Clifford Clift, left, and David MacDonald, right. (credit: MUFON)

But the organization’s structure change isn’t the only major activity recently reported by MUFON.

MUFON Headquarters, currently based in Greeley, Colorado, will be relocating to Ohio. Roger Marsh of Examiner.com explains:

MacDonald will move MUFON International Headquarters to Cincinnati, OH, where he operates Global Airline Education Center and Campus. Being centrally located, the International Headquarters will be easily accessible to many more members. Cincinnati is within a 6-hour drive for 60 percent of the population of the United States.

Clift is asking everyone to have patience during this transition period. He recently stated, “Keep your eyes on the sky and let’s all welcome Mr. David MacDonald as MUFON’s new International Director.”

Clifford Clift will be speaking at the International UFO Congress on Wednesday, February 22 in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Atlas V rocket launching the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (credit: NASA/KSC)

According to the Huffington Post, a partnership was announced on Monday between NASA and Colorado-based United Launch Alliance (ULA). The two will share data, as NASA evaluates ULA’s Atlas V rocket to determine whether or not the rocket can safely launch a manned craft into space.

The Denver Post reports that, “If human certification is determined, an Atlas V-powered private spacecraft could be launched ‘by mid-decade,’” according to Ed Mango, program manager of NASA’s commercial crew development program.

NASA already has a contract with another rocket company, SpaceX. NASA is going full-steam-ahead, working with several companies to ensure the exploration of the universe moves forward. But as the Denver Post points out, “ULA is the first rocket company to join NASA in studying the capabilities and limitations of its vehicles.”

Chuck Zukowski (image credit: PostInteractive.net)

Manuel Sanchez, a rancher outside of the town of San Luis, Colorado suffered the loss of four calves due to mysterious mutilations in 2009, and this month he has lost another.

The string of mutilations in 2009 began with a fury in March with two animals on three different ranches in and around the San Luis Valley dying of mysterious causes. Authorities, including the local branding inspector, and ranchers could not determine how the animals were killed. In each case there were no signs of a struggle, nor a speck of blood nearby, indicators of a predator kill. The deaths didn’t end in March; by the end of 2009 eight animals were killed, four of those belonging to Sanchez.

Upset with the authorities’ inability to explain what happened to his animals, and feeling helpless to stop the killings, Sanchez sold off his remaining calves in 2009. His animals have been safe up until this month, when on May 17 he found one of his missing adult female cows apparently mutilated similarly to the calves in 2009.

The 2009 wave was investigated by Chuck Zukowski, micro-chip engineer and paranormal investigator out of Colorado Springs. Sanchez informed Zukowski of this new animal and invited him out to take a look. When they got to the animal, they found it had been burnt. A nearby rancher that also uses the land where the animal was found burnt the animal. It is a standard practice in the area to keep dogs and other animals from picking at it and possibly spreading disease. Although the animal was burnt, this was mostly just on the outside of the carcass. It luckily had not been incinerated.

Zukowski examines the carcass. (image credit: PostInteractive.net)

Upon inspection, as with the earlier cases, there were no signs of a struggle, nor splattering of blood, so it didn’t look like a predator had killed it. They also noted that the animal’s tracks leading to the area looked normal, the animal’s pace was not abnormal and did not indicate that it was having problems walking. It appeared that the cow just fell over, with no indication as to why or how it died. There was also a missing area of hide under the animal, exposing the rib cage. Zukowski measured the missing hide to be 27 by 42 inches.

Because the animal had been burnt, any tissue samples would not have been helpful. However, Zukowski did measure for abnormal EMF, and also scanned it with a magnetic wand, but the readings were not unusual.

Zukowski and Miller were left with no answers. In the past Zukowski has worked with a veterinary professor out of Colorado State University, and although they are willing to perform a necropsy and examine samples, the animal needs to be found within a couple of days of its death. That is obviously difficult, as is transporting an animal, and of course the burning of the carcass further hampers analysis.

Cattle mutilations often happen in small waves, as was demonstrated in 2009, so it is possible another one may occur in the area soon. Hopefully, the rancher affected seeks help and is able to get in touch with Zukowski, until then he will be ready and waiting.

You can read more about this case at UFONut.com, and in the video below.

Denver Mayoral Election Tally (image credit: Denver Post)

Denver held its mayoral election yesterday, and although Peckman made a lot of big news and won the support of a popular Denver radio host, he was only able to secure .7% of the vote. Peckman received just shy of 800 votes overall, but didn’t come in last, candidate Ken Simpson was only able to muster a few more than 500 votes, putting him at the bottom of the heap.

Peckman gained national media attention last year with his ballot initiative for the city of Denver to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission. It did not pass, however ETs were not the primary focus of his mayoral platform. He also held progressive views on public safety, education, job creation, city budgets, medical marijuana, and government transparency.

Many assumed his bid for mayor was a publicity campaign for his extraterrestrial beliefs, but the media soon learned that Peckman had a genuine interest in making the city a better place. With an amenable demeanor and friendly approach, he won over many journalists and fellow candidates, as was exemplified with the local Fox News piece on Peckman’s mayoral campaigne titled, Praised by rivals, ‘UFO Guy’ fights for relevance in Denver mayor’s race.

Last minute supporters

Jeff Peckman (image credit: Alejandro Rojas)

On April 28, Peckman announced that he had received official support from Earth Day founder, John McConnell, and on May 2, he posted a press release announcing the support of U.S. Senator Dean Barkley of Minnesota. “Jeff will give the city a fresh new look and is free to solve the city’s problems with an independent approach free from typical party restraints.” Barkley wrote in the release, “If Jeff wins the primary, I would love to join his team and help him become Denver’s next mayor.” In 1988 Barkley chaired the gubernatorial race for Jesse Ventura, host of Tru TV’s Conspiracy Theory, and ex-WWF wrestler.

What’s next for Jeff?

He told me he will need to rest and think on that, but he does want to follow up with the other candidates on aspects of his platform they expressed interest in. He says he made some great contacts with key people in the community. Ever the optimist, Peckman sounded excited for the positive support he  received.

He also turned me on to a Denver Post article which included a quote he is particularly proud of:

When told he had 457 votes in the first count, Peckman expressed surprise. “Really?” he said. “My problem is none of my supporters are from this planet. That’s my downfall. When I run for ambassador of the universe, I’m the man.”

To keep up to date on his future endeavors, visit Jeff Peckman’s website.

South Park City, an 1880's re-creation located in the town of Fairplay, Colorado. (image credit: D.Broberg)

South Park in Colorado is an area made famous by the cartoon of the same name, but few know about its UFO legacy and the lights seen in the sky referred to by locals as “Little Buddy.”

If you take the scenic route through the mountains from Denver to the San Luis Valley, you will pass through Park County, home to three large mountain valleys, South Park, Middle Park, and North Park. There is no longer a town named South Park, but in Fairplay, the largest town in the county, there is a re-creation of an 1880’s town called South Park City.

One of the creators of the cartoon grew up in a town 40 miles towards Denver along this route. The town in the cartoon most resembles Fairplay, where you can find stores selling South Park cartoon trinkets.

Denver City Buzz Examiner, Richard Blake, used to work for the Park County Republican and Fairplay Flume newspapers, in one of his Examiner columns he mentions covering UFO sightings in the area in the late 70’s and early 80’s. He writes,

It seemed like just about everyone in town had seen UFOs at one time or another.  A lot of folks had developed theories as to why the UFOs were present in such numbers.  One of the most common was that the large deposits of uranium in the area were of interest to extraterrestrials.  One area just north of Fairplay, known as Reinecker Ridge, was the scene of enough UFO sightings that many locals supposed the area must house some sort of UFO base.

Perhaps it is no wonder that the South Park cartoon often has UFO references, including the first episode titled, Cartman Gets an Anal Probe.

The South Park Mercantile shop in Hartsel, Colorado. (image credit: Steve Garufi)

I first heard about the South Park UFOs from my friend Rick Nelson, who holds a monthly meeting featuring various lecturers called the Paranormal Research Forum. He was told that there were so many sightings that there is a store in the town of Hartsel called The South Park Mercantile that sells UFO merchandise.

Suzie Jones (image credit: Rick Nelson)

Rick and I decided to go find out more. He called the store’s owner, Suzie Jones, who arranged for UFO witnesses in the area to be on hand to let us video tape some interviews. We brought along a South Park cartoon enthusiast, Chuck Zukowski, who also happens to be a paranormal investigator in Colorado Springs, which was the direction the UFOs were seen. We also brought our friend Sarah Daniels, who has an interest in the subject and wanted to help out.

On a beautiful Saturday in May 2007, we headed to Hartsel. I was surprised to find a whole array of South Park UFO merchandise, including T-shirts, hats, mugs, etc. Although she was a little camera shy, the store’s proprietor, Jones, was very accommodating. She says the locals refer to the UFO as “Little Buddy” and will come in to tell her about the latest “Little Buddy” sightings. Several locals came to tell us their stories which were all fairly similar. They reported seeing lights usually to the east and slightly north towards Cheyenne Mountain, which looms over Colorado Springs. Until recently this mountain was the headquarters of Air Force Space Command and still houses an underground complex partially used for the monitoring of space.

Witnesses said the objects were usually bright points of light that would sit in one place for hours on end, and then eventually zoom off at high speeds. Some people reported only seeing the UFO once while others reported seeing them quite often and on a regular basis. One gentleman said he would often see them in the warmer parts of the year when he was out enjoying his hot tub at night.

The small town of Hartsel, Colorado. (image credit: Andreas F. Borchert)

A Google map of the area. Hartsel is marked by the red marker.

A few guys, who were spending a day out fishing, came in to restock on beer. They had obviously gone through quite few cold ones up until this point. While shopping they asked what we were up to, a couple of them were shocked that others had seen UFOs because they had also seen “Little Buddy”. The more impatient members of their party waited outside wondering what the heck this was all about.

Along with the fishermen, we spoke to around 7 or 8 witnesses. We were impressed that a town which boasts a population of 677 people would have so many UFO witnesses willing to share their stories.

Our investigation team choosing a spot for our night sky watch. From left: Rick Nelson, Chuck Zukowski, Sarah Daniels, Alejandro Rojas. (image credit: Rick Nelson)

That night we set up cameras to try to get a glimpse of “Little Buddy” ourselves. The night skies in the high Rocky Mountain planes are spectacular, with or without UFOs. Unfortunately, this evening we were without. We did notice how the valley is a bit raised giving a very distant panoramic view. There sure was a lot of sky to see. Satellites and shooting stars were very visible, but we didn’t see any reason why people might mistake these for something paranormal. Hoping for an extraordinary experience of our own that evening, it was easy to imagine just how incredible a UFO encounter would be in the crystal clear skies above us.

After reviewing the Mutual UFO Networks (MUFON) reporting database, it does not appear there are an abnormal amount of sightings reported in the South Park area, although people out there might not know that MUFON exists, and they seem much more prone to report their sightings to Suzie Jones. Zukowski, who was also a MUFON investigator in Colorado Springs at the time, says he was unable to find an inordinate amount of sightings reported on the west side of Cheyenne Mountain towards South Park. However, with the mountain being around 50 miles away, their “Little Buddy” could just be closer than they had estimated.

My South Park UFO T-shirt.

As a Colorado native and a UFO investigator who has lectured on UFOs and Colorado, it was surprising for me to find a small town with a UFO history that seemed virtually unknown outside of South Park, even though they had T-shirts. I now own one of those T-shirts, to help spread the word, although no one has ever asked me what the T-shirt was all about, they just figure it is another one of my weird UFO shirts.

I wonder if there are other towns out there with their own secret UFO history. If you happen to know of such a place, email me and let me know, we would love to share their story with the rest of the world and maybe even help them out with their T-shirt sales.

Triangle formation seen above Lafayette, CO (credit: Leroy van der Vegt)

But as Radford points out, “Of course it’s also possible that aliens visited Colorado last week in a spacecraft that just happens to look like road flares tied to balloons . . .” The disappearance of lights by a gradual “fading away” doesn’t prove that flares were tied to balloons in this case, even though hoaxes involving balloons and road flares have been proven in the past. While further evidence to support the theory may surface in the future, for now, the lights still remain unidentified.

Triangle formation seen above Lafayette, CO (credit: Leroy van der Vegt)

A triangular formation of lights was seen hovering above Lafayette, Colorado, and the event was captured on video by Leroy van der Vegt and his son, Nick. The three solid red lights hovered silently in the sky, according to van der Vegt. There were several witnesses to the UFO event. ABC News reportedly called the Federal Aviation Administration, but the FAA declined to comment on the UFO. Good Morning America even visited Lafayette, CO. to investigate the sighting. Perhaps the most in-depth coverage of this sighting has been done by UK newspaper the Daily Mail, illustrating the international coverage of the event.

While the media currently gives more attention to the UFO subject than has been the case in recent years, hundreds of UFO sightings are reported by witnesses every week around the world, which go largely unnoticed by most media outlets.

Chuck Zukowki (image credit: Alejandro Rojas)

On February 11, 2011 two deputies went to the home of Chuck Zukowski to relieve him of his badge, gun and ID, handing him a termination letter ending his eight year stint as a reserve sheriff’s deputy in El Paso County, Colorado. The letter begins, “The termination is a result of you conducting paranormal and unidentified flying object investigations into animal mutilations…”

Zukowski has been conducting paranormal investigations for decades, many of which are documented on his website, www.ufonut.com. He is also a family man and successful microchip engineer. However, for the last eight years he has put aside time to help out the El Paso County Sherriff’s Department as a volunteer reserve deputy.

Lately Zukowski’s paranormal investigations have been getting more press. He lectures all over the country on Roswell and conducts ghost investigations, but the sheriff department’s point of contention came with a string of mysterious cattle/horse mutilations in Colorado that Zukowski investigated.

According to the sheriff’s department Zukowski publicly contradicted and was critical of their findings in relation to a horse mutilation in Rush Colorado in August of 2010. In an article by TheHorse.com regarding the Rush mutilations, it stated that the horse’s owner and Zukowski disagreed with the sheriff department’s conclusion that the death was due to “animal activity.” Furthermore, Zukowski’s website pointed out that deputies are not trained for these sorts of investigations. He says he offered to conduct training, but was turned down.

Zukowski on duty. (image credit: Chuck Zukowski)

The sheriff’s department’s termination letter also stated, “Although you have claimed not to have represented yourself as a Sheriff’s Office Reserve Deputy, the media reports allude to you as ‘volunteer El Paso County Sheriff’s Department deputy.’” Zukowski says he has never told the press his credentials as a reserve deputy, and he is not responsible for their inclusion of that fact.

In a recent story by News First 5, they looked into what provision of the county’s rules of conduct Zukowski may have violated. They say that they “discovered one provision that limits employees from criticizing the sheriff’s office. However, the rule doesn’t extend to off-duty, private conversations.”

Zukowski wonders, “Is having a volunteer deputy sheriff running UFO/Paranormal investigations on his personal time considered an eye sore to the Sheriff’s department? So much so, that they want him out of their department?”

There are many people in law enforcement conducting paranormal investigation off-duty. Their skill set and experience is invaluable when it comes to collecting evidence. For the sake of paranormal investigation, hopefully this sort of news does not deter others from their quest to seek answers into the unknown.

More on the details regarding Zukowski’s dismissal can be found at his website.

Jeff Peckman (image credit: OpenMinds.tv)

Thus far Jeff Peckman’s grass-roots efforts to make controversial changes in the city of Denver have not come to fruition, however that doesn’t keep him from trying. The man who garnered worldwide media attention with his campaign to create an extraterrestrial relations committee, says his mayoral campaign “will incinerate lame excuses that have been used at all levels of government that have lead to failing education, high crime, poor health, a polluted environment, and an underperforming economy.”

Prior to his ET committee, Peckman had successfully gotten on the ballot an initiative to create stress release programs for city officials. Although neither of his initiatives received enough votes to be enacted, for each he was able to collect thousands of signatures. He only needs three hundred signatures to get his name on the list of candidates for mayor.

Peckman is not running on an extraterrestrial platform, his website outlines 6 areas of focus: public safety, education, jobs, city budget, medical marijuana, and transparency. As one could image, he is taking a novel approach to each. For example, he feels jobs could be created by building a spaceport in Denver, such as the one being built in the desert in New Mexcio. He also believes jobs and revenue can be increased by making Denver a forerunner when it comes to clean energy development, and sustainable building technologies.

An image from Peckman's appearance on David Letterman.

Peckman doesn’t leave UFOs and extraterrestrials completely out of the equation, in his goal for government transparency, he says “I will speak out on issues like bank bailouts and the Federal Reserve, 9/11 and Building #7; GMOs, chemtrails and HAARP, and also  ‘UFOs’ and extraterrestrial visitors.”

In an article by the Denver Daily news, they asked Peckman if he thought people will take him seriously.  He answered, “They’re always going to think that (I’m a nutty guy,) but nobody has told any truth that didn’t get ridiculed or resisted in some way, and yet many of those truths prevailed and were the foundation for progress for humanity.”

With the Huffington Post already posting a story about his bid for mayor, Peckman will definitely get media attention. Whether he can turn that into a successful campaign for mayor, may depend on your measure of success. The Tea Party has demonstrated that unconventional methods and perspectives can generate a lot of unexpected support. We’ll see if Peckman can do the same.

Mutilated male horse (credit: Chuck Zukowski)

The mutilated animals were 260 feet apart, but in the same directional position. An eye was missing from each horse, and their tongues appeared to have been surgically removed. There was an incision in the middle of the female horse’s breast area, and the penis was removed from the male horse. According to the ranchers, the cuts on the body of the male horse appeared to have been made by a laser, accompanied by burn marks and a “burn type smell.”

Circular mark on the surviving horse's nose (credit: Chuck Zukowski)

The ranchers’ dog also showed a change in behavior after the incident, and he too has small lacerations.

With so many unanswered questions, Zukowski and his team will continue to investigate this ongoing case.

For more details about this case, watch the video below, or go to UFOnut.com.