revolt in egypt. violence finned to flair today as egyptian president hosni mubarak says he's fed up and wants to leave office, but he can't step down for fear it would lead to even more chaos. egypt's new vice president, who was the first person to hold that position went on television and accused the u.s. of fuelling the unrest. and secretary of state hillary clinton condemned the violence and arrests of foreign journalists. the committee to protect journalists says 24 reporters, including representatives of the washington post and new york tiles were detained on the streets outside tahrir square. 21 journalists were reportedly assaulted so far. an american woman remains trapped in her home. both the today show and nbc news spoke to mary thornberry. a friend of hers lives in the

bay area. >> are you frightened? >> right now i'm just angry. >> 76-year-old mary thornberry has lived in cairo freely and safely for 15 years, she's now a prisoner in her one bedroom apartment in tahrir square. >> as i understand it -- >> mary's friends ellen and steve live in hayworth. >> have you gotten any sleep at all? >> she's been talking to mary on the phone as much as she can get through. and watching the news hoping help arrives soon. >> it's a shame to be trapped like this. in the city that she loves. >> although mary can't see the square from her apartment, she can hear the nonstop chaos. she says the u.s. embassy is not offering any reprieve. meanwhile she has strangers banging on her door. she just wants to be left alone. >> i guess i'd like to be able

to get out to the crowd, catch my plane. >> ellen's daughter katherine lives about 20 miles southwest of the violence where she spoke to us via skype. >> frankly, everyone in the village is on high alert, and all of the men are out at night at roadblocks, making sure that no one comes in and out of the area that they do not know. >> a stark difference from where mary is living in fear. >> i don't see an end to it. i don't see a future, i don't see a way out. there's certainly no way out for her. unless someone comes in and rescues her. >> in heyward, nbc bay area news. >> for the latest updates on the situation in egypt go to our website at nbc bay area.com, search egypt to find our special page dedicated to the

developments in cairo. new tonight at 5:00, phillip garrido will stand trial. an el dorado county judge ruled today that garrido is mentally fit to participate in his own defense in a trial. his lawyer argued he wasn't competent. the judge told the court he considered several psychiatric reports before making his decision. last month garrido was blocked from having jailhouse conversations with his wife nancy, who was also charged in the case. the couple is accused of kidnapping dugard from a bus stop in 1991 when she was just 11 years old. a sick child on a field trip. when marin county fire department arrived on the scene they found 50 children violently ill. they have no idea why. elise kirchner is live with the latest. still no word on what made the

kids sick? >> reporter: no, the elementary school have been sending their fifth graders on this educational trip for decades and never had any problems until now. dozens of students got violently ill and no one knows why. at busloads of potentially ill kids pull up, parents arm themselves with disinfecting wipes. >> i'm very concerned. i know they're saying it's a virus, but you have other questions in mind how can it spread that fast, that quickly. >> starting wednesday night at the walker creek ranch in marin county, a dozen students coming back from a hike started feeling sick. >> mostly throwing up, and before my stomach hurt. >> then within just a few hours, the number grew to at least 56 students and teachers from several bay area schools. they were on a five-day educational trip that suddendy was getting cut short.

>> last night we were scared. >> all of our teachers who were there, i don't think they got any sleep last night, because they were taking care of the kids. >> school district officials say they don't know the source of the illness, but the marin county health department is now involved. >> the health department is going to close the camp until they figure out what the cause of the symptoms are. >> you wonder if it's the food, the water, handling of food properly. you just have concerns, and it would be nice to have a black and white answer. >> i wanted to come home and i was afraid that i would get sick and -- >> school officials are urging students if they have any symptoms to stay home from school tomorrow. meanwhile, the other schools that went on this educational trip are redwood day in oakland. coming up at 6:00, we'll tell you what walker creek ranch is doing to find out the cause. live in danville, elise kirchner nbc bay area news.

two fires that burned in the castro district early this morning are likely the work of an arsonist. the fires were reported within a half hour of each other before dawn. the most serious was at an apartment building at 16th street. 13 people who live there in an adjacent building had to evacuate. the red cross is helping them tonight. the other fire was at a building under construction on 17 th at heart ford street. a dangerous discovery made in san francisco's patrol hill neighborhood. several blocks sealed off as five hand grenades were removed from a garage. the remains were found by a family sorting through belongings of a woman who died two years ago. one of the evacuated residents near the woman who owned that garage. >> i can't imagine that they were hurt. maybe it was her friends from a

long time ago. >> what was she like? >> she was lovely, very nice person, very sweet. >> several blocks around the area were closed during that operation. the five grenades were safely destroyed by bomb technicians. tonight we know more about just what happened to 4-year-old juliani garza whose body was found this tuesday. the autopsy shows the cause of death was drowning. the boy, the subject of a statewide amber alert after he was abducted two weeks ago. even though the body does match his description the coroner is conducting dna tests to be certain. the grandmother identified his father as the kidnapper. the car was pulled from the canal with the windows open. rodrigez was driving at the time. his body has yet to be found. in recent years, we have seen product recalls involving everything from cribs to lettuce

to eggs. recalls that can frighten consumers and for good reason. now a bay area lawyer and his clients are going after a major supermarket chain they believe is shirking its responsibility to individually inform its clients about the most dangerous recalled foods. traci grant is in san francisco tonight. this involves the untapped safety net that we know better as the safeway club card. >> absolutely, tom. you give safeway a lot of personal information. in exchange you get the discounts that come with the safeway club card. a lawsuit that was filed in alameda county yesterday insists with this, safe way has all the information it needs to sound the alarm on food recalls. now, to get this club discount card, you give safeway your name, phone number and e-mail address. they end up with a record of everything you buy. the lawyer, daniel labelle says all of that information could be used to figure out which

customers have bought recalled food products and alert them before it's too late. one of its clients purchased the exact type of eggs last summer for containing salmonella. she found out about it online only after her children had eaten raw cookie dough she made with the eggs. another client's family ate peanut butter crackers that were recalled. one member said costco used the kpard information to let them know of the recall. but safeway did not. >> when you know someone has bought a class i recalled product they don't inform the consumers. if they did notify the consumers they could be preventing serious illness. >> safeway pointed out that the ability to contact customers individually is not an industry norm. shoppers are not required to provide contact information. neither do they purchase a membership as do shoppers of retail clubs like costco.

we considered the information and data that's available to determine how toll best provide recall information to our customers. now, safeway says it sends out press releases and posts information to its website when products that are safeway brand or that come from their meat, deli or bakery section are recalled. in the past it has used club card information to make automated telephone calls or personal phone calls to its customers. this lawyer says that that's the kind of notification his clients and the customers of safeway are looking for that way they can find out about these recalls before they've actually eaten these potentially contaminated products. traci grant, nbc bay area news. still ahead at 5:00, it is official, verizon began selling its version of the iphone today. there was a bit of a catch.

why some customers can expect verizon to slow them down. the announcement by caltran that could lead to higher fares for riders. cracking down on vitamin, a consumer group claims the popular drink may be taking you for a ride. early delivery is a matter of choice for pregnant women. one group says that choice is putting newborns at unnecessary ri. > sunny, clear and unusual warming across the bay area. i'm jeff ranieri, temperatures dropping in the 50s in the east in the south bay. as you're about 10 degrees above average tonight. clear and cold for the south bay, temperatures close to 40. and a warming weekend.

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what a mess it was on the eastbound lanes of the bay bridge for three hours this afternoon, because of an incident at treasure island. as a consequence, what a mess it is for people trying to get on the bridge and make it to the east bay from san francisco tonight. look at the traffic on the surface streets, on 80 eastbound toward the bay bridge. a truck dumped its load of sand on at least two lanes of the eastbound. the lower deck of the bay bridge at 2:15 this afternoon. they finally cleared it away a few minutes ago maybe within the past half hour, it's clearly going to take a long time to move all of this traffic and get things flowing again. the backup is through the streets of san francisco and on to the interstates as well. >> that's really heavy traffic. this is really bad today. >> look at that. business meetings, vacations, visits for mom. this is some of the reasons mothers are asking their doctors to deliver their babies early.

>> now doctors are worried that that to do list is driving deliveries and they're worried about the baby's health. marianne favro is here to tell us how doctors are changing the delivery on demand concept. it's really losing favor with doctors. >> it really is. especially with new research out. pregnancy lasts 40 weeks for a reason. especially when it comes to brain and lung development. no longer should it be acceptable for doctors to deliver a baby at 36 weeks out of convenience. and launching a campaign to hold ob/gyn's accountable. >> extra weight, back pain, getting kicked from the inside, being pregnant is no picnic, especially in the final weeks before the delivery. >> i was having pain that started in my back. for my work, i have to stand a lot. >> shirley had a lot of leg pain at 36 weeks.

her doctor asked her if she wanted to be induced early. a tempting offer, but shirley said no and waited to be induced at 39 weeks. many moms are asking to have their baby weeks before their due date. >> one of the requests i had was a woman who had a zodiac that specified she should deliver on a certain date and at a certain time to benefit her child for life. >> reporter: one doctor has had other pregnant patients ask to deliver early to attend business meetings. he recommends women do their best to deliver at 39 weeks. >> it gives your baby a chance to have less risk of being admitted into the icu. two increases the odds the baby's going to be strong enough to go home with the mother, at the same time she does. and three, elective inductions prior to 39 weeks are associated with a higher risk of failure and c-section rate.

>> reporter: in california, 2008 more than 31% of all babies delivered were born between 39 weeks which is why the march of dimes is wh s is asking hospita require examinations to make sure they are done out of medical necessity. >> i'm glad i waited, but it was tough. >> tough times she quickly forgot the first time she held her son. >> 25 doctors will meet in sacramento to encourage pregnant women to wait until at least 39 weeks to deliver. the doctors will then begin visiting all community hospitals in the state to make sure doctors are not scheduling elective deliveries before 39 weeks. now, this does not include early deliveries where the mom or the babies health is at risk. >> marianne favro, nbc bay area news. >> thank you. >> let's give you other health news now. vitamin water has come under

fire saying the ads are misleading. it's true the products do contain vitamins and water, but critics say the drink also contains fructose and other sugars. with over 2/3 of americans overweight or obese, the last thing they need is water loaded with sugar. caltran is getting ready to announce a fiscal emergency. the transit agency currently faces a $30 million budget deficit. and with this emergency, caltran could cut service or increase fares without conducting a full environmental review. caltran leaders have already said they need to eliminate all trains except their weekday peak lines. service for special events would also be suspended. say it isn't true. >> no, that would not be good. >> we know how cold it is in other parts of the country. it's warm enough around here that jeff ranieri is thinking

about baseball tonight. >> never too early to think about baseball. >> i know. actually, i saw the giants players, cody ross, tim lincecum all out at mid plaza this morning. i woke up, took a look out the window, they were shooting some sort of commercial or movie out there, tons of extras, 50 of them. the weather here, good enough for a movie shoot for the giants. spring training coming up in a couple weeks. giants fever already in the air. the warm weather is in the air too. clear skies, looking right toward san francisco. no fog in sight. the clear skies causing temperatures to drop right now. 59 in concord, 602 in san jose. we'll see the set upof the clear skies aiding in some cold starts for us from the north bay to the south bay with plenty of 30s. friday i am ordering all of you to get outside, we're talking about some sweet weather coming our way, going to bring you a

preview this weekend with 70 degree temperatures coming back. high pressure is offshore, that will bring it mild. temperatures 5 to 10 degrees above average. the spring air staying in place. let's get a look, east bay tonight dropping down into the 30s at 6:00 a.m., by 11:00 a.m., sunny skies persisting and low 50s. a quick rebound for us in the east bay. tomorrow, one of the coldest spots, gilroy with 35. napa expecting 34. tomorrow one of the warmer locations, south bay with upper 0s to near 70 degrees. close to some records, but i don't think we'll see any. we may see record temperatures once we get into sunday. tomorrow 65 in san francisco. 65 in banisha. mid to upper 60s in parts of the east bay. temperatures near 70 degrees. santa rosa expecting 0 in fact. if you head into saturday and sunday, it's going to be super

here on sunday for the super bowl. so while they're frigid in dallas with temperatures in the 40s, we're going to be in the warm, sunny weather. as we head throughout monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday, temperatures in the mid 60s and a lot of sunshine coming back. right now, no rainfall in sight. what a sight it was to see those giants players. >> you're tight with the girnts. >> yeah. every time they come around, have you a player around. you're getting to be regular friends with sergeo, aren't you? >> yeah. >> you have to find timmy. >> he's running the other way, i'm sure. >> thank you. still ahead here at 5:00, we'll show you some of the celebrations today for the new year. the $30 million mistake, the connection between improper tax credits and hybrid cars. why some verizon iphone si aele tl a lfetld silengt.oue [ wheezing breaths ]

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let the verizon iphone frenzy begin. in store sales begin a week from today. in an effort to avoid data problems, the wireless carrier says it will reduce download speeds for data hogs. verizon also plans a number of moves to ensure data flow which include reducing the number of colors and decreasing resolution of videos, photos and texts. they got the tax credit but apparently they didn't earn it. thousands of u.s. taxpayers incorrectly claimed large credits for electric cars last year. some of the nearly 13,000 people who filed that claim included prisoners and irs employees. the incorrect claims for plug-in and alternative cars totals 33

milli million. it didn't specify whether the taxpayers claimed out of confusion or did it on purpose to get that tax break.

thousands celebrated lunar new year in hong kong today with a colorful parade. this is is the year of the rabbit. the sign of the chinese zodiac. those born in this year of the rabbit are articulate, talented and have excellent taste. remind you of anyone? the chinese celebrate the year of the rabbit. vietnamese people celebrate the year of the cat. this is the only year on the calendar in which the animals are completely different.

>> yes. >> in any case gunghai fatchoi. >> nightly news is next.