaluma mystery lights explained – Petaluma Argus Courier
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified: Is This Game A Government Conspiracy To Cover Up UFO Truth? - Huffington Post
• Alcohol, aliens and apocalypse - Montreal Gazette (removed by source)

• What other mysteries still lurk at Area 51? – MassLive.com
• The Ethics of Interstellar Alien Encounters – Discovery News
• Alien Life on Europa? Funding Gap Means We May Never Know – Yahoo!
• UFO? No, It's Venus - Discover Magazine
• Eastern Ky. residents not satisfied with Google's answer to flying object - WHAS 11

Bob Lazar’s claims that he worked on back-engineered extraterrestrial spacecraft near Area 51 catapulted the secretive base into the legendary status it now holds.

• UFO sightings? Believers say Area 51 truth is still out there – Christian Science Monitor
• More UFOs spotted over Whidbey Island skies – South Whidbey Record
• Mysterious UFO sighted in Ladakh on India-China border by army – India TV News
• UC Berkeley scientists seek signs of extraterrestrial intelligence - Daily Californian
• Mayor baffled by buried 'alien head' - Orange UK News

The National Security Archives at George Washington University have posted a document obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that finally officially acknowledges the existence of Area 51, although this is not the first official document to reference Area 51 and the CIA’s account of the U-2 and UFOs is not entirely accurate.

• CIA: The mysterious Area 51 exists! – USA Today
• SOS signal from UFO sows panic in Siberia – Pravda
• New York Skies: Flying Saucers – The Classic UFO – Syracuse New Times
• Jumping Cow Spotted In Suspicious British UFO Video - Huffington Post
• Aliens forget stuff on Earth: vibrating orb and other mysterious objects - The Voice of Russia

Bob Lazar is best known as the whistleblower that outed Area 51 and its extraterrestrial secrets. He claims to have been an employee there tasked with back engineering alien technology. In a recent email from his company, apparently he is now a science and technology consultant to Raytheon, and his company has contracts with the military.

Simon Pegg tweeted that he felt responsible for the imprisonment of a Chinese man who recently hoaxed an alien encounter that went viral. The hoaxer, Li Kai, says he was partially inspired by the movie, Paul, written by, and starring, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.