Monday marks the beginning of Air Force Heritage Week — a chance for everyone to reflect back on the growth and progress of the military service. You may not realize it, but Las Vegas has one of the most critical Air Force bases in the country.

It's often the noise overhead that first alerts you to Nellis. But it's where the best pilots come to take their skills to the next level. Some even describe Nellis as the Air Force's top gun.

The aircraft you see zipping across the sky are much different than the aircraft that hovered overhead more than 60 years ago. But the mission of Nellis Air Force Base has always been the same — groom the best fighter pilots the U.S. Air Force has to offer.

“It's the best place in the world to fly. The history that is here is amazing and to be part of that history when you fly on the northern range is just a feeling you can't describe in words,” said Captain John Baum.

Capt. Baum is a flight instructor with the weapons school at Nellis. He says getting to Nellis is a goal almost every pilot strives for, “The airspace is the best place to fly. It's just the largest airspace that we have in the U.S. Air-to-ground targets that we are able to drop live weapons on is the best in the world.”

The Nevada Test and Training Range has one of the strongest reputations, holding more than 2.9 million acres of restricted land and more than 15,000 square miles of airspace. It's where pilots from all over the world come to hone their skills before heading to war.

Over the years, Nellis has had its share of challenges, including aircraft collisions. But their most recent challenge is encroachment — homes they feel are being built too close to the flight path.

“I understand the people there get a little annoyed when their windows break and things get rattled around, but we have to provide this kind of environment to do this task, because if we don't train the way we are going to fight, when the time comes we won't be able to fight,” said Dep. Commander Tom Timmerman.

Fighting for America's safety by placing the strongest fighter pilots in the sky is bragging rights few have, but Nellis says it's a responsibility they plan to keep.

Email your comments to Reporter Melissa Duran

The coroner's inquest began Friday for the case involving a man shot and killed by Metro last month.

The shooting happened early in the morning on Aug. 4 at an apartment complex near Cheyenne and Walnut. Police shot and killed Anthony Davis.

Officers say Davis fired a gun at them and reached for an officer's weapon before they shot him. Friends and family say Davis didn't own a gun.

A coroner's jury will decide whether officers were justified in shooting and killing Davis.

Children growing up in crime-riddled neighborhoods — where gangs and drugs are much more common than positive role models – know the odds are stacked against them from the start.

The 'I Have A Dream' Foundation is helping kids from at-risk neighborhoods overcome those seemingly unbeatable odds to succeed in life.

Some would say UNLV freshman Jasmin Melton is living proof that children from high-crime low-income neighborhoods don't have to become a product of their bad environment. “Everyone thought that was what we were going to do,” she said.

But not Jasmin's parents or the 'I Have A Dream' Foundation. The Las Vegas chapter of the national non-profit group — founded in 1993 – adopted Jasmin right out of her Walter Bracken kindergarten classroom — along with 54 of her schoolmates.

The foundation made a commitment right then to sponsor and empower them to seek a college education.

“The 'I Have a Dream' Foundation was my life. I went to school, home and the Dreamer Station every day — that was my life,” said Jasmin.

And every day after school — within the four walls of the portable buildings erected in the parking lot of the Texas Station Casino — Jasmin and her fellow Dreamers were loved, tutored, counseled, mentored and more.

“They taught me etiquette, manners and how to hold a general educated conversation. I learned how to hold myself up in complete contrast to how society thought I was going to turn out,” she said.

Jasmin graduated with honors from Las Vegas High last year and is now studying business and accounting at UNLV. “Without them, I wouldn't have been able to do it. I love them like I love my real biological family,” she said, crying.

Jasmin's career goal is to own her own firm one day — but that's not all. “I want to start a new chapter of 'I Have a Dream' and I'm going to find my own neighborhood to adopt and hopefully I'll make the exact same difference in their lives that they made in mine.”

Thanks to the 'I Have A Dream' Foundation and its many corporate and community sponsors, Jasmin's class of Dreamers eventually grew to a total of 75.

All but a few are in various stages of high school and college — with the first group set to graduate with college degrees next year.

Email your comments to Reporter Alyson McCarthy.

A missing 8-year-old autistic boy is back home, thanks to an alert citizen. The woman had just seen the boy's missing person flier at a bus stop when she got onboard and noticed the missing boy sitting right next to her.

It took just a about three hours to find the boy. But those three hours were a journey for him. Metro officers say he wanted to go shopping. His babysitter told him no. So he ventured out on is own.

He got on a bus, took it across town and back. Luckily, someone realized he was a missing child, told the bus driver and they flagged down the police.

They pulled the boy off the bus, put him in the police car and took him to his mother.

The bus driver said the 8-year-old autistic boy got on at Bonanza and Pecos and rode the bus all the way to Tropicana and Pecos before anyone noticed who he was.

“I just saw the little boy. I was sitting next to him actually, and I thought he was with someone. I didn't think anything, and she finally figured it out,” said Tenika McCree, an eyewitness.

“We just happen to pass a bus stop that had his flier up saying he was missing, and I briefly noticed it, got off the bus, told the bus driver — let me run all the way down there and get that picture and he is home,” said Tinika Witherspoon. 

“Our community does care when you put a flier out there of a child. People take notice and look and it's nice to have that,” said Thomas Wagner of Metro.

Metro officers took him home to his mother, then tried talking to him to find out what happened. They are also interviewing the CAT bus driver and looking at video on the bus as well.

Everyone was questioning how could an 8-year-old get on a city bus alone with no adults and go unnoticed. Eyewitness News called RTC officials to find out their policy, but they have not gotten back to us yet.

But a happy ending thanks to a person who paid attention to a missing person flier.

Email your comments to Reporter Travell Eiland.

Two men armed and dangerous are on the run after tying up a couple and robbing them at gun point.

The couple told police they went to the apartment near Pecos and Owens Wednesday afternoon to buy a horse. But that's when they were attacked by two men waiting inside.

The suspects then tied the couple up at gunpoint, robbed them and took off. At one point, police thought they had found the suspects.

But the man in a car that looked exactly like the one they were searching for was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The victims were able to get free and call for help.

Anyone with information about the suspects is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

The battle against cancer rolled into Las Vegas on Wednesday with a message for the presidential candidates.

The Fight Back Express visited Sunrise Hospital today, one of 48 stops made by the bus on its nationwide tour.

Cancer survivors were able to sign the bus, making it a mobile petition to make cancer a top issue in the upcoming election.

“We want to increase funding. We want to make prevention a top priority, and just get the funding there.  The National Institute of Health and the CDC are having problems with their funding so we want them to make that a priority,” Katie Ryan of the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network said.

The Fight Back Express will end its national tour in Washington D.C. on Election Day.

Metro Police are hunting for the person who shot a man to death Thursday night. It happened just after 11 p.m. at a tattoo shop on Eastern near Flamingo.

Investigators have not named a suspect or a motive.

Anyone with information about this murder is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

The owner of a local Tae Kwon Do school is under arrest and charged with attempted sexual assault of a child under the age of 14. Police fear there may be more victims.

41-year-old Luis Castro was arrested in connection with the alleged incident in the summer of 2007.

Castro's school is located in the northeast part of the valley. He is also involved in other youth organizations.

Metro is asking others who can help the investigation to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

More than 100 local airmen were deployed to Iraq from Nellis Air Force Base after they said emotional goodbyes to their families last night.

“They are ready to fight and they are ready to defend. I am darn proud of them,” Group commander Lt. Col. Tim Farrel said.

One of the men deployed, O.K. Hubble, had to leave his seven-day-old daughter for the six-month mission.

“(I’ll) miss her a lot, but she’ll be good. Better now than later on,” Hubble said.

Lt. Col. Farrell said that the families are just as important as those who are deployed.

“Our families serve just as much as we do. Our sons and daughters sacrifice, our wives and husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends, moms and dads sacrifice.”

“We keep in touch as much as we can. The phone does not go off  in the middle of the night, we take phone calls. You just wait for the phone to ring,” said Stephanie Slark, a mother who has had to say goodbye to her daughter three times now.

The unit deployed last night don’t know how long this mission will last, but they have been told it will be at least 179 days until they come home from Iraq.