the oakland police chief has made a decision about whether he will stay on the job. twin peruvian girls make a sacrifice for their future. and why people are concerned there could be an arsonist in castro. good afternoon.

topping news this noontime, oakland police chief anthony batts says he is staying. there were concerns the 50-year- old chief would leave after it was revealed he was a final candidate for the police chief job in san jose. a job that he ultimately did not get. batts has expressed dissatisfaction over the reduced number of officers, and operational problems such as patrol cars that are out of service, and police radios that don't always work. in a written statement, batts said he was -- he has talked with the mayor and members of the city council and quote, they have been said they understand the needs of the police officers who work diligently for the residents of oakland, and they are willing to work with me to address those needs. chief batts is scheduled to meet with the media in about 15 minutes. we plan to bring that you live. we'll also have the story on ktvu channel 2 news at 5:00 and 6:00 plus more on our website, ktvu.com. a big bar fight early this morning sent lawfirm rushing to emeryville. the -- they broke up the fight

at kitty's bar, near 67th. it started inside the bar and quickly escalated. emeryville police called for backup officers after things got out of control. oakland police, the chp and county sheriff's deputies all arrived within minutes. at least two people were detained. no word of any injuries. we're following some developing news this noon hour in the south bay, where a main runway at the san jose airport is shut down due to a disabled plane. the airport says a small plane had some trouble with its landing gear, and is now stuck at the end of the runway. no one was injured. since the runway is blocked, only one other is open. and that is delaying some flights from taking off and landing. again these are live pictures right now of san jose, mine this. a, international airport. egypt's official news agency says more than 160,000 foreigners have fled the country since the start of anti-

government protests. yesterday, the vice president said 1 million people had left. in the meantime, for the 11th day, hundreds of thousands of people were gathered in tahrir square. but violent pro government demonstrators were mostly absent today. and the gathering was more peaceful than in the last two days. on this day, demonstrators were calling day of departure for president hosni mubarak. in the u.s., senators john kerry and john mccain introduced a bipartisan resolution today. they want president mubarak to begin an immediate transition to a democratic political system. >> build towards the elections that can be free, and fair, and set an example for how any country in this kind of crisis can deal with it. >> the obama administration says negotiations are underway with top egyptian officials about the possibility of mr. mubarak resigning and the creation of a transitional

military-backed government led by continue current egyptian vice president. egyptian banking officials estimate the cost of the protests at more than $300 million a day. they are also lowering their forecast for egypt's economic growth to 3.7% in 2011, from 5.3%. the economy is suffering from the week-long closure of banks and other businesses along with the exodus of tourists trying to avoid violence '. this morning students at mission san jose high school in fremont demonstrated in support of the anti-government protesters -- in egypt. [ horns honking ] >> students stood in front of the school on mission boulevard holding signing and encouraging drivers to honk for peace in egypt. one student said he had family in egypt and was inspired to do something. >> i was watching al-jazeera, and we shaw the people bleeding on the streets. i decided personally i needed

to do something with my school backing me. >> they scheduled the demonstration to start before school and wrapped up before classes started this morning. a uc davis professor is recovering in egypt after being attacked during the protests. on wednesday, professor noha radwan said she was beaten by pro mubarak state police minutes after she was interviewed by a tv station. >> they handed me on to a mob, that started beating me and pulling my hair. they ripped my shirt off. >> radwan says a low-ranking member of the military pulled her out of harm's way. she needed a few stitches to her head but says she is now fine. our coverage of the uprising in egypt continues a ktvu.com where you will find more video and a special section right on the front page. we have an update on identical twin girls in the east bay who enlisted together on the same day. the two hoop are originally from peru faced a tragedy but

stuck to their plan. ktvu's jade hernandez joins us live after witnessing the twins taking their oath in hayward. good afternoon. >> reporter: good afternoon. it is extremely rare for the army to enlist identical twins at the same time but here in hayward, twin peruvian girls made a sacrifice for their future and to give back to their adopted country. the 18-year-old twins entered the office today much like they entered the army. fearless. >> raise your right hand and repeat after me. >> melissa and maylynn stood side-by-side, reciting the army oath of enlistment. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. >> cool, congratulations. >> thank you. >> welcome to the army. [ applause ] >> their mother passed away on christmas eve. their father is at work today but the girls stand here with the support of every member of their family. >> my dad is really excited and my grandpa, he recently left for peru yesterday and he was

just like, i'm leaving really happy here because you guys did join the army, and, you know, i'm really proud of you so -- >> reporter: proud do, his granddaughters will come back to va there. lejo their adopted home town as united states citizens. >> we were going to do that on our own but then they told us that when we come back from basic, we will basically have it so, we didn't have to go through the whole process. >> as twins, they are inseparable at least until monday when they separate for basic training in south carolina. but they both know this decision will offer them opportunities they wouldn't have had otherwise. >> it is going to help us get our citizenship and open more doors for us in the army to get better jobs. >> reporter: melissa leaves for basic training on monday. she will come back into the army reserve at mayor island. her sister maylynn leaves later this month, then on to job training for her, and then, on to an active duty assignment. reporting live, jade hernandez, ktvu, channel 2 news. people in san francisco's

castro district worry there might be an arsonist on the loose. a small fire this morning did minor tackle at a victorian home on 18th and colling comfort streets. it is only a few blocks away from the three suspicious fires we reported on yesterday. >> at 4:15 this morning the screen door to james bolton's castro neighborhood business and home burned. it is a small loss but the potential was much bigger. >> yeah, yeah, my whole life and 10-year-old son in there, and i could lose everything. >> reporter: the damage from the flames is limited to just one home, but the fear there is be a arsonist in the neighborhood is starting to spread. >> i was just thinking that when i watched the news. holy hell there is a fire bug loose running around here. >> three early morning castro neighborhood fires yesterday are cause for concern, too. the cell phone video shows what the flames did to one of the buildings. no injuries are reported. but the fire department is not saying the fires are the work of an arsonist yet. but including today's fire,

each happened at the same part of town at the same part of the day. >> not going to say there is a fire bug but in the last two days we have had four fires at this same timeframe in the morning, that, you know, we're investigating the whole thing to see if they are all linked. >> reporter: the department put out the fire but they did get an assist from a neighbor. the damage in this morning's fire want that great if you take a look at the door, you can see it is just the screen door and a couple of places on the frame that are damaged. the homeowner credits his next- door neighbor for that. >> i just grabbed the tea kettle off the stove and filled it with water and came down and dowsed out what little flames were left. >> sylvia said she didn't know about the fires yesterday. a day later, though, it is hard to find anyone in the castro that hasn't heard about all four. in san francisco, craig devereaux, ktvu news. chief batts is speaking now at a news conference. let's listen in. >> letters, cards, pictures.

my staff can show you the preschoolers sent this thing with a big note that says chief, please don't leave, which touched my heart. the bottom line is the reason i came to the city was to try to make a difference for the community and the community responded and asked me to stand by them and so that is what touched my heart. >> you feel you have all the tools necessary to do the job that you see fit to be done? >> i think from my earlier conversations that is we have some challenges as a city. dramatic challenges that are there. i'm going to be very transparent and very open about that. i think the key is making sure i have the conversation and the ear of my bosses that they are open, that they hear what i'm saying and more importantly they hear what the officers are saying. they have to have the tools to do the job. >> are you on the same page? >> i had an opportunity all week to meet with all the council members including the -- including the mayor, city administrator and i think we're all on the same page. >> what did they tell you. you got your 10 officers back but that's not the aid that you want. how much are they grog commit? >> they told me they wanted me

to stay. they said they support the things that i have done. they applauded the job i have done this year. they want to work with me to make it better. they said we are dealing with tough financial times. but those things that we can do, we can address. and i said it is not all about the money and the economics, many times it is about the support and people seeing our leaders at that police organization participating with the police organization and letting officers know when they go out there on a daily basis and risk their lives, that that's important. >> i understand you have gone -- >> you have been listening to oakland police chief anthony batts giving a live press conference explaining why he decided to stay on the job as the chief of oakland. of course he was one of the finalists for the job in san jose, a job he ultimately did not get. he says he was very touched by the outpouring of support and requests to stay. he does admit there are challenges for the city and police department and he will continue to work with mayor kwan who was standing by his side and the city council to do the best job that he can as the chief of oakland. we will have more in our later

forecast and on our website, ktvu.com. also ahead, why some homeless people in a bay area county may be getting free rides. it is really busy at a bay area company. the reason is the super bowl, and a delicious treat. and biologist rosemary orozco has a fantastic weekend forecast. department of public works crews hit the streets of china town for a cleanup effort. it is underway now. we will show you what we found early this morning. oh rodriguezco

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train riders between stockton and san jose could see their commute time cut in half if they reroute the line. the rail authority approved a list of potential routes and stations for an upgrade to the altamont commuter express. the changes are a ways off. an environmental can impact report will not be done for at least two years. some money could come from the bond measure but the rest of the financing is still in question. homeless people in santa clara county don't have to wore about the cost of a bus ride to important appointments. the transportation authority voted yesterday to approve plan for free rides on buses and

light rail cards. the decision follows a pilot program in 2007 and will begin in april. an estimated 3500 people are expected to take advantage of the free ride each year. it's not like we're hang it out, just, you know, wherever. it's working closely with county, case workers and social workers to issue the transit passes so they can manage to get back on their feet. >> the idea is to help homeless people get to doctors' appointments and job interviews. the county will pick up the $110,000 tab. san mateo county has a similar program to get people to a homeless shelter. an early morning fire forced the evacuation of hundreds of people at a san jose homeless shelter. a ktvu crew was at the scene around for a.m. when residents were forced out in the cold. the fire started on little orchard drive. the sprinkler system helped put out the flames but the fire alarms jolted 200 people out of

a sound sleep. >> they were sleeping and everything, and the fire started up, and it woke everybody up. and everybody come out. >> fire started in the laundry room. sprinkler head held the fire at bay but our crews had to go in to extinguish the remainder of the fire. arson investigators want to know how the fire started in the laundry room in the middle of the night when nobody was doing laundry. damage estimated at $5,000. a campaign underway to clean up china town. as claudine wong reports a focus on illegal dumping could mean heavy fines for some. >> reporter: that sound filled the air this morning as san francisco's china town community celebrated the chinese new year with fire crackers. but that celebration leaves a bit of a mess. >> yeah,. >> you are going to clean it up? >> outreach crews from the department of public works made sure of that as part of a push underway to clean up the

neighborhood. >> i told you, make sure they keep their sidewalk clean during business time. >> we have illegal put-out. >> reporter: crews started before dawn and say illegal dumping is rampant in alleys like this one. >> right before chinese new year we see an increase of items put out. >> reporter: in an alley like this, you clean it up, you're going to be back here tomorrow morning, will you find more stuff? >> yes. >> but they also look for the person behind the trash. here they found males. >> this morning all these people will be trying to get in touch with this particular person. >> we caught up with the outreach team and they started writing citations. >> they don't want to see me because i give the tickets. >> reporter: do people admit that they are doing it? >> no. >> no, but they say they see their neighbors. >> reporter: always the neighbor, right? >> citations range from $100 to a thousand dollars. but from dumping to cleaning, from streets to tunnels, the effort is ongoing, and

repetitive. this alley wall was painted today even though it was painted yesterday. this graffiti showed up overnight. this outreach here in china town is going to wrap up in the next week or so. but crews say what they see in china town is like what they see all over the city. so even after they leave this neighborhood, they will just head to another one. in san francisco, claudine wong, ktvu, channel 2 news. boon, we're knocking on weekend's -- good afternoon, we're knocking on weekend's door. spring fever for the weekend. giving you a look at the golden gate there and just a gorgeous view. see a little haze and that's about it. partly cloudy skies. chilly start but we're already rebounding. giving you a look at what's going on. clouds pulling through. we have high pressure in place but a weak wave moving overit bringing those clouds our way. that will be about it. we're not going to see any rain in the coming days. with surface high in place watching northeasterly wind continue. a little gusty over the foothills.

that will last through the afternoon and evening hours. the warming trend in time for the weekend, could actually bring us a few new records. so for today, 60 to 70 degrees expected, mid 70s in time for the weekend. right now, upper 50s low 60s across the board. 61 san francisco. 60 redwood city. chillier in santa rosa and napa. with mostly sunny conditions. are you out to dinner this evening? it will be a nice day. we talked about the warmth expected for the noon by about 6:00, 54 to 63 degrees. we could see the sea breeze return. could be a little breezy. grab a jacket, you will be just fine. through the evening hours, upper 40s somewhere, low-to-mid 50s as we start the 9:00 hour. pinpointing some of our neighborhood highs for today, widespread 60s around the area. 66 for napa. 68, santa rosa, low mid-60s, oakland, san francisco. how about redwood city. 67 degrees. 67los gatos with a gorgeous forecast here. light winds for most of us. a little gusty over the higher elevations, and take a look at

that weekend. mostly sunny skies sitting in the 70s. maybe out golfing tomorrow? bring along the sun block. you just might need it. >> always good advice. thank you, rosemary. just two days before the super bowl, another blast of winter weather slammed dallas one to 5 inches of snow falling today in dallas making driving hazardous. and more than 600 flights were canceled at the dallas/fort worth airport early this morning. but runways closed for snow and ice removal were all open by late morning, city crews are also busy clearing roads, especially those around arlington stadium. it is warming up for the weekend though for dallas with highs in the 40s. with the super bowl this sunday, guacamole makers are gearing up for their biggest weekend of the year. this is a few of the 4,000 miles pounds of avocados they mashed this weekend in san leandro. they are being mixed with 2500 pounds of tomatoes to make 7 to 8,000 pounds of guacamole.

this is a drop in the world wide bucket of a billion pounds of guacamole that would be consumed this super bowl weekend. >> we will sell two to three times as much guacamole for this weekend as we would any other weekend. enough avocados will be mashed, this weekend, to fill a coliseum. >> wow. the other big event for guacamole, by the way, is cinco de mayo. still ahead, the latest jobless numbers are out with some mixed news.

taking a live look at the big board. less than an hour remains for the trading weekend. the stock market on pace for a weekly gain of 2%. right now the dow up 18. the nasdaq up 14. s&p up 2. the main reason for the market's move, there is mixed news in the labor department's jobless report for january that just came out today. employers added 36,000 new jobs last month and that's a lot fewer than economists had expected. those estimates had ranged from an additional 103,000 to 140,000 new jobs. but, the national unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 9% from 9.4%. the experts thought it would edge up slightly. they now say the drop could mean many people who had been looking for work have become

frustrated and stopped. opening day is still more than two months away but tens of thousands of people will gather at at&t park tomorrow for the annual giants fan fest. the free event will feature autograph booths, a children's player area and a viewing of the world series trophy. several players will be there. tomorrow is also the day all single day game tickets go on sale at 9:00 a.m. the gates will open at 11:00. in anticipation of the large crowd, the larkspur ferry added an extra trip to san francisco leaving at 10:30 tomorrow morning. there are a lot more details about tomorrow's fan fest at at&t park on ktvu.com. look in the bay area headlines on the front page, and remember, the celebration is free. and the oakland museum of california is taking a different approach to get the public through its doors. it will kick off the oakland standard art series tonight. the oakland standard will feature both artwork and events including music by deejays, film screeningings and lectures. officials say it is a new way for the public to participate with the museum.

all starts tonight with a launch party at 8:00 and admission is free. coming up on ktvu channel 2 news at 5:00, the mystery of a missing google executive is deepening. the company's middle east marketing chief took part of a protest in cairo and had been tweeting from the center of the action but 10 days ago he went silent and friends say he could be in a cairo jail. that story coming up at 5:00. thank you for watching. have a great weekend.