He was known for flash and she was known for gold. Two figure skating legends give their take. Live from sochi. Then we asked you to sit down and explain how youre handling public dollars. We investigate new evidence questioning the spending in a local major transit agency. Also, a dense fog advisory in effect right now. It could impact the morning commute. Nbc bay area news starts now. We are used to the fog, but not quite like this. A thick blanket of it coming in tonight and lasting into the morning rush hour. Good evening, and thanks for joining us. Im raj mathai. Im jessica aguirre. Were talking about dangerous fog. Fog so thick you may not be able to see the car in front of you in the road. Jeff ranieri joins us with the details of this advisory. Reporter raj and jess, we usually get that invection fog moving in from the golden gate bridge. But tomorrow morning dense areas of ground fog from santa rosa to napa. And its also beginning to develop down across the santa clara valley. But were finding it the worst in the extreme south bay down to gilroy at a quarter mile and less. Light winds will help this fog to continue to develop for tonight. Dense fog advisory in effect for the northeast and also the south bay valleys with quarter mile and less visibility expected throughout tomorrow morning. Well have details not only on this and where that fog will continue to develop, but also on our next storm in just a few minutes. Thank you, jeff. New tonight at 11 00, after countless court delays and almost two years of despair, an indictment on the sierra lamar case. Next year marks the anniversary of the teens disappearance tonight a major legal shift. Nbc bay areas George Kiriyama joins us with more on the indictment. Reporter well, jessica, people here in morgan hill happy to see this case finally moving forward as sierra lamars disappearance very fresh in peoples minds. Tonight we talked to sierras father who says his family hasnt given up searching for her. Its been really frustrating. So, yeah, something positive finally. Reporter almost two years after antolin garciatorres was arrested and charged with kidnapping and murdering 15yearold sierra lamar, sierras father, steven lamar can finally point to progress in the case. The grand jury has indicted Garcia Torres on the charges. The family was warned the case could take a while to weave through the judicial system. Very frustrating for me and marlene, danielle, the whole family just really frustrated. But, you know, we try to stay focused on other things to keep our mind off of it. Reporter sierra was last seen on march 16, 2012 in her home in morgan hill. She never made to it school and her body has never been found. Steven lamar admits its tough to hear the word murder and his daughters name in the same sentence. Its still hard to hear. It will always be like that, you know. It will always be like that, even when all this is over. They still have not recovered a body. We dont know the evidence of any crime scene or trauma. Reporter attorney steven clark says even though the d. A. Got a grand jury indictment, it does not make this a slamdunk murder case. The defense is going to argue this is just like jaycee dugard. This just like elizabeth smart. They were presumed dead, but they were found. The defense is going to still call it a missing persons case until a body is found. Reporter despite all of this, the lamar family is holding on the hope their daughter could still be alive. I still, i still stick to that. Thats another thing that keeps us going is just having that hope. You know, regardless of what anyone says. Reporter now Stephen Clarke says he doesnt see this trial being held in another county. He says what the grand jury indictment does, it gives the District Attorney a chance to keep this case in santa clara county. Thats because there will not be a public preliminary hearing, which in turn means a lot less pretrial publicity. Live in morgan hill tonight, george kir yam mariyamkiriyama, news. We have just obtained surveillance video. Here it is. Police say this is a man who carjacked and kidnapped a 13yearold girl and an elderly man at knifepoint at a safeway in oakland. An amber alert is in effect at this hour. Signs along bay area freeways continue to notify drivers. You might have seen this the last several hours. The chp has also sent thousands of text alerts. Police say it happened in the parking lot of a Safeway Store on redwood road in the oakland hills. This isnt far from mills college. Nbc bay areas gejean elle is i oakland with details. Reporter this is the safeway parking lot where that incident happened. And now more than ten hours after it happened, police say no one matching the description of the victims is reported missing. But opd is still on this case. Late tonight, changing the description of the victims car and continuing to search. We have the fbi working with us. Reporter the Oakland Police Department Sets up mobile command unit next to the Lincoln Square Shopping Center safeway on redwood road, working with federal agents to try and find a teenaged girl and an elderly man they say were carjacked and kidnapped from the safeway parking lot this afternoon. This investigation will not stop. Investigators will work through the night. Reporter opd released this fbi enhanced photo of the suspect tonight, taken from safeway surveillance video. Police say the jacket, the headphones and the baseball hat are unique. Theyre hoping someone recognizes this man and calls police. Witnesses say after he was caught shoplifting, he ran outside and used a knife to force his way into a car with an elderly man and a 13yearold girl inside. The suspect entered that car armed with a knife. Reporter the chp acted an amber alert nearly two hours after the kidnapping, asking people to look for an suv with a california license plate reading 6jfm 7648. After hours of searching from the air and on the ground with no results, Police Located the registered owner who is now on the east coast. Police now say the plates are on a red or burgundy sedan. They dont know the model. While police focus on the search, longtime safeway customers who live in Redwood Heights are outraged by the crime. Its unthinkable. Go to make shopping. And go back home. Reporter police say this search is about getting a teenaged girl and an elderly man home. Now, that red or burgundy sedan was last seen leaving this parking lot and heading south on redway road. Freeway access is pretty easy here. Opd says that amber alert is statewide. Reporting live in oakland, jean elle, nbc bay area news. Thank you, jean. Going after brazen laser taggers. The fbi teaming up to catch anyone shining lasers into cockpits of planes or helicopters. The dangerous prank son the rise and its especially problematic in san jose. Laser pointers are so powerful they can temporarily blind pilots, putting everyone on board in jeopardy. The reward for anyone caught . Ten grand. San jose is about to become brighter at night. The city has hired Chevron Energy solutions to install more led streetlights. Many amber lights were installed in the 1970s for efficiency and to prevent Light Pollution from the nearby lick observatory. The new leds are brighter but dont cause more pollution. They also use 60 less energy. Politics with a side of caviar. A lavish state dinner at the white house tonight honoring french president francois hollande. Tomorrow mr. Hollande will be here in the bay area. It was a starstudded evening. The vip guest list included Julia Louise Dreyfus and bay area philanthropist john goldwyn. President obama gave a toast to french president. President hollande will be in the bay area tomorrow meeting with google executive eric schmidt and jack dorsey. Hell also be greeted by staff San Francisco mayor ed lee and Lieutenant Governor gavin newsom. While a shocker at the sochi winter games and an olympic legend took a tumble, and it cost him a medal. Shaun white, the most popular and decorated snowboarder in the history, as you saw there, hit the wall on his final run. White ended up finishing fourth. In fact, no americans medaled. And its the first time the american men leave without a medal in the halfpipe event. And this is what makes the olympics so special. The olympic spirit is more than just a slogan. We saw it play out right in front of our eyes. Take a look. A russian skier crashed and broke his ski. Unable to continue, a canadian coach you see coming on to the course there came to his rescue and gave the russian skier a new ski. The canadian coach is californian born justin wadsworth. When asked why he did it, he simply said i wanted to give him the dignity as he crossed the finish line. Our olympic coverage continues with janelle wang live from sochi. Im here at the sochi games, and he is known for his flashy outfits and his flare. Im talking about johnny weir. I asked him about those outfits. Up. Millions of your money spent without public scrutiny. Im vicky nguyen. A Bay Area Transit Agency under fire tonight for what insiders call a second set of books. Well show you the money, coming up. And then the effect the defect forcing toyota to recall more than a million priuss. What is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together the Fastest Internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future we must have encountered a temporal vortex. Further analytics are necessary. Beam us up. Thats my phone. Hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. Tv and internet together like never before. Tonight there are serious accusations of fake expenses and improper payments. The Transit District in charge of caltrain and sam train buses is under fire again for how its handling public money. Uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in errors last summer. Tonight we reveal what an insider calls a second set of books at that agency. Investigative reporter vicky nguyen joins us with that story. Vicky . Reporter jess and raj, sam train sent over stacks of financial documents, but its what they didnt provide that is troubling, invoices, checks, and backup for a list of expenses all missing. Now weve uncovered the documents former employees say were used to hide how the district spent millions of your dollars. We went to the person in charge of the money to ask why. Just wondering if we can ask you some questions about these numbers. Gigi harrington is the chief Financial Officer in charge of budgets for sam trans buses and cal trains. Why wont you answer these questions about how youre spending public dollars . After weeks of requesting an interview, we caught up with her before a public meeting. We wanted to ask about what insiders call a second set of books used to create fake and inflated expenses. In september, we asked her boss, ceo mike scanlon about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments made to consultants out of accounts meant for insurance. Errors the District First denied, then called honest mistakes. You insist its a mistake when the people who made these entries say they were told to do so . Absolutely. Youre saying that is intentional . Yes. Im saying this is intentional. Reporter David Ramires was an accountant at sam transfrom 2001 to 2012. He says he quit after getting fed up with finance managers ordering him to log fake expenses and to inflate others. He says the district kept this second set of books to keep track of the money. So this is where the money really went . Were talking millions now. Reporter ramires says this allowed finance leaders to hide millions over the years so they could later spend that money at their discretion. And avoid public scrutiny. This is something the auditors never saw . No, no. Never saw. Reporter he says the extra money went into secret buckets, including buckets for the coo and cfo. To verify his claims, we filed a records request a asking to see invoices and checks for a list of expenses from 2011. While sam tran said it spent 50,000 dollars in public funds and countless staff hours on our request, the district could not provide invoices or checks for expenses ramires listed as fake or inflated. They included a 118,000 expense for mays arp associates. Thats the Auditing Firm contracted by sam trans to catch these mistakes. They did do additional testing based on questions raised recently. Reporter in november, the cfo told Board Members not to worry. They found no exceptions. They verbally reported that everything is fine. Reporter sam trans insists its audits have come back clean. But after our first report, auditors took a second look at the account where we founder roars. This time they did too. In a sample, mays found more than a Million Dollars of expenses that were inflated by staff, but did not deem the amount large enough for the agency to address. Its always a judgment call. Reporter forensic auditor has more than 30 years of auditing experience, 25 in government accounting. He reviewed sam transreports and responses. Are those proper accounting procedures . If that is occurring, i would question whether it is proper. Reporter in a statement sam trans said its actions were appropriate and consistent with past practices, and it blames inflated expenses on ramires, calling it action taken unilaterally taken by a former employee. A unilateral action should not be possible in a Big Organization like this. I would be happy to have my chief Financial Officer come on air, on camera and explain to you if there was a mistake paid. Reporter but when we asked the cfo so explain, the district said it would have no further comment. We have asked you to sit down and explain how youre handling public dollars. Will you sit down with us at some point . Sorry. Excuse me. Reporter meanwhile, sam transsilence about its finances speaks volumes. If these numbers are going out to the public, and they cannot stand by them, there is something wrong. Reporter the San Mateo County District Attorneys office launched an inquiry into sam transrecords after our first report. Investigators say that review is ongoing. Meanwhile, we have provided a detailed breakdown of these expenses showing what sam trans reported to as well as what theyre essentially providing evidence for. So you can see for yourself the differences. All on our website, nbcbayarea. Com. Click on investigations, and of course well continue to follow the money. Very good reporting. Thank you, vicky. Another nbc area investigation getting attention in sacramento today. Lawmakers are calling the Inspection System for day cares embarrassing and outdated. Todays hearing focused on the lack of oversight of day care and elder care centers. It was prompted by our report in which parents cannot access meaningful online information about a day care safety record. We also discovered that the Current System does not allow state regulators to track problems in local day cares. These problems have been around for a long time. And so we have really put some kids in harms way. Several lawmakers want change. A proposed bill would require day cares to be inspected yearly. Right now the law only requires an inspection once every five years. If you have a tip for our investigative unit, we innovate you to go to our tip line. Give us a call or send us an email directly to the unit nbcbayarea. Com. Lets switch gears and take you back to sochi there is a new figure skating team on the ice for team usa. Olympic skaters Tara Lipinski and johnny weir. Remember them . But wait, its not what you think. They come with a lot of style. Two high profile skaters along with our high profile janelle wang wednesday in russia. Good morning, janelle. Thanks for the update there, raj and jessica. The two are nbc analysts for the figure skating events. You know johnny weir from the vancouver games for his flashy and creative style. And then Tara Lipinski who won gold in nagano at the age of 15, exactly 15 years ago. And of course there is our local gal, 15yearold Polina Edmunds. She hopes to follow in her exact same footsteps. I think its so sweet. I mean, it just makes me remember when i was younger and growing up and skating and looking up to Kristi Yamaguchi and she was my idol. Its weird to hear im someones idol. She is a firecracker and its her first olympic experience. Youre back commentating. What is that like for you . Im so recently removed from the olympics, i was planning to compete here. And, you know, i had to end my career because i thought it was time and going to leave to it the young ones. But it is hard to sit in that booth and feel like you need to be on the ice competing or warming up. And i have woken up several times in a cold sweat, im late for practice it is a different experience, 100 . But im so honored to be a part of the nbc family. And were really in a position where we can educate america on what figure skating is now and who these people are. Johnny would have killed it here. Well, you definitely both look fabulous. Do you pick your own attire . We borrow, we share. Unfortunately, i dont have a little tiny foot or waist like she does. But jewelry. But jewelry. You know. Hair, makeup. Everything. You know, were so in love with each other, and were having such a good time. And we legitimately want to push our sport forward. And i think our young sort of perspective and refreshing voices are being really well received in the states. And i hope that america will spend the rest of the olympics with us. Reporter i asked both of them if they think Polina Edmunds has a good chance to medal. They say whoever delivers their best on that day will win the gold medal that competition is set to begin next week. Americas biggest competitor is a 15yearold phenomenal skater. Her name is yulia lipnitskaya. She is the favorite to win gold, only 15 years old. Tara one gold at 15. Polina is 15. That appears to be the lucky number. Reporting from the sochi games, nbc bay area news. You have that jacket that johnny was wearing. Oh, i know. Too flashy. I cannot afford it. He picks his own wardrobe. They had a wardrobe for him, but he does all the hand picking himself. And he brought some from his own collection from america here to sochi. Surprise, surprise. I think he can pull it off. Thank you, janelle. Well see you tomorrow. Another day of jampacked competition speaking of tomorrow. Our coverage begins at 3 00 p. M. At 7 30 the olympic zone and at 8 00 our prime time coverage. Julia mancuso goes for gold in down hill. And hannah teter competes in the womens halfpipe. Lets turn things over to jeff ranieri with our microclimate forecast. I think fur would be a little too warm for tomorrow. But temperatures will be cooling off a little bit. We want to get to the dense fog advisory. It is impacting san jose, morgan hill, gilroy, quarter mile and less visibility tomorrow morning. Also, for those of you back in the trivalley from lafayette to sam ramon, pleasanton and the north bay as well. Marin, napa and sonoma counties, all should watch out for that low visibility as we head throughout the morning. Lets get you outside. Temperatures right now in the 50s. Here is the thing. The dew point temperature is in the mid40s. So we need these temperatures to reach that dew point temperature in order to get fog forming. And thats going to happen in a few hours. Right now across the south bay, the other thing that is going to help that fog to form are the light winds, 5 to 7 miles per hour. Lets go ahead and get a look right now at that next storm system that is developing out here in the pacific. Its this area of low pressure that continues to spin. But the added component, again, will be this subtropical moisture. The problem with our latest storm system is the fact that as it gets closer, the bulk of the energy, the bulk of the moisture is going to headway off to the north. And the strongest rain line should be right near the californiaoregon border. So wednesday night and thursday morning well track some light showers. Also some drizzle. Best chance would likely be at the coastline, and also for the north bay. Trace amounts for about a tenth of an inch. At this point, it looks like a big fat zero down there in san jose, unfortunately. We know how bad we need there it. By this weekend, there is going to be a better chance of rainfall. A stronger storm system up into washington and also oregon. S that swings down, we think our chances will be a little higher than this most recent storm. Up into the north bay, anywhere from about. 15 and at this point about a tenth of an inch for los gatos and also for pleasanton. Lets take you to the microclimate forecast. As we head throughout our wednesday, well have sunshine in san jose and 66 degrees. Across the peninsula, though, youll hang on with the cloud cover throughout the day with mid60s that will also be the scenario in San Francisco. Along the embarcadero, 63 degrees. North bay, east bay and trivalley, there are going to be some stark contrasts. Well keep cloudy skies throughout the north bay, including napa and also santa rosa. But youll likely get some of the most sun across the bay in walnut creek with 63. Pleasanton expecting 64. Since we need the rain so badly, were going to end things up with the rain chances in the forecast. Over the next seven to eightday period. Wednesday night the possibility of light showers in the north bay. Saturday night, also sunday morning, possibility of rain for the entire bay area. Then a stronger storm system by next tuesday night. Early estimates show we could get a quarter to 3 4 everything of rainfall. All this agenda up to good news for us. Finally acting like winter around here. Thank you, jeff. Get it back in gear. Were back in a moment with a major recall for toyota. Stay with us. Late word tonight one of the most popular cars in the world is being recalled. Toyota recalling nearly two million of its prius models, specifically, the Third Generation prius. There is a Software Glitch in the hybrid system. More than 700,000 of the affected cars are here in north america. Sobering news for the nbc family. Longtime news anchor tom brokaw is battling cancer. Brokaw says he was diagnosed last august with multiple mile lomb map. Its a cancer that affects blood cells and the bone marrow. Brokaw says he is receiving treatment at the mayo clinic, and his doctors are said to be very encouraged with his progress. Tom brokaw has worked for nbc news since 1966, and he is just a genuine, genuine man shirks very nice. Gerard joins us next with sports. I like these late newscasts. Its midnight again. Its officially wednesday morning. Gerard, do you like midnight . Im okay with them. Im all right with them. Especially when have i some good news to report. United States Luger Erin Hamlin competing for her late grandmother who died in a car accident just a few months ago put in a run of her life at the sochi games in the womens singles luge. Hamlin making her third olympic appearance, defrosted the u. S. Medal deep freeze in the sport that had lasted 50 years since luge was introduced in the 1964 innsbruck winter games. The 27yearold put up a fourrun total of 3 21. 145 seconds, good for the bronze and a first for the united states. Afterwards tweeted, 144 characters isnt nearly enough. I love you all. This is amazing, sochi2014. Sharks gearing up for preliminary game. Theyll face off against slovakia on thursday while Patrick Marleau and team canada take honor way later on that evening. Finally, andrew bogut providing further clarification about his injury in an interview with knbr on tuesday. The warriors big man telling tom tolbert things are all good with head coach mark jackson, and hell likely have a cortisone shot for his injured shoulder, but wont play tomorrow against the miami heat at oracle arena. This will be the fifth consecutive game on the bench for bogut, by the way. No timetable set for his return. More news after the break. Star command, im detecting increof happiness. And the speed readings are off the chart Paradise Found luscious locks great glittering galaxies the happiest place on earth keeps getting happier explore more and save up to 25 on select nights at a Disneyland Resort hotel. Theres no end in sight im going to need more time. Legs up legs up legs up verizon has free tablets and free phones. Get here anyway you can. Good job free tablets. Free phones. On the best network. Only at verizon. Get tablets like the verizon ellipsis 7 free. And when you trade in your old smartphone, you can get the Samsung Galaxy s4 free. Or the droid maxx by motorola free. Plus get a data plan with unlimited talk and text for as low as 45. This week only. Getting free tablets and phones on the best network. Thats powerful. Verizon. Four hours on the slopes. Hours on weights. And two hours doing this stuff. Which leaves me approximately two minutes to get my banking done. So i use the citi mobile app to quickly check my accounts and pay my bills. Which leaves me about five seconds to kick back. That was nice. Bank from almost anywhere with the citi mobile app. Citi, with you every step of the way. Look what we found. Construction workers in seattle uncovered this rare fossil today. Its a mammoth tusk from the ice age. According to experts from seattles burk museum of natural history. Because the fossil was found on private property, what happens to the artifact is up to the owner. Paleontologist says they would be happy to excavate it in exchange for the chance to study it. Mammoths lived in north america from about 15 million to about 9,000 years ago. Thats crazy. Very impressive. Just a few years back. Very dangerous fog on the road. Thats right. As you can see in San Francisco, clouds starting to build. Well have more coming up at 4 30 in the morning. Thanks for joining us tonight. Have great day tomorrow. Byebye
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.