that i am still very able to be the sheriff of san francisco and that at this time i do not plan to resign. >> i informed him of my intent to fulfill my duties pursuant to the charter and move to suspend and remove him from the office for official misconduct. he has chosen not to resign, and now i must act. >> reporter: now the mayor says he has appointed former deputy chief vickie hennessey as the interim sheriff. hennessey most recently served as director for the department of emergency management. now lee says he will officially suspend the sheriff as early as tomorrow. the ethics committee will then take up the misconduct charge and make a recommendation, but we understand it will be the board of supervisors that has the ultimate say. nine of the 11 members must vote to remove mirkarimi from his position to make it stick. reporting live, i'm jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. jodie, thank you. and this has been a fast moving story. we continue our coverage on line and website nbcbayarea.com. search mirkarimi to hear more of his reaction and the reaction from mayor ed lee. once again on nbcbayarea.com. new tonight at 6:00, the supervisor at the center of a sex scandal returned 0 to work. she said she was eager to join her colleagues and carry on the business. she is the wife of the state tre treasurer. the supervisor claims an ex-boyfriend beat her at a newark hotel last month and that man claims there are sex tapes n. a statement today nadia said i take full responsibility for the personal mistakes i have made and the personal amends i must make and i deeply apologize to those i love and those who love me. where is sierra lamar? still no answers as investigators continue to search for the morgan hill teenager last seen friday morning. nbc bay area's marianne favro joins us live with the latest on the search for sierra. >> reporter: i just got off the phone with investigators and they tell me they spent the day interviewing students here at sobra it to high school in morgan hill and also her former school in fremont. they have been poring over records from her cell phone and laptop computer. now investigators, which includes a team of 30 detectives, tell me that they have received dozens of tips including sightings in the bay area of sierra. but they say so far none of those are con firld. more and more pictures like this are going up in businesses in downtown morgan hill. >> did you hear about the little girl that's missing? >> yeah. >> reporter: store owner crystal thomas calls the disappearance of sierra lamar frightening. >> my sister, tyler, was best friends with a girl recently killed by gang members in morgan hill. so it's just, you know, like i said, absolutely heartbreaking. we lost tera in november and now another little girl it looks like she's been a victim to some sort of something. >> reporter: sheriff's investigators say despite getting phone tips every minute some reporting sightings of sierra, so far all are unk unconfirmed. sierra was last seen friday morning. she left her home in morgan hill headed to the bus stop for school. investigators say she sent a tweet from her computer at 6:30 a.m. they also found her cell phone in a field about half a mile from her home. sierra's family says they were too shaken today to talk. but yesterday her mom shared this thought about sierra's mood on friday. >> things were good the day that she went missing. we were embracing each other and wishing each other to have a good day. and she was excited about writing a paper for school and didn't give me any indication that there was any trouble. >> reporter: investigators say they are contacting all the sexual offenders in the morgan hill area to see where they were when sierra went missing. her father, steven wayne lamar, is a registered sex offender who served time for lewd acts with a minor. investigators say he's cooperated fully and is not a person of interest. as sierra's friends at washington high school in fremont make posters to get the word out she's missing, they struggle to keep up hope, painfully aware they haven't heard from their friend this five days. tonight at 8:00 there will be a candlelight vigil in honor of sierra at morgan hill press presbyterian church. reporting live in morgan hill, marianne favro, nbc bay area news. >> thank you. also, nowhere to be found, a bay area man vanished during a cycling tour in southern california. search teams and local authorities near the nevada border are looking for the 67-year-old man near the mesquite spring campground in death valley national park. george kohler was seen march 12th at 8:00 p.m. he vanished without his bicycle or camping gear the next morning. we have images of the search effort under way in the tet valley. he reportedly left a cpfire that he shared with the bicycle group saying he was tired. in the morning he did not meet up with the rest of the group. the man's tent was open with no indication that he slept overnight. bryan stow's family is allowed to move forward with its lawsuit against the dodgers. a delaware bankruptcy court judge said the family can proceed with their negligence suit once the dodgers emerge from bankruptcy. that could happen as soon as next month. stow's family is suing the dodgers and outgoing owner frank mccourt for failing to provide adequate security at dodgers stadium. in exchange for the lawsuit moving forward, the lawsuit agreed to limit the money -- the family agrees to limit the money they can possibly receive. the dodgers say that could be up to $300 million. bryan stow was severely beaten on opening day of last season in the parking lot after a gian giants/dodgers game in l.a. sexual harassment accusations are surfacing in the alameda county probation department. chief david muhammad has been suspended after an employee filed a lawsuit against him today. the deputy officer's attorney claims muhammad harassed her on multiple occasions for four months last year. she adds the board was negligent in hiring muhammad because an employee who worked for him in washington, d.c., had similar complaints. the investigation is being handled by the office of state attorney general harris. three suspected bank robbers are behind bars tonight after leading police on a chase down 101 before finally giving up. this morning three suspects armed with handguns robbed a wells fargo bank in east san jose. the three men fled in a stolen silver jeep suv. an officer in the area spotted the jeep traveling south on 101. when officers tried to stop the vehicle, the suspects refused and the chase ensued. the suspects then began throwing the money out of the window before finally pulling over and surrendering in gilroy. >> we don't really give out their admissions or statements, but i don't think they'll be robbing any banks in san jose anytime soon. >> officers are not saying where the suspects are from, but the jeep they were driving was stolen out of green field, which is south of salinas. the road to santa cruz will be safer, they will make changes to route 17 deadliest curve. we're talking about laurel curve near scotts valley. kris sanchez joins us now. what's the plan? >> reporter: well, raj, chances are if you drive highway 17 you probably white knuckle it around laurel curve because it is a very smooth stretch of road and it's tempting to go a little too fast. it's downhill and there's no guardrail separating you from oncoming traffic. some of those things are going to change this week. on any given day as many as 65,000 drivers pass laurel road on highway 17, some of them don't make it past this curve. just friday a 54-year-old man from brentwood died here when he lost control in the rain and smashed into a driver going in the opposite direction. california highway patrol officer sarah jackson drove us along that route. >> where they would normally hit the center divide they're coming through and having head-on collisions with northbound traffic. >> reporter: laurel curve accounts for one in three crashes on highway 17. they have resisted calls for a guardrail here citing access to laurel road which may not serve the greater good. in a mile and a half drive we counted five houses and few drivers taking laurel to highway 17. >> we've seen perhaps 1,000 vehicles traveling on highway 17, three vehicles have used the left-hand turn lane since is we've been here. >> reporter: they plan to make changes. starting thursday crews will begin construction of a temporary concrete barrier. they'll lay down high friction pavement treatment along the curve for better traction and will put up additional curve warning signs. >> that's laurel road. look at the guardrail. >> reporter: skid marks on the pavement and piles of car parts flung from crashes plus roadside memorials, all things chp officers may see less of once they complete the improvements. >> it's not going to eliminate collisions at this location. it's just going to keep people from traveling into opposing traffic, and it will eliminate the head-on injuries and fatalities that we see here. >> reporter: caltrans crews will start working on that in the midday and overnight hours starting on thursday. it is a temporary barrier but the spokesman says they will study the effectiveness and it could become permanent. kris sanchez, nbc bay area news. we have some late word from 49ers headquarters tonight. they have solved their quarterback dilemma. will it be alex smith or tim tebow? that's just ahead. plus, too hot to handle. apple fans get fired up over the new ipad. what some ipad owners are complaining about. >> reporter: i'm scott budman. some of the brightest, most highly recruited graduate students in the country. coming up, why they're spending the day here in silicon valley. and they might be the bay area's newest crime fighters, the heroic acts that are keeping one local neighborhood safe. and, good evening, i'm jeff ranieri. we're tracking a few showers off to the north near clear lake and also eureka. we're going to time line our best chance to get any of that activity plu will be.he larger storm will be. apple's ipad in the news because it's hot. >> we've told 0 you some of the newest ipad owners were complaining of their gadgets running hotter than usual. "consumer reports" took up the case and ran a battery of tests. it says while the new devices do run as much as 13 degrees hotter than the previous ipad, it does not get hot enough to harm the device. "consumer reports" says ipads do not reach temperatures of laptops, also, apple commenting saying the new ipads run, quote, within their thermal specifications. hp in the news today. reports the palo al it to tech giant will rejoin its printer and pc divisions. no comments from hp itself. the stock dropping about 1.5% today. not much movement as investors wait to see what happens next. the bay area solar industry has long complained about competition from china. today the u.s. commerce department did something about it putting a tariff in lace to make it a bit more expensive for chinese solar companies to sell panels here in the u.s. if you're looking to work in the tech industry, good news. lots of companies are hiring. the bad news, some of the brightest grad students on the east coast are here, and they're looking for jobs, too. >> i would like you to try to grab that green ring -- >> reporter: madeline is not a doctor but the graduate student is getting ready to look for a job. >> pull your hands back up. >> reporter: so madeline and several of her grad school classmates came here to silicon valley visiting cutting edge companies like intuitive surgical. they could work anywhere. they're looking to tech. >> silicon valley is seen as the promised land to launch your own business. >> the wild west is not quite so wild. >> reporter: silicon valley is where the jobs are. and for these students, it's where the future is. >> i think the jobs that i want to be pursuing are here, so there's so much innovation happening here. for instance in terms of surgical, just had a chance to try out the da vinci which is amazing and a lot of that risk taking is really happening in the bay area and i want to be a part of that. >> while we're meeting with a lot of companies and meeting a lot of people that i might not have ever had the opportunity to meet with, we also get to complement that with meeting alumni who have been here either for a year or two or 20 years. >> reporter: for m.i.t., days like this prove that higher education gives students lots of options. for intuitive surgical, they prove that innovative companies are being closely followed. >> it's exciting. we used to have to go out and do missionary sales to convince people to join. now that we've gotten some success, it's nice that they're seeking us out. and so when offers like this come to us, we always open up our doors. >> reporter: opening the doors to the operators of tomorrow. now there are dozens of m.i.t. grads working in silicon valley. they visit companies like twitter, google, box and facebook. >> scott, you'll appreciate this story now. aloha means cheap flights, at least tonight it does. you'll soon have more chances to get to hawaii from the bay area. they will add five new flights to maui directly from san jose and oakland. the new flights begin in july. and if you act fast you can catch a break on the cost. hawaiian airlines is running an airfare sale through friday. more locations to buy medical marijuana in the bay area. tonight the richmond city council will decide whether to increase the number of medical marijuana dispensaries from four to six. city leaders will discuss easing restrictions on where pot clubs can set up shop. currently the dispensaries can only operate in two areas, hilltop and pacific east mall. at tonight's meeting the council could vote to expand those areas. contra costa county health officials are concerned about an alarming rise in the number of cases of tuberculosis. in 2010 there were 33 reported cases of tb but in 2011 that number jumped to 60. tuberculosis is an airborne bacteria disease that attacks the lungs. it tb usually starts with a persistent cough that eventually is accompanied by weight loss, fever, and night sweats. anyone with these symptoms is urged to call their doctor right away. the hunt is on for the person who shot a young hawk with a pellet gun. a $5,000 reward is being offered. the hawk remains in guarded condition after it was shot in the chest in the san martin area southeast of morgan hill. the bird has regained some strength and is eating on its own. the wild rescue organization is ha handling the reward thanks to many contributions. firefighters battled a two-alarm blaze early this morning at an apartment complex near downtown san jose. crews say one of the residents noticed smoke around 6:00 a.m. and began pounding on doors. thankfully everyone in the apartment got out safely. firefighters were able to contain the fire and the damage to just one unit. no word on what caused the fire. the sun was shining today where i was at and it was warm, so i had to go outside and go for a walk. it was so nice. >> and this is where we're seeing janelle took a hike with her heels on, right, jeff. >> no, i had my shoes on, my tennis shoes. my tennis shoes. >> just want to make sure you're protecting those lovely feet of yours. >> thanks, jeff. it was nice in the south bay and the peninsula. some 70-degree weather if you were out in the sun soaking it in, 71, felt like the mid-70s. 69 in santa cruz right up into san francisco, 62. and cooler up into santa rosa with cloud cover that it did linger with temperatures only at 60. right now numbers are dropping off. not too quick this hour. 61 in san mateo and 63 in sun sunnyva sunnyvale. what you'll find here is a little bit of sun reflecting on the north bay hills. traffic moving along great there on our golden gate bridge. as we continue through tonight it will be a mix of clouds rolling on in. now that we had all that have rain, over 16 inches last week, san jose is still doing pretty poorly here. only 3.81 at 30% of normal. a good time for them to catch up. we do have rain on tap at least in the next seven days. it's mainly mid to high level cloud cover moving across san francisco back into stockton and sacramento and as we pull out wider what you'll find is this frontal system just off to the north. it's trying to push down but we have high pressure building offshore and that's guarding us and keeping us a little bit dryer than we would normally be if that wasn't there. we would see that system move on down and would get sought rain. 45 in santa cruz. 44 in napa and also expecting 45 in livermore. as we continue through tomorrow we are going to see a lot more sunshine even for parts of the north bay. temperatures once again starting off in the 40s and then by the noon hour 60s for the inland and bay side areas and possibly low 70s returning to our interior sections. we'll tell you about that next best chance, measurable rainfall coming up in the seven-day forecast. >> see you soon, jeff. still ahead at 6:00, a big change for online dating websites. the new strategy to keep users safe. also ahead, a controversial vote involving the cal state system, the connection to the president of a bay area univer hsity. ans fid urofsty. w w tynea martial arts studio is helping to fight crime when we come back. ne rush hour is in full swing but tonight there's relief for commuters in one problem area in the south bay. drivers can use tose the car-pool lanes around the 237 and 880 interchange. the vta has convert add four-mile stretch of car-pool lanes to express lanes. that switch has made official at 5:00 this morning and things went smoothly depending on traffic and time of day it will cost solo drivers up to $6. the money is deducted from transponders. the average toll was $2. >> the a.m. commute people are looking at 17, 18, 19 minutes to get through this interchange. it's going to considerably cut down their time five, ten minutes if not more. >> and when you're late, that could come in handy. the express lanes are open during normal car-pool hours and we should mention car-poolers can continue to use them for free. they picked the wrong neighborhood for crime. a busy san francisco street corner is experiencing a sudden drop in crime because of a new martial arts studio that recently opened up. here is nbc bay area joe rosato jr. i teach three forms of stick fighting. >> reporter: there's a different beat to the kind of martial arts grandmaster robert castro teaches. >> this art is set up to be able to use a pencil, newspaper, whatever, an umbrella, whatever you have in your hand. >> reporter: knifes, sticks, even a conga drum are worked into lessons and this 8-month-old studio on polk street. >> ever poked somebody with a toothpick? i'll bet you it hurts. >> reporter: beneath the macgyver-like filipino self-defense castro has taught for 30 years is a mantra sharper than any knife. >> i teach my students when they hear help to always help. >> reporter: and that lesson flashed in the mind of castro's student, harold soriano, last week, when he stadiumbled on a robbery in the grocery store beneath the studio. >> i saw the manager running out of the store and one of the cashiers was rubbing her eyes. >> reporter: soriano chased the suspect down the street, wrestled him to the ground, getting stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors in the process. >> i went back to the studio and told everybody this happened. hey, that technique works really well. i just used it. >> reporter: castro himself fended off a man attacking a clerk in the bagel shop downstairs. >> said this guy was ready to beat her up and they thanked me for coming in. now i get free bagels and doughnuts. >> reporter: the hero deeds are not lost on neighbors