Nevada
Missing pilot’s plane found near Mount Jefferson, authorities say
After weeks of searching, the plane of a pilot who went missing earlier this month was found near Mount Jefferson on Saturday.
Authorities had not been able to get more than a couple of miles away from the scene as of Sunday afternoon, and the condition of pilot Michael Martin, who was the only person onboard, remains unknown.
Nye County Director of Emergency Management Scott Lewis was just returning from the scene Sunday afternoon when he spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and said that there was “significant damage” to the aircraft.
“We just need to get the resources and get them up there as quickly as we can. It was very windy during our search just now, very treacherous area, very steep area. We have a lot of things to overcome, but we’re working on it,” Lewis said.
The elevated position made the scene unreachable by foot, and Lewis said the team needed to wait for helicopters to reach the scene.
Martin, an experienced, licensed pilot, took off from North Las Vegas Airport the morning of Jan. 2 without telling anyone. His location last showed him as near Mount Jefferson, about 50 miles from Tonopah. His family reported the 65-year-old pilot missing on Jan. 5.
Authorities searched hundreds of square miles for Martin but suspended search and rescue efforts Thursday after finding no physical evidence, Lewis said.
Local resources were still looking in the area, and late Saturday, a game warden using special glasses found the plane, Lewis said. The search team had already looked in the area, but the snow previously covering it had melted.
Mystery departure
The circumstances of Martin’s disappearance remain unclear. The day he went missing, he told the owner of the company where he works that he’d be taking an early lunch but would return by 12:30 p.m. for an important meeting, according to his daughter-in-law Kathleen Martin.
Martin, an aerospace engineer, is employed as president of Erickson International, a window film manufacturer in Las Vegas, according to his family and LinkedIn page. Erickson operations employee Don Gist previously said the two had discussed working on a project together that afternoon.
Martin’s plane took off at 10:51 a.m., but his flight transponder stopped transmitting at 11:15 a.m. At 12:06 p.m., Martin’s daughter-in-law said, his phone last pinged near Tonopah, and at 12:26 p.m., his iPad — which he used as a navigation aid — and his Apple Watch last showed him near Mount Jefferson, about 50 miles from Tonopah.
She said his family initially believed he’d had a stressful holiday season and was taking a one- or two-day break in a local hotel, but they reported him missing the evening of Jan. 5 because they couldn’t get in touch with him.
Martin did not appear to have established a flight plan, according to Lewis,
Cathy Martin, his wife of 40 years, previously told the Review-Journal that Michael Martin had left without explanation years ago for one or two days.
“We had a little tiff Wednesday night, but it wasn’t a huge one,” she said. “I just asked him a question and we discussed it and it was done. He wasn’t upset.”
If he survived a crash, he had the skills to take care of himself in the wilderness, his wife said.
A missing person report released by police indicates Martin might have been upset and carried a handgun in his work bag the morning he left.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social. Review-Journal staff writer Noble Brigham contributed to this report.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Nevada’s unemployment rate for December remains unchanged at 5.2%, according to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
The figures show no improvement from the previous month.
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In a breakdown of the state’s cities, Las Vegas also reported a 5.2% unemployment rate, while Reno and Carson City both recorded a rate of 4%.
Supposed sightings of alien aircraft and extraterrestrial life are synonymous with the state of Nevada. A new group in Southern Nevada hopes to offer a glimpse into the unsolved mysteries of the universe with its first event this weekend.
“I spend a lot of hours out there videotaping and to see that so many people want to come out and join me, it’s like a party,” said local ufologist Joseph De La Torre, better known as the Pahrump Alien Guy.
The Southern Nevada Ufology Group will host its first meeting on Saturday, Jan. 31, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. During the event, attendees will learn how to take photos of UFOs from the Pahrump Alien Guy himself. The meeting will take place at the Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino in the building’s gravel lot near the bowling parking area. Attendees will park in the bowling parking lot.
“I ended up learning to look into the skies here over Pahrump and I read an article where it said that Pahrump is in the Area 51 excursion zone,” the Pahrump Alien Guy told the Pahrump Valley Times.
Participants are encouraged to arrive with a tripod for their phone in order to properly take photos. Food, beverages and camping chairs are also welcome, but the Southern Nevada Ufology Group asks guests to please clean up after themselves once the event is over. If you’re interested in joining Saturday’s meeting, you must RSVP by contacting southernnevadaufologygroup@gmail.com to confirm your attendance and to receive more information. Children are not allowed at the event.
“I think that it’s going to be very successful,” the Pahrump Alien Guy enthused.
The Pahrump Alien Guy hosted the inaugural Pahrump Alien Conference in October 2025, a gathering that saw a large turnout of locals, visitors from Las Vegas, and other tourists passing through Nye County.
“We didn’t think it was going to be that successful,” the Pahrump Alien Guy shared.
During that event, UFO photos from the Pahrump Alien Guy’s database were showcased, local vendors sold alien-themed goods and featured guests spoke about their work in ufology.
Two of the event’s featured speakers were Mike Bara, a New York Times best-selling author and frequent guest on the History Channel’s long-standing series “Ancient Aliens,” and Marysol Rezanov of the Nevada chapter of Citizens for Disclosure, a UFO information disclosure advocacy organization.
The Pahrump Alien Guy, his girlfriend Brid’Jette Whaley, Bara and Rezanov then founded the Southern Nevada Ufology Group. The group plans to host future meetings in other locations around Southern Nevada.
The Pahrump Alien Guy further explained that it was Bara and Rezanov’s idea to create a new skywatching group in Southern Nevada. Bara and Rezanov will be at Saturday’s meeting.
“We call it ‘Southern Nevada’ Ufology Group because it’s not just Pahrump,” the Pahrump Alien Guy said. “It’s all over southern Nevada.”
The Pahrump Alien Guy has a YouTube channel where he shows videos and photos he’s taken of UFOs. Watch the Pahrump Alien Guy’s videos on YouTube at youtube.com/@pahrumpalienguy.
Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com
Southern Nevada Ufology Group’s first meeting
■ Saturday, Jan. 31, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
■ Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino located at 681 South Highway 160
■ Attendees will learn how to take photos of UFOs. Guests are are encouraged to bring a tripod for their phone.
■ To attend you must RSVP by contacting southernnevadaufologygroup@gmail.com
■ No children allowed
■ Park in the bowling parking lot, meeting will be held in neighboring gravel lot
Nevada’s population growth slowed dramatically last year, according to new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.
New figures from the government agency showed Nevada grew 0.9 percent, which put it in the top 10 states for percentage growth (9th) from July 2024 to July 2025. However, this is down from July 2023 to July 2024 when the state grew by 1.7 percent.
In July 2024, Nevada had 3,253,543 residents, and in July of last year it had 3,282,188. From July 2023 to July 2024, Nevada was the sixth fastest-growing state in the country, which meant it dropped three spots for the time period of July 2024 to July 2025.
Nevada expanded from 3,214,363 residents in July 2023 to 3,267,467 in July 2024, which turned out to be the fastest year-over-year growth rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, since before the pandemic in 2019. However, all of these growth rates are below the time frame of 2015 to 2018 when the state saw unprecedented population growth.
Overall, U.S. population growth slowed “significantly” from July 2024 to July of last year with an increase of only 1.8 million people, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This was the lowest population growth for the country since the early days of the pandemic when the population grew only 0.2 percent in 2021 year-over-year.
This population slowdown across the country follows a “sizeable” uptick in the growth rate in 2024 when the U.S. added 3.2 million people and grew 1 percent, the fastest annual population growth rate since all the way back in 2006.
“The slowdown in U.S. population growth is largely due to a historic decline in net international migration, which dropped from 2.7 million to 1.3 million in the period from July 2024 through June 2025,” said Christine Hartley, the assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections at the U.S. Census Bureau. “With births and deaths remaining relatively stable compared to the prior year, the sharp decline in net international migration is the main reason for the slower growth rate we see today.”
The population growth drop was felt across the country as all four census regions (West, Midwest, Northeast and the South) and every state except Montana and West Virginia saw growth slow or a decline in acceleration.
Five U.S. states experienced population decline from July 2024 to July 2025: California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia.
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.
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