it's another day of massive protest in egypt. we'll find out which group is noticeably absent from cairo's main square today. and more than 200 people are evacuated from this homeless shelter in san jose because of an early morning fire. good morning, i'm marla tellez. we'll tell you how everyone is doing now coming up in a live report. and as you gather with family and friends this super bowl sunday, you will do so in beautiful weather overhead. your complete forecast is coming up. and i'm going to update you on the overnight fog advisory. an earlier truck fire, an accident and despite friday light speeds are well below the limit in a couple spots. we'll let you know where. it is friday, february 4th. this is "today in the bay." >> good morning, everybody. it is straight up 6:00 on friday morning. i'm brent cannon. >> i'm laura garcia-cannon.

we start with the developing situation in egypt. thousands of anti-government protestors are in the center of cairo again today. >> from time to time we have our live look. we just lost it, but there are reports this morning that the supporters of president hosni mubarak are not there today. they have been clashing with the anti-government protestors, but they are not there. so things seem to be a lot more peaceful. here's a live look out there this morning. we had seen yesterday sporadic gunfire, molotov cook tames cocktails and that kind of thing. we are not seeing the violence so far. the egyptian government estimates that nearly 900 people have been injured and eight people have been killed. another large protest is going on today in egypt. the second largest city is alexandria. people are gathering outside the mosque in that city. we'll let you know if there are new developments this morning as the day continues to go on. it is now 4:00 in the afternoon there.

all right. an overnight fire forced hundreds of people to evacuate frommage emergency shelter in the south bay. the ehq helps people get back on their feet. the fire could have set them back further. today in the bay's marla tellez is live with more on that fire. >> reporter: good morning, brent. behind us here is the emergency housing qonsorsium. it is close to highway 87 here. it is hard to tell if there was a two-alarm fire earlier because the fire crews are gone and a couple of pg&e crews are on the scene. earlier there were 60 to 70 firefighters on the scene going their best to contain the two-alarm fire. it started in the laundry room about 2:00 this morning. and immediately the 215 people living here were all evacuated. the good news is the building's sprinkler system kicked in right away to contain the flames to the laundry room, but the smoke did spread throughout the entire

building. that's why the folks inside had to get out. more good news is no one was hurt. now, the crews had the fire completely under control by 3:15 this morning. and the fire captain tells me the damage is contained to that laundry room. about $5,000 worth of damage. everyone at this point this morning is back inside safe and sound. i imagine trying to get some much-needed rest since they had an interrupted night. the cause of the fire is still not known. it is still under investigation. live in san jose this morning, marla tellez, "today in the bay." thank you. meantime, a warning for parents about to take their kids to school. the south bay police are on the lookout for a man they say tried to kidnap a girl on her way to class. the botched abduction happened in milpitas yesterday morning not far from the san jose border near caliveras high school. the girl was followed and chased by a man speaking spanish. she managed to get to school to get help and the man got away.

police are also investigating two attempted kidnappings that happened on january 24th. one was on everglades drive and one on north park victoria drive. officers do not think they are related to yesterday's attempted kidnapping, but if you have any information on any of them, you are asked to call milpitas police. in the tech-vaf savvy bay area, the mayor police department can barely communicate with officers in the field. the oakland police department is using a faulty radio system that's been broken for years. and it is putting the officers and the public in danger. christie smith is live at the oakland police department with a look at the problem. sound big, christie. >> reporter: these radios have been such a problem that the mayor ordered full inspection of them last week. it was believed they were fixed early this week. since then these police radios have failed not once but twice. the oakland police chief spreads his frustration over officer

safety and says that the systems are basically shattered when he walked in the door a year ago. according to "the tribune" wednesday a covert drug operation occurred when officers couldn't talk to dispatch. then thursday morning officers searched for three burglary suspects when the radios failed again. this time officers had actually resorted to hand signals to talk to each other. the street officers have been complaining iff for quite some time, even before a high-speed chase. an officer-involved shooting occurred on january 26 when critical equipment failed on them. mayor quan said the i.t. department found a problem with a timing mechanism which had been adjusted and apparently fixed. now workers will have to figure out if this is tied to the old problem or something entirely new. reporting live in oakland, christie smith, "today in the bay." thank you very much. >> as we continue to follow the

problems for the oakland police department, we are just getting wortd that chief anthony batts will make a statement regarding whether he'll state with the police department. we'll follow that throughout the morning. in the meantime, police in the east bay are looking for a robber who held up a bank in the middle of the day. here are surveillance pictures from the bank of america on railroad avenue. you can get a pretty clear look at the suspect here. as you can see, police say he pointed a handgun at the teller and got away with cash. liver more police and chp chased the man for a short time and thought they had him cornered in an oakland apartment building but he got away. anyone with information is now asked to call the livermore police department. two mothers are expected to enter a plea this morning to face grand theft charges after allegedly stealing $30,000 from a south bay elementary school. 42-year-old jennifer vazquez and wendy hayes were in charge of a fund-raiser in san jose. both mothers reportedly spent

the money at old navy, jcpenney, gas stations and netflix. the oakland school district will seek to get the $30,000 back. the fisherman wharf's shop owner is accused of shooting two employees and will be in court today. the 56-year-old did not show up for the scheduled court hearing on wednesday. he is currently on a psychiatric hold at san francisco's gent hospital. the shop owner is charged with two counts of murder after shooting two rival store workers in their neighboring jefferson street store on sunday night. we have good news for an east bay city this morning who is now reporting a crime rate that is at a 50-year low. pittsburgh police say livermore had 2,200 serious crimes happen in 2010, a 40% drop from the year before. police say fbi statistics show last year's crime rate when adjusted for population is the lowest for any year since 1960. pittsburgh police say the number of robberies, homicides and arsons went down in 2010

compared to 2009. but rapes, aggravated assaults and burglaries went up slightly last year when compared to the year before. verizon said this morning it sold out its preorders of the iphone4 for now. scott mcgrew says even before they get the phones to customers verizon is changing some rules. >> this is a shocker. "the wall street journal" reports that verizon has a plan to slow customers connections if needed, particularly in the bandwidth. if you are using your iphone to listen to pandora and walk into a done zone where people are making lots of phone calls, your phone could slow. 5% of the customers shouldn't affect 95% of their customers. this is the latest in the battle over so-call ed protests at google. the question is should everyone

have equal access to data? should all data be treated equally? the short answer from the government is when it comes to wired connections, yes. all data should be treated equally. but, brent and laura, when it comes to wireless, no, not necessarily. this is a whole different sort of internet. it is interesting as people spend more and more on the wireless internet. they are going to be more affected by this. 6:09 right now. you may have noticed it on the set this morning. as you are getting ready this morning, add a little red to your outfit. today is national wear red day to raise awareness about heart disease in women. that's the number one killer of women. it kills one in three women every year. the american heart association says 90% of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease. many of them can prevent cardiac events. they have to make great choices when it comes to food and exercise. eat your fruits and vegetables. >> we all have our red going today, including christina, who

has a look at your red weather forecast. many are red with envy across the rest of the nation when it comes to what we are going to see. we are going to see a beautiful, beautiful weekend ahead. the super bowl, grilling, yes, we can do so outdoors this weekend. but i want to bring your attention to what's happening later today. at 5:00 p.m. a fashion show at the oak ridge mall. i would love to meet you out there. it is an all red fashion show free to the public. we are giving out free nbc swag. if you would like more information, log on to facebook.com and search "bay area proud." show your bay area pride today by wearing red if you can't make it to the fashion show. it is a great thing to do to draw awareness to heart disease. we want to keep all the women around the bay area nice and safe. we are looking good right now in terms of our temperatures. a little chilly in napa, 34 degrees. 37 in santa rosa. 42 in san mateo. offshore flow continues. let's show you the satellite imagery telling a story this morning. you can see clouds arcing up around the ridge of high

pressure and pushing the clouds offshore here. we've got a really warm set up taking place. the winds are warming the area up pushing from land to sea. heading throughout this afternoon, the places with the cloud cover, you'll notice a little more cloud cover today in san francisco, antioch, san jose. but the cloud cover will keep us a little more mild overnight. temperatures will be warmer tomorrow afternoon. 70 degrees in los gatos. 67 in fremont. sunny conditions continue through the weekend. we'll talk about just how warm it will be on super bowl sunday coming up. back over to mike inouye now with a check on the traffic. good morning, christina. we have the red on just like you. we are increasing the awareness. expect massive crowds near oak ridge for christina's fashion show this evening. we are looking at 101 approaching 680. an earlier accident north of the 680 interchange near alum rock cleared. it was enough to kickoff the morning slow drive. passing but tulle, speeds are 26

there. they are slow. averaging 30 to 40 miles per hour. that's the first time this month for the south bay. heading into the south bay, we have an earlier accident with a truck fire on the side of the road. the truck is a car carrier. that's on your shoulder until 6:30 near scott creek road. slow through antioch, really slow around 20 miles an hour in spots. friday light here. back to you guys. 6:12 right now. still to come on "today in the bay," most of you will watch the super bowl and the commercials this weekend. we are going to show you one that has already gotten a lot of people talking and laughing coming up. and could this weekend's game be the last professional football game we see in a while? find out what bad news could be hovering over this weekend's party next. and investigators are looking for an arsonist after three fires are set in less than an hour in san francisco. we'll have the details. taking a live look outside at the bay bridge this morning, folks are making their way in.

we'll check the commute there and across the bay area to help you get out the door this morning. it is 6:12.

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investigators say they are not ruling out that the arson could be hate crime. a temporary fix to a dangerous san francisco intersection is working so well it could become permanent. two temporary right turns have been in place at the intersection of sixth and tenth streets since january of last year. the pilot project showed the turns make the street safer for walking, biking and public transit. there will be a public hearing at 10:00 this morning. then the proposal to make the changes permanent will be heard by the mta board for approval. new the morning, fly in space or stay on earth with his wife. that's the decision facing the astronaut husband of gabrielle giffords. mark kelly will appear at a press conference today at johnson space center in houston. his identical twin scott hinted that mark will choose to fly. mark kelly spent the last month by his wife's side debating if he should step down as commander

of "endeavour's" final flight in april. the packers and steelers will square off this weekend at cowboy stadium in arlington, texas, for super bowl xlv. >> among all the excitement there's also concern about what's going to happen after the big game is over. the players union and the owners are locked in a contract fight. the owners are expected to walk the players out later on this year, which means that next season could start late or not at all. >> this is an american game. >> sunday's super bowl is expected to be the most watched super bowl game ever. a new poll shows more than two-thirds of americans plan to watch. that's up 10% from 2009. >> a lot of people watch the game for the commercials. our sports reporter dan ast

ravell said fox will make $200 million off super bowl ads. >> it is an amazing amount. we'll talk super bowl ads. if i had to pick out one to show you, it is our favorite in the newsroom. it is from volkswagen with a ranch twist. take a look. ♪ ♪

>> i love it. i love it! that's adorable. >> that's nice. you can see a lot of the commercials already on youtube. this has become an interesting phenomenon. people watching the commercials over and over before and after the game. also look for a groupon ad as well. there will be an angry birds ad buried in a real movie ad. then sunday before the super bowl we got "press here." the guy who is behind the bing sting, the mastermind, a great sunday of television. >> it is pretty smart for commercial advertisers to build the hype by showing them on youtube. it looks like a super bowl team named after you doesn't mean you get to play hookie. many were told they better not skip work to watch the steelers

in the super bowl. u.s. steele said missing work on sunday or monday without just cause will be subject to severe disciplinary action. better put up a monitor for them. some people in north texas are worried mother nature has snowed on their super bowl parade. >> yearks the unusual winter weather covered roads and they have lots of ice. airports have been closed. and there have been rolling blackouts. atlanta hosted the super bowl during an ice storm in 2007. the game hasn't returned there since, but cowboys' owner jerry jones is not worried. >> the reason we have this super bowl is because we have a stadium that can handle whether like this without question. >> when it comes down to it, you can expect the super bowl to return to dallas in the future. that could be because the stadium seats 100,000 people. and remember we told you about the tickets that started at about $200 to stand out the

stadium? and you watch on pick-screen tvs. they are selling up to $2,000 now. we tell you only the truth and facts here. meantime, talking about chicago, they are cleaning up from the storm that dumped two feet of snow on the city. the big storm passed through and they got hit hard. the storm canceled thousands of flights at o'hare airport. more than 16,000 flights were canceled across the country. some affected those here in the bay area. next the concern is dealing with the frigid arctic air. it is going to stay cooler than average into the rockies throughout the weekend. so they are just really having a tough go at it. >> yeah, it is kind of weird because we are talking about watching that harsh winter weather all over the country. >> and here -- >> you look outside and go, what went her? as we put on our shades and head out the front door. >> it is true. >> sunscreen, that's right. good point, laura. only from a mother. high uv index this morning.

keep the sunscreen handy. 49 in oakland. 47 in san francisco right now. starting out relatively mild, we are a couple degrees warmer than where we were at this time yesterday morning. that's because we have a little bit of cloud cover overhead. you'll notice more cloud cover throughout the day. temperaturewise, get on out there to enjoy it if you can. 70 degrees no los gatos. 70 in oakland. same for san jose. that puts things in perspective. normally we hit temperatures in the upper 50s. so especially this weekend we will enjoy the 70s across the board. san francisco will hit probably 68 degrees on sunday. and in the south bay, if you enjoy the super bowl, you may want to do so outside. break out the folding chairs. 72 degrees, nice and warm. the super bowl sunday in the bay area this year will go down in history. back to you. do you have a napa weekend we can do for fun? >> why not? we'll talk about that coming up.

>> all right. >> right now i know what you really want. i know what you want on a friday, mike inouye. >> everyone wants the traffic. folks, check it out. looking at the golden gate bridge, this is a live shot. the fog advisory has been lifted by chp. they issued the overnight fog advisory, but it was lifted a bit ago. you can see a clear view. christina is talking about fog drifting through this time in the north bay and east bay hills. the bay bridge toll plaza is building traffic. a steady flow off the maze. a nice, easy drive down the east shore freeway. travel times showing up at 18 minutes off the cartinas bridge. 24 and 880 are smooth as well. there's the exception in antioch this friday. the big apple follows in san francisco's footsteps. we'll find out which world famous site in the city could be going smoke-free now. did you hear about the guy accused of stealing more than $1 million in casino chips? they caught him and didn't have to look far.

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welcome back, everyone. police say the man accused of stealing $1.5 million worth of casino chips in las vegas returned to the scene of the crime a lot. 29-year-old anthony carleo is in jail this morning. this is him running out of the bellagio in december. he was arrested wednesday. he was at the bellagio. he lost $105,000 at the can sigh know casino since the robbery. one las vegas police lieutenant said he likes to gamble. they say if you can make it in new york you can make it just about anywhere, but you probably will not be able to smoke while you do it. the new york city counsel is expanding the smoking ban. they approved the ban in all city parks in times square and on park benches as well.

mayor michael bloomberg still has to sign the bill. they do have a law banning smoking in city bars and restaurants. that has been in place since 2003. it is 6:26. coming up, we'll update you on the woman who is trapped in her apartment in the middle of protests in egypt. two parents are accused of driving drunk with their kids in a van. we will tell you what police say they saw when they pulled the family over. oakland police officers say their radios have failed them again. find out the latest on the ongoing problem in a live report.

a 76-year-old american woman is trapped in her apartment in the middle of the chaos in egypt. we'll update you on her situation this morning. they are a critical part of the job for oakland police. now their radios have failed them again after being repaired.

i'm christie smith. we'll tell you what happened and what's being done coming up. and from the sand to the slammer, we have details on why a day at the beach for these bay area parents turned our out sour. plus, we have a live look from the south bay this morning. it is friday, february 4th on "today in the bay." good morning, everybody. it is 6:30. we want to take you live once again to cairo, egypt. once again, hundreds of thousands of people have filled the square there. but things seem to be a bit more calm today. not so many violent clashes. protestors are still out there calling for president hosni mubarak to step down. we are not seeing as much clashes with the pro-government supporters as we did the past few days. in the meantime, a lot of world leaders are really working to try to come to some resolution and figure out how to peacefully

have mubarak and his regime step down and figure out who the newry placement government will be. we also have an update on the 76-year-old woman we told you about yesterday still trapped in her cairo apartment building. mary thornberry moved to cairo in 1986 to get her graduate degree in egyptology. she's been trapped since wednesday by supporters or protestors on both sides. they stormed her building. she's the only one left inside. she has been able to communicate outside and says she has seen people throwing molotov cocktails from the roof of her building to the square below. friends like ellen feeney who we had on live yesterday has been checking in by thornberry by phone. her son is in washington state and is trying to get her out as well. nbc's lester holt has been reporting from the square trying to reach thornberry yesterday with a crew, but he had to turn

back because he and his crew ran into rowdy demonstrators. meantime, the u.s. state department is trying to evacuate their own people, so they can't get to her. they are trying to do what they can to get her out, but the good news is it does appear that things are a little more peaceful today than yesterday. not so good at the oakland police department. they will find out if anthony batts will stay in his position. we are standing by waiting to hear from him. at the same time, things are literally falling apart for the oakland police department. the rank-in-file say this case are short staffed, patrol cars need repaired and the radios are not working again. kristy smith is live at police headquarters. this is not the first time we have heard about the radio problem. >> reporter: not at all. rank-in-file officers have been complaining about the radios for quite some time. no less than two weeks ago the radios failed during a high-speed chase and officer-involved shooting.

then mayor jean quaun ordered a full inspection of the entire system. since then just this week the radios have failed twice. that according to the oakland "tribune." wednesday during a covert operation opd could not talk with their own dispatchers. thursday while looking for three burglary suspects, the radios acted up again and officers actually had to resort to using hand signals. now, on monday mayor quan said the city's i.t. department found a malfunction with a timing mechanism then adjusted. and the chief, he's expressed concern over officers right to feel secure on the job. everyone here involved said they don't want to play the blame game, they just want it fixed. this is happening as mayor quan is planning to rehire ten officers laid off and to fix patrol cars and radios. now city workers are back to square one trying to see if the radio problems are tied to the

old problem or something entirely new altogether. reporting live in oakland, christie smith, "today in the bay." it will be interesting to see what happens. thank you. >> 32 years ago today three young men were shot and killed execution-style within a peninsula drugstore. their killer was never found but that could change. san mateo police have new information in the cold case. on february 4th 1979, traci anderson, billy baumgartner and michael olson were shot to death in the payless drugstore, now the rite-aid pharmacy. they recently discovered new information from old binders stored in a closet. >> the unfortunate part is with an open and active investigation, we can't give a lot of information to the public about what it is we have generated and are working on. >> there's still a $75,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for that killing. sheriff deputies say two

parents so drunk they could barely stand are facing child endangerment chargeses for driving with their four young children in the car. san mateo county sheriff deputies say 54-year-old james arthur lee and his wife maureen lee started drinking on an outing with their kids in half-moon bay. and deputies say they didn't stop drinking on the way home. the parents allegedly pulled the car over to the side of the road twice to drink more beer. at a hearing wednesday both pleaded no contest to felony endangerment charges. it is unclear who is taking care of the couple's kids. an overnight fire caused thousands of dollars in damage to an emergency shelter in the south bay. and "today in the bay's" marla tellez is live in san jose with more on what happened. they say this could have been a lot worse. >> reporter: good morning, brent. yes, they could have put the 215 people who stay inside this shelter who are homeless out on the street. this is the emergency housing

qonsortium. right now everybody is safe and sound. nobody was hurt. fire crews have left. a couple pg&e croups with on the scene because the power was shut down. it has been restored since the fire was put out, but earlier it took 60 to 70 firefighters to put out the flames. the fire started in the laundry room at 2:00 this morning. it was a two-alarm fire. and immediately the 215 people staying in the shelter were evacuated. the good news is the building's sprinkler system kicked in right away and contained the flames to the laundry room. but because the smoke spread throughout the building, everyone had to get out. they did safely. as i mentioned, nobody was hurt. they were allowed back in by 4:00 this morning. the crews did have the fire completely under control by 3:15 this morning. and the fire captain tells me the damage is contained just to the laundry room where the

flames started. about $5,000 worth of damage there. as for the cause of the fire, it is still under investigation. it is not known at this point. life in san jose this morning, marla tellez, "today in the bay." thank you, marla. and coming up, free rides -- >> we'll get you free rides in a bit. >> come along and take a free ride. let's go to christina. we are getting paid in sunshine. great weather for free all weekend long. big-time weekend happening for us. and if you'll be somebody enjoying the super bowl, if you are someone that likes to throw the ball around during halftime, you get to do so under beautiful conditions. we are talking about the 70s heading into this weekend. and we do have a little bit of fog out there. i do want to draw your attention to that, especially if you are waking up in the north bay. a little bit is developing along the peninsula as well. we'll see fog towards the coast this morning. and the offshore flow has weakened just enough for some of the fog to drift inland. 47 degrees in san francisco

right now. 42 in san mateo. 37 degrees in livermore. it is a chilly start, but we'll see another wonderful afternoon with lots of sunshine and temperatures about 15 degrees above their seasonal averages. 71 degrees in santa cruz. i just want to point something out for the big super bowl weekend. 77 degrees in the north bay. that's warmer than san diego will be this sunday. so we are getting the best weather in the country right now. back to you guys. that's fantastic. thanks. tell us about the free rides. >> you can get a free ride in the south bay. we'll tell you who and why coming up in a live report. and don't forget to add a little red to your outfit today. you may have noticed we did because it is national go red for women day. we are going to tell you why it is so important to get the word out. [ female announcer ] back to school means back to busy mornings.

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if you see a lot of people wearing red today, it is all for a good cause. >> today the american heart association is asking people to wear red as part of the campaign to raise awareness on heart disease. the go red for women campaign says many women have the wrong

message when it comes to reducing the risk for heart attack. >> among some of the misconceptions is that aromatherapy and essential oils help to stop heart disease. but they are not proven to have any kind of effect like that. over the counter vitamins may do no harm, but again, there's no scientific evidence that they reduce your heart risk. experts say that the proven strategies include a diet full of vegetables and fruits and whole grains and good old fashioned exercise. a bay area transit sagt agency is offering free rides for the homeless. a live report on that is coming up. plus, find out what's going on sale this summer. find out how much will be around the bay on this jet ckpa. [ female announcer ] why settle for plain bread

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good friday morning to you. temperatures are already climbing towards 50 degrees in san francisco. you're at 47 right now. we've got some clouds overhead. you'll probably notice that as the sun comes up over the course of the next half hour. and what's really happening is high pressure is firmly in control of our weather pattern. you can see this offshore flow, clockwise rotation, these are clouds pushing from land to sea. that's happening with the winds as well. we have warm, down-sloping winds with all the sunshine expected this afternoon. the temperatures are expected towards 70 degrees in los gatos. 66 degrees in san rafael. now, this weekend we are going to be even warmer. a rare treat for the city of san francisco. 67 degrees forecasted. warm conditions on summer bowl

sunday. the bout south bay and north bay will see temperatures in the mid to upper 70s. san diego's forecast heading into sunday is 72 degreesful we'll see weather in the bay area similar to what they see in san diego. can't beat that. maybe you are trying to get up to wine country because it is so nice out there. we want to send you for free. we are offering free lodging, fine dining and a private wine tasting. all you have to do to win is log on to nbcbayarea.com and click on that contest button. let's find out how things are looking on the roadways. you want to get to work on time to go home early, right, mike? that's right, christina. you are talking about the north bay, wine country, we'll take you to livermore wine country. there's a delay there, a minor delay, less than ten minutes. catching the train from livermore or after that and getting down to san mateo, you'll get there at 8:00. keep that in mind. now we'll check traffic through the north bay. we have a blip northbound from

680 that hasn't cleared up. it is still slow near 880 and 680. same thing for 680 and highway 87 with slowing into downtown. earlier we saw a log-jam near 84 northbound near university. that has cleared up. so that could be an ibd case of more folks hitting the roadway and heading up the peninsula through san mateo where we see a blip off highway 92. no issues as far as the bridges go. the headlights are coming off the peninsula. that's a nice drive off the high-rise. a clear flow with taillights westbound. no delays off 880. even the bay bridge is seeing snow metering lights. it is friday light. back to you. the chinese have the rear of the rabbit, and the neat ma vietnamese have the year of the cat. the annual northern california cat festival is occurring. as many as 70,000 people are expected to be at the santa

clara county fairgrounds on saturday and sunday. it features a martial arts tournament, table tennis tournament and more. the grand opening is tomorrow at 10:30. san francisco's chinatown will be busy as well. thousands of people are showing up to celebrate the chinese new year this year. and that means much-needed business for the bay area shops there. >> basically for the next week to two weeks families get together and come in to have dinner or lunch to celebrate. >> chinatown is also getting ready for the big chinese new year parade. that's been a tradition since just after the gold rush. that parade will happen on february 19th this year. of course, thousands of people are expected to be there as they celebrate the year of the rabbit. the eta is offering free rides. not everyone will qualify. marla tellez is live in san jose

with the details. >> reporter: good morning. this shelter here gives home to the homeless and people who take advantage of the setter will probably likely qualify for the rides offered by the eta. it is called the most extensive effort in the bay area just approved by the valley transportation authority. come april homeless who have been screened by social service agencies and can prove they are in a program can ride the eta for free. it costs $6,000. that's more than most can afford. those will be given transit stickers to get the free ride with an id. that will help them get back on their feet to get to work or the doctor. santa clara county will pick up the $111,000 annual tab for the

program. an estimated 3,500 people are expected to use it each year. now, the latest statistics show that about 7,200 people are currently homeless in santa clara county. live in san jose this morning, marla tellez, "today in the bay." thank you very much, marla. and we have some breaking news that we are following this morning. firefighters battling flames at $ -- we are getting conflicting reports, it could be a home or condo complex. it is a two-alarm fire on santa teresa boulevard in san jose. we are looking at google maps trying to locate the area for you. no word on injuries so far or the extent of damage. but we'll, of course, continue to monitor what's going on. now to what's going on in egypt at tahrir square in cairo. it is now being called liberation square. hundreds of thousands of people are gathering there this morning. and "today in the bay's" capitol hill reporter tracie potts is live in washington, d.c.

we are hearing that there are some high-level meetings going on in washington right now trying to help with some kind of transition of power. >> reporter: well, the u.s. has been in touch we jinx officials, egyptian officials, but they are trying to work out some sort of deal where mubarak leaves and there's a trance igsal government headed by the vice president of egypt with the military and these opposition groups involved. now, as that is going on, the crowds are gathering in the square as we have seen in these live pictures coming in all morning. crowd estimates are now up to 100,000. and it is a different tone than we have seen, not the fighting and the violence that we saw in past days, but today flags, people holding up signs, chanting "leave, leave" referring to mubarak. they are calling this the day of leave. they have been chanting and the crowds have been growing the last couple of hours. mubarak's party, however, says

the demonstrators you are looking at don't necessarily represent the silent majority all across egypt. bottom line, this is the day that they believe they can force him out. while behind the scenes the united states is trying to help shape how that's going to happen. >> thank you, tracie. >> we talked to david gregory, moderator of nbc's "meet the press" a short time ago. he talked about the unrest in egypt. >> they are pushing him to step down now to put more power in the vice president's hands and begin to transition to an election and coalition government. the opposition is still rather loose. the most organized fraction of it is the muslim brotherhood to give a lot of american officials a lot of pause in the islamist party, but nevertheless, right now the u.s. is focused on trying to put measure on mubarak to keep support from the military, which the united states provides a tremendous amount of aid to, and get this transition underway.

>> david gregory will be hosting a special "meet the press" this sunday morning at the reagan library in simi valley. right after "meet the press" stick around for "press here." scott mcgrew talks to the mastermind of the bing sting. it is the first time it is being talked about on television. this happened sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. here on nbc bay area. right now scott is here to talk about something much bigger. >> from bing stine to beer stine. this gadget is appropriately called a beer stine, right before the super bowl. this is from a company that is the stine of science. we use orange juice because it is a little early in the morning. scientists call this a door flask. it is a teflon aluminum built by a science guy in the bay area. $235. more information at

funranium.com. this will keep your orange juice cold for a very long time. i got a bunch of buddies coming over. we ordered several cases of orange juice. we are going to drink orange juice all day. >> our floor director here, aaron, pointed out coors light has the brew liners for a lot less. >> i have to have a taste test to let you know. it is science. >> that's what we'll call it. >> a fancy container there. not to show that gadget up, but we have something to show to you. >> pretty soon you may see people actually doing this. look at this thing. now that's a gadget this friday. it is a water-powered jet pack. you can -- this is an online ad. the company is jet lev. they sell for $130,000. what is that big hose thing in the background? >> that's where the water comes from, the lake or wherever you are. >> apparently they have a top

speed of 22 miles an hour. the company is taking preorders. there's a waiting list. most of the orders are said to be coming in from the middle east. and private buyers in russia and portugal. >> interesting. wow. i would try it. >> before or after having your beer? >> yeah. we are just getting word this morning that mark kelly, the husband of congresswoman gabrielle giffords, decided to pilot the shuttle "challenger" in april. >> this is the third trip he's going to make to space. he decided to take the mission instead of stay back with his wife going through rehabilitation after being shot in the head last month. nasa says it is his decision. let us know which way he's going. >> she is getting the best care she can right now. she is seeing a lot of improvement. boy, we want to look at the forecast. simply beautiful across the bay area, isn't it, christina? >> it really is.

there's not a lot of room for improvement right here because it doesn't get any better than 70 degrees early february in the bay area. we are going to be getting warmer heading to super bowl sunday. 73 degrees is the forecasted high for the east bay. we are going 77 for the north bay. 66 for the peninsula. we are looking good in the south bay near 74 degrees on sunday. nice conditions continue all the way throughout next weekend. lots of sunshine. no rain in the forecast. so the only downfall is you have to wash your car yourself. maybe you are jumping in your car heading to work. let's check on the roadways with mike inouye. here's an update. northbound 101 is slow coming from capital to 880. that stretch is near 40. and that fire we told you about south of 87 and south of 85, it is close to santa teresa. far enough not to affect the commute spots, but the smoke can be visible on the freeways as the sun comes up throughout the bay area.

meanwhile, an accident southbound on 880 near thorton is out of the lanes. no major slowing because of the light volume of traffic, but we are seeing slowing on southbound 880 approaching 92 and the interchange there. a smooth drive through oakland. a live look out there shows the volume of traffic building as the sun comes up through oakland and the coliseum. the taillights are flowing again with no metering lights at the toll plaza right now. it is almost 7:00. back to you. friday light is right. >> thank you for joining us this morning. enjoy your friday and weekend. the "today" show comes up next. >> it should be gorgeous out there. a local news update for you in a half hour and every half hour after that. have a great day and a great weekend.

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