By Chris Boyette, CNN

(CNN) — A high-ranking retired US Air Force major general who once commanded a base long associated with UFO lore has been missing for nearly two weeks, and authorities are appealing to the public for help locating him, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, left his Albuquerque home on foot at approximately 11 a.m. February 27 and has not been in contact with family or friends since, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. His cell phone was left behind, the sheriff’s office told CNN.

The sheriff’s office issued a Silver Alert the next day, which remains in effect. An unspecified “medical issue” has added urgency to the search.

Authorities have conducted extensive neighborhood canvassing, interviews and coordinated search operations in an effort to find him. They contacted more than 600 homeowners in the neighborhood, the sheriff’s office said.

McCasland is 5-foot-11 with white hair and blue eyes, according to the sheriff’s office. He is “an avid outdoorsman” who hikes, runs and cycles in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights neighborhood and the Sandia Mountains foothills.

“Due to his background and established partnerships, BCSO is coordinating closely with multiple agencies,” including the FBI Albuquerque Field Office and Kirtland Air Force Base, the sheriff’s office said. The FBI has confirmed its involvement.

McCasland held some of the most sensitive positions in the US military, according to the Air Force. An astronautical engineer with degrees from the US Air Force Academy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, he held a series of high-level posts during his career.

He served as chief engineer on the Department of Defense’s Global Positioning System program, system program director of the Space Based Laser Project Office and director of special programs at the Pentagon. He also commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — a base long rumored to house extraterrestrial debris linked to Roswell, despite Air Force denials.

Following his retirement, McCasland worked with To The Stars, Inc., a company co-founded by Blink-182 musician Tom DeLonge that says it studies information about unidentified aerial phenomena.

CNN has reached out to the Air Force and McCasland’s family for comment.

His disappearance came just days after President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post he was directing the Pentagon and other federal agencies to release government records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs.

“I hope and pray this is not one of those cases where a former senior military officer was specifically targeted and that he will be found happy and healthy in the immediate near term for his sake and the sake of his loved ones,” Luis Elizondo, a former Department of Defe

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) - San Luis Obispo County is reporting a sharp decline in homelessness over the since 2022 when a multifaceted and coordinated strategic plan to address the ongoing issue was created.

During Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, leaders received an update on the County's Five-Year Plan to Address Homelessness, which covered a period between 2022 through 2027.

According to statistics provided by the San Luis Obispo County Homeless Services Division, there has been a 42% reduction in unsheltered homelessness since 2022.

"SLO County is making real progress because our staff, service providers, and community and
city partners are working together to expand housing and strengthen prevention and outreach
services,” said Jimmy Paulding, San Luis Obispo County District 4 Supervisor and Board Chair. "This is a direct result of our collaborative efforts to reduce drug addiction and fight the opioid crisis and address homelessness by expanding supportive housing, mental health services, and drug and alcohol treatment."

The County also said as it has passed the halfway point of it's five-year plan, it is on track to meet or exceed all of its stated goals, including the top-line objective of reducing homelessness by 50%.

"The reason this plan is working is because we have been working to build out our affordable housing and the report from our staff showed that we're really starting to meet those numbers, which is great," said Paulding. "We're also providing the interim and permanent supportive housing."

The County reports a number of both interim and permanent housing units have been built over the two-plus years since the Five-Year Plan was implemented, especially in the past year, including 316 affordable housing units, 63 permanent supportive housing beds and 16 interim shelter beds.

The County reported between 2023 and 2025, 556 affordable housing units have been added, an amount that is more than halfway toward the overall goal of creating 1,667 affordable units by 2027.

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GOELTA, Calif. (KEYT) – A UC Santa Barbara graduate student alongside a local nonprofit research group have advanced the frontiers of physics while studying a dying star exhibiting extraordinary behavior.

"Much effort goes into designing, building, and operating astronomical facilities. While the scientific endeavor typically moves in small steps, it is enormously rewarding for everyone involved when we get to
experience something that has never been seen before being revealed," explained Dr. Lisa Storrie-Lombardi, Director of the Las Cumbres Observatory headquartered in Goleta. "I’ve been doing this for 30 years and the only thing with an impact close to Farah’s result that I’ve been able to be a part of was the discovery nine years ago of 7 earth-sized planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1. Farah’s result is phenomenal."

Stars are fueled by a fusion reaction at their cores and throughout their existence, heat pushes outwards away from their cores and against the force of gravity pushing inward in a balance of forces that create the stars we see in the night sky.

Once the star burns through its fuel, it begins to cool and the pressure pushing back against gravity that keeps it stable, gets weaker.

When massive stars, at least eight times the size of our sun, run out of fuel, their cores collapse suddenly under the pressure of gravity and a huge explosion known as a supernova occurs.

These extremely bright celestial explosions can last for about a week and over the following several months, the gases involved cool and fade in brightness explains the Las Cumbres Observatory.

A rare class of supernova explosions discovered less than 20 years ago, known as superluminous supernovae, are ten to a hundred times brighter than a standard supernova and the power behind these recently discovered phenomena has remained a mystery.

In addition to their extremely bright nature, these superluminous supernovae also often have strange bumps or observable surges in their brightness that defy our current understanding of physics.

In 2024, the ATLAS survey system discovered a supernova about a billion light-year away, referred to as SN 2024afav, and for the next 200 days, the Goleta-headquartered Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) conducted a full suite of observations to capture the slightest surge over the course of the supernova's evolution.

SN 2024afav was discovered to have a clear series of changes to its

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