VORONEZH: A Personal Reappraisal of Russia’s Best Known CE3 Incident
Peter Robbins, for the Crash Retrieval Conference, Las Vegas, NV, November 6-8, 2009

(Thank you, and any opening remarks)

1. Tass News Wire, 10-9-89
On Monday October 9, 1989, the habitually pragmatic Soviet news agency Tass shocked many of us with a news release stating that “Scientists have confirmed that an unidentified flying object recently landed in a park in the Russian city of Voronezh.

BREAKING NEWS FROM MANHATTAN
From UFOcity.com:

Although this news service has confined itself to UFO and paranormal-related news stories in the past, I wanted to get out at least one personal report about this morning's events before closing up our office in midtown Manhattan for the day. I am a New Yorker and love this city. It is my home. I watched the World Trade Center towers being built floor by floor, photographing the process over the months of construction. I watched in awe as aerial daredevil Philippe Petite walked back and forth between the towers on a high wire, delighting passersby and (appropriately) upsetting the NYPD. Several years later I watched as another happy madman climbed straight up the side of one of the buildings. I also watched as a man parachuted off the complex into the waiting arms of our police. I was here when the complex was attacked in the early 90's. But both of these magnificent structures are gone now, and a good part of lower Manhattan is presently covered by smoke and in chaos. Several inches of fine ash cover the streets downtown as though some huge urban volcano has erupted. The New York State National Guard has been activated by the governor. From the Hudson River on Manhattan's west side, military jets and helicopters can be seen patrolling the skies over nearby Newark International Airport.

In December 1998 a new website, UFOcity.com , went online with little fanfare. Its objective was to make the most grounded and most complete coverage available on all aspects of the UFO question accessible to anyone interested in the subject. Over time its mandate grew to cover related areas of interest such as false ufological claims, developments in space exploration, commercial implant technology, future science, controversies in ancient and prehistory studies, as well as big brother issues. Run something like a daily newspaper, the site was updated five days a week with the latest relevant news and events from every corner of the globe. This July 23 however it posted its final article. It was a particularly reflective day for me. I’ve worked as UFOcity.com’s Editor-In-Chief from its inception to its final day. Moving on from this enjoyable responsibility has given me cause to be grateful to those who helped make the website a reality, and to recall some of our more noteworthy accomplishments.

This columnist’s work appears in print several months after the fact, and when appropriate or possible I try and write in advance of real-time events, on some upcoming UFO-related conference or symposium for example. But even at a time when the unpredictability of world events has a good percentage of the population regularly on edge, I remain confident that as this issue of UFO Magazine hits your newsstand or arrives in your mailbox we are again entering the zenith of presidential campaign season.