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the entire object. It was traveling very slow without any noise” she said on the tape. The recording continued as Fox asked Roads whether she had a question she would like to ask the governor, and she replied: "Is this still a matter of ridicule to him, after he came out on TV with his alien, making us all look a little foolish? We've all been unwavering on our descriptions and a lot of evidence has come out since then. Does he still feel this is a matter Governor Governor Symington responded immediately and thoughtfully, without the least bit of fanfare. "I never felt the overall situation was a matter of ridicule, although we certainly took advantage of it, no question about it," he admitted. "But I don't consider it a matter of ridicule. It was a legitimate occurrence; a craft of unknown origin; who knows where from; inexplicable, and probably one of the major sightings in modern history in the country, because so many people saw it in Maricopa County—and J saw it, too." James Fox was absolutely unprepared for such a response. "I was shocked/" he recalls. "It took me a moment to process it. I was thinking, did x a1 4 toe ae awe 4 wae I really hear what I think I just heard? My immediate impulse was to make sure the cameras had been running, and they were. I didn't want to press the point right away, but wanted him to feel at ease. I left and reviewed the tape. It took a day or two for this to really sink in, and for me to realize I had something huge here." Having kept the Symington story under wraps for about six months, James Fox called me in early 2007 to tell me about it, because we were approaching the tenth anniversary of the Phoenix Lights, with commemorative events planned in Arizona. We discussed the possibility of breaking the story in the print media at that time, just in advance of the updated film's release, which included the original interview. Symington seemed pleased with the idea of having the first written piece about his witnessing the UFO presented by someone who understood the bigger issue and proper context for the story, and who would treat it with respect. As a journalist, I was of course delighted with this "scoop" and knew that the mainstream media reporters would run with it afterward, including those who had made light of the incident in the Phoenix press years ago. But this time, they would be forced to read a proper, well-researched, serious piece before they could grab the news for themselves. This was an opportunity, although fleeting, for me to present a breaking UFO story in the way it should be told. I was introduced to Symington via telephone, and conducted a long interview in which he expanded on what he had said to James Fox. I was struck by his sincerity, and although he was now a relatively private man who had no further interest in running for political office and did not relish exposure in the media, he voiced his commitment to helping both James and me in our efforts to bring greater credibility to the subject of UFOs and to impact government policy. On March 18, 2007, I broke the Symington story in a front-page the tenth of the with of ridicule or has he taken a new stance?"