A local magnet school has received special recognition. The Sandy Searles Miller Academy of International Studies won the top prize from the Magnet School of America Association.

The award honors schools which use unique learning strategies and innovative courses. Seven other local schools were also recognized by the association.

People who once lived at the College Inn mobile home park are spending this Memorial Day moving. The park was condemned by the county because of deplorable living conditions.

Residents there were told to move all their belongings out by Tuesday and now are scrambling because they thought they had more time.

Former residents are rushing to move all they can before the bulldozers come in and wipe out all the trailers in the park. One resident we talked to tells us some people don't even realize today is the last day to get their belongings.

It looks like a ghost town. But in between the mobile homes you will find residents like Judy Miller racing against time to gather all she can from what was once her home.

“It's tomorrow. They told me that yesterday. They told four families here that we had until tomorrow. The bulldozers are coming in on Tuesday. Securities last day is today,” said Miller.

Forced to leave with no notice earlier this month, many people left a lot of personal belongings behind. Now some of their things are gone.

“I came back and the vultures, it's like a body — the bones aren't even dry and they're taking the windows, they're taking the water heaters, taking whatever then can get,” said Miller.

She says initially, residents were told they had until June 9 to move everything out. But now that's been bumped up to Tuesday, May 27.

“No, no, I'm not leaving my stuff; they'll move me with it. It's all I got left in this world. I'm not — it isn't material things, it's my life,” said Miller.

In between trying to move, she is also trying find a new place to call home. But it hasn't been easy.

“I'm trying to find another place to move to, but apparently they think since I come from College Park – I am rift raft, white trash, trailer trash. They're wrong,” she said.

And come Tuesday, the neighborhood she once called home will be no longer. The county did help these families find temporary lodging at nearby hotels. But they soon will have to leave those facilities too.

Email your comments to Reporter Chris Saldana.

Metro Police evacuated a northeast neighborhood Thursday night after they found a device that appeared to be a pipe bomb.

The incident happened just after 8 p.m. in the Circle K parking lot near Lamb and Owens. Police pulled over a stolen vehicle and found what they believed to be a pipe bomb on the rear passenger seat.

The bomb squad was called to the scene and the device was detonated.

Local police are searching for a sexual predator suspected of trying to abduct a child who was walking to school. Police tell Eyewitness News that there are nearly 20 cases of strangers approaching children in the past two months.

The child in this latest incident is okay. Her parents were at Monaco Middle School on Friday morning filling out a police report and talking with school officials. The school is located near Nellis and Lake Mead Blvd.

The child's mother, Nechelle Whitmore, says the suspect was not trying to hide what he was doing. She said he drove right up in front of the school and started to harass the 11-year-old girl.

“Raggedy truck and was riding beside her saying, 'Hey, I wanna talk to you.' She said, 'No thank you,” and kept stepping, and he was like, 'You think I want to hurt you or something?”

Whitmore won't speculate about why the man approached her daughter but she says her daughter did the right thing by running off and calling home.

Whitmore says she plans to pick her children up from school from now on.

Given the recent rash of cases involving strangers approaching children, schools have sent out letters to parents and police have stepped up patrols around schools. They are asking parents to call if they see anything suspicious.

An immediate evacuation is underway at a local mobile home park. The Clark County Fire Department says the College Inn Trailer Park is dangerous. Dozens of residents are trying to get their belongings.

The county says it is an extremely dangerous place to live, with up to nine people living in one trailer, some without power and water. According to the evacuation order, police could break into homes if necessary to forcibly remove the residents.

Fire after fire has ravaged the trailer park. The building department issued citations for violations that went unanswered by the property owner.

Finally, a fire on Saturday was the last straw, and county fire officials refused to put people in danger there anymore and executed the warrant.

“They are closing the park down; it is too dangerous to live here,” said James Parker, a former resident.

Many of the residents were caught by surprise, thinking they had until Monday to get out, but firefighters say some residents were thanking them for getting them out of there.

Everyone had a place to stay Wednesday night and will have a safe place to go for 30 days. Social services is planning to move everyone's belongings and store them until residents find a permanent new home.

There have been two fires in the last six months, destroying eight homes.

The fire department wants the county to start looking at regulating these parks a little more heavily so it doesn't come to this elsewhere.

Email your comments to Reporter Ky Plaskon.

A fire at an abandoned restaurant has been burning nearly all morning. Dozens of firefighters from three agencies near Nellis Air Force base have been called in.

The fire started just before 9 a.m., and it's still flaring up. The Chinese Village Buffet was boarded up. The firefighters are still working very hard to make sure it doesn't start back up. Every once in a while they find a pocket of flame.

Firefighters from North Las Vegas, Clark County and the city all responded. The problem was in the back of the building where some unique architecture made it hard for firefighters to haul hoses in and out — exhausting shift after shift of firefighters in a very unfamiliar kind of fire.

“It is very dangerous for our firefighters to go into a building that has been reconstructed because we deal with false ceilings, false floors that we don't even know are there. It can be dangerous because you think you are dealing with one situation, and it turns out to be totally something different,” said Scott Allison of Clark County Fire.

In a rare move, firefighters resorted to cutting holes in the outside of the building and shooting the water in, rather than trying to haul the hoses through tight corners.

This is a very unpredictable structure fire. Firefighters have started to put away their resources only to find that they have to bring them back out to battle more smoke and fire.

As to how it started, firefighters say its only speculation at this point — but it was a boarded up building and typically it's a problem with the homeless. People in the area have told us they see homeless in and out of there all the time.

Some valley residents are trying to shoot down the county's plan to build the world's largest shooting range in their back yards.

They've been fighting for months, but now officials at Nellis Air Force base are voicing their concerns as well.

Nellis Air Force Base officials are concerned their planes could become a casualty of a miss fire from the gun park slated to be built near Iron Mountain and Jones.

The space they need to train is already shrinking as the valley's population grows. So they were forced to redirect their flight paths over that stretch of land where the county is planning on building the park.

Air Force officials say they want to work with the county to make sure their missions won't become a victim of friendly fire and that safeguards are in place to protect the pilots.

Neighbors are up in arms because they say they were never warned about it when they bought their homes. Neighbors say their concerns are being ignored because the county won't do a sound study to see how loud the massive gun range will be.

Now the gun park is in their cross hairs and they hope military concerns will help them shoot down the plan to build the gun range.

The price of food is going up. Eggs, milk, bread – all the essentials are costing more. And those are the ingredients are used to make thousands of school lunches every day.

The average price of an elementary school lunch is $1.40 and while it doesn't sound like much, it adds up quickly and for some — it's more than they can afford.

The Clark County School District serves 32 million meals every year. And one of the women supervising the process began working in the department nearly 20 years ago.

“I was a lunch lady in an elementary school,” said Sue Hoggan. “Every day we're doing something really important – we are feeding hungry kids.”

The food service department moved into a large facility last year which allows them to make, prepare and deliver meals all from one location — which is more cost effective. But now with the price of food going up, so could school lunches.

Rick Ditondo, the principal of Woolley Elementary says lunch is crucial. Out of 800 students, 600 participate in the free or reduced lunch program. “With some of our students it may be the only meal they get for the day. We have students who are homeless, and they have no other means to get food,” he said.

Dlonra Pasao, a 5th grader, said, “Sometimes in the morning, if I don't eat, I get tired and after lunch I feel like I am ready to learn. We do math minute; it helps me do my math minute.”

Travis Lacovara, another 5th grader said, “It helps your mind keep going for the rest of the day.”

Sue says while the future price of food is uncertain, what keeps her going is the passion she and her colleagues truly have for what they do.

“We're all foodies – we love making food, eating food, talking about food. It's what we love to do. It's what makes it fun,” she said.

The food service department that makes students meals is part of the school district, but it is also a separate business. It supports itself by reimbursements from the government and the money it makes from selling the food.

It does not get any money from the school district's general fund. Any increase in the school lunch would have to be approved by the school board.

Email your comments to Anchor Colleen May.

It was a unique honor for a local solider who went above the call of duty, but doesn't want to be called a hero. Major Anthony Jones survived three rocket attacks in Iraq and became the latest solider to be given the Purple Heart.

It didn't just start in Iraq. Major Jones has been a military veteran for years. The former nightclub owner was forever changed by the attacks of 9/11, and six years to the day, Major Jones changed again into a hero.

The terms honor, country and duty resonate like the echoes of our nation's anthem. Jones has seen the battlefields of Grenada and Iraq in his 12 years of service. 9/11 though, was a call to arms and a time to reenlist.

“Oh, it was immediate. It was just a matter of getting the paperwork done so I could figure out how to do it,” he said.

The second time around in Iraq proved far worse than he expected. Jones jokes about it now, the victim of three separate rocket attacks.

“They used to call me rocket man, because it seemed like I was in the vicinity of every rocket around,” he said.

The first gave him a concussion, discovered only after he created a triage from the ground up. The day — September 11th, 2007 — six years to the day he decided to go back to Iraq.

“You train to do this. When it happens, you overcome it. You look it in the face,” he said.

The third attack was worst of all. Shrapnel lodged in Major Jones' back. Fighting off pain and another concussion, he rescued other soldiers only after he regained consciousness. For that he received a Purple Heart.

“We went to work after that, patched it up and went back to work,” he said.

His dad Walter has been through this before. Now the son joins the father and Vietnam vet — both have Purple Hearts.

“We don't look at it as being a hero. That's you duty. When you volunteer to go, you take what comes,” said Walter.

“I don't think hero is the name of the game,” said Maj. Jones.

It's just a reminder of honor, country and duty.

“I've got this motto, ‘Any day above ground is a good day.' And today's a good day,” he said.

All told, Major Jones was given the Purple Heart along with five other medals and commendations.

He plans to stay in the Air Force Reserves and fight insurgents again.

Email your comments to Reporter Jonathan Humbert