. >>> this comes to us from seattle, washington, where in nearby bellevue one postal worker is staging rebellion. for the past decade, bob has delivered mail wearing a santa suit during the holiday season. after his noncompliance with dress code led a coworker to complain, his supervisor ordered him to shut down the st. nick act, but despite his job being in jeopardy, bob defied the order hoping he's safe with his union and christmas on his side. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station. a >> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> the last day of the fall season, but it feels like the end of summer. a very warm temperatures. all of the storm system approaching from the west. warm air is pushing in. you have pockets in western maryland and a few around d.c. the storm will be heading our way. we will timeout the temperatures when i come back. >> 4:57. a guilty verdict in connection with a corruption scheme involving jack johnson. >> police identified the victim of a murder outside the towson town center a

. >>> this comes to us from seattle, washington, where in nearby bellevue one postal worker is staging rebellion. for the past decade, bob has delivered mail wearing a santa suit during the holiday season. after his noncompliance with dress code led a coworker to complain, his supervisor ordered him to shut down the st. nick act, but despite his job being in jeopardy, bob defied the order hoping he's safe with his union and christmas on his side. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station. a >>> our time right now is 4:28, 51 degrees. still mild here in the nation's capital on this 21st day of december. good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. >> and i'm angie goff in for eun. welcome to "news 4 today." it is wednesday, december 21st. >> new from overnight, a taxicab driver is in the hospital after being carjacked. it happened outside a popeye's restaurant on north benning road outside washington. we're told the cab driver is expected to make a full recovery. no arrests have been made. >>> this morning a local man it in custody accu

. >>> this comes to us from seattle, washington, where in nearby bellevue one postal worker is staging rebellion. this to keep his christmas tradition from dying. for the past decade, bob has delivered mail wearing a santa suit during the holiday season. after his noncompliance with dress code led a coworker to complain, his supervisor ordered him to shut down the st. nick act, but despite his job being in jeopardy, bob defied the order -- you go, bob -- hoping he's safe with his union and christmas on his side. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station. >>> animals at one circus in germany are especially tame, that's because they're made of ice. the circus-themed art festival has artists working ten hours a day in 17-degree temperatures for a month in advance using chain saws and files. sculptors carve 1300 ice blocks to create elephants, horses and jaguars. the clowns, though, were thawed out. >>> in order to go green one hotel in china goes clear. opting out of the fir tree the hotel staff constructed one made out of used p

it hit the roof of this home on bellevue circle before stopping after crashing through the window of this van. sergeant j. d. nelson says he's glad no one was hurt. >> they had some safety measures in place. there were barrels of water that this ball was supposed to pas through to slow its trajectory. the cannon failed to hit that mark. it had a misfire. this is a homemade cannon that a television show has made. they've used it on many episodes. it fired and fired correctly on numerous occasions. >> reporter: nelson says the sheriff closed the bomb range where the cannon was fired until the safety measures that are in place can be reviewed. it's not known if myth busters will be allowed to perform future experiments there. in dublin, reggie kumar, kron4 news. >> we talked with one neighbor whose home was damaged by that cannonball. >> my mom saw some roof tops that fell down. but it was not clear from down here how much damage was up on the roop. there's a nice -- on the roof. it ricochetted and fell onto the neighbors'. >> homeowners met with their insurance carriers and says the my

paramedics took him to bellevue burn center. the cause of the fire is u investigation tonight. he died. >>> police want you to take a good look at these surveillance camera photos to see if you recognize either of these men. they need your help. they are looking for the two men in connection with at shooing that occurred in a barber -- shooting that occurred in a barbershop. if you recognize either man or have any other information about the incident. baltimore police ask that you call the eastern direct, 410-396-2433. -- district, 410-396-2433. >>> earlier this week, we told you about xavia pirozzi. a high school sophomore in need of a bone marrow transplant. none of her family were a match. >> tough. it is heart breaking for us. >> reporter: words from a concerned grand moth who are has a simple -- grandmother who has atism wish, that her granddaughter finds a donor. >> not even drinking since her last infusion of chemo. her mouth is so terribly sore. >> reporter: 15-year-old xavia pirozzi was in great health a few months ago. but medication side affects from a hard transplan

. >> you know, this is really goes back to the hotel bellevue, and the hotel bellevue which they're not that time a block from where the president's apartment was. and right across from the statehouse. it was the buzzword of all who were around. and the in and out, and we didn't have -- [inaudible] >> perhaps, but, you know, and it was not a place and you don't have the e-mails and twitters and all that type of thing. because you just met, we had a fellow at home we called whispering eddie smith. spent why did you call him whispering speakers because he whispered. [laughter] >> thank you. they would spread rumors as quickly as you could spread a disease. [laughter] we were getting ready for the fight for the control of the state committee. we had mayor lynch of somerville which was are changing, and they had onions burke was the champion of the mccormick's, but eddie mccormick's father was also on the state committee. >> he was the brother of house majority leader? >> yes. and he was about as different as the speaker as you could make. he was coarse and rough and tough. i remember when

." >>> also in bellevue, washington, this mail carrier santa says he's going rogue. a co-worker complained about his santa suit but he decided, naughty or nice, he'd keep on wearing it anyway. >>> spokane also, 60 special kids boarded alaska airlines flight 1225, also known as santa one for a magical flight to the north pole and a visit with santa. they were all chosen because they were especially good. >>> lay-away angel was turned away from not one but two walmart stores? jennifer larue says she wanted to surprise some people by paying off their lay-away balances but she was told it violates walmart's privacy policy? walmart's regional vp though toll our affiliate kprc there is no policy against random acts of kindness. >>> are you kidding me? she's just trying to do a nice thing. >> i know. that's one of those stories, right? well let's hope she finds someone else to help. >> just trying to do a good thing. we talk a lot of christmas talk today, rightly so. christmas around the world though. >> let's start with japan. japan has been through so much this year but d

i was in bellevue hospital for three weeks in i see you for a long time.you know, several broken bones, both my femur which is the biggest bone in the body, untold probably hard to break, but mine broke. and, yeah, it was tough for a while. and, you know, it taught me a little bit about what i may have. i had to go through months of physical therapy and learn to walk all over again. people have gone through far worse things in their lives than what i did. but that is basically the story. >> it just a little bit longer. 2007. the top editor of the new york times. that day when you're walking across the street, was the truck defaulter you a phone? >> the truck was a fault. >> and they -- >> actually people stopped and said my story about new york, the people who were crossing toward me all stopped. many stopped to help me, and a number of them ran after the truck and made the driver stopped. >> and how -- and who did he run over? what to the truck ran over? >> first ran over my right foot, which for some reason tracked me down into the gutter. and then the r

but the previous year when paul harding whose book, first novel was published by bellevue literary press, when he won a pulitzer, the same thing. his next books are going to be published by a larger house. i'm sure that that pulitzer prize win not only help to boost not only his profile but also his sales. >> and booktv covered three of the pulitzer prize winners for 2011 in our coverage this past year. you can go to booktv.org and in the upper left hand corner is a search function. you can type in the name of the author and you can watch it online whenever you want. the last time we talked to sarah weinman of publishers marketplace was at the national book awards and the national book award winners for 2011 fiction, jasmine ward, "salvage the bones," "the swerve." nikky finney, "head off & split," and thanhha lai, "inside out and back again." what does the national book award do for sales? >> the national will, it doesn't have the same impact as the pulitzer but it does lead to some sales boost as well. .. those who have the staying power will find it very rewarding. truth be told, i th

but the previous year when paul harding, whose first novel published by a tiny press called bellevue literary press, when he won the pulitzer it was the same thing. it was low six-figure sales that in sood and his next books were going to be tackled by the larger house and i sure that the pulitzer prize only helped to boost late profile but also the sales. >> host: book tv covered three of the pulitzer prize winners for 2011 and our coverage this past year. you can go to booktv.org and in the upper left-hand corner is a search function you can type the name of the author and watch it on line whenever you want. we covered eric former for the fiery trial of ron turnrow and sedartha a biography of cancer. the last time we talked to sarah weinman publishers marketplace is the national book awards, and the national book award winners for 2011 fiction: sarah weinman, what does the national book award to fer sales? does it have the same impact? >> guest: it doesn't have the same impact as the pulitzer, but it does lead to some sales boosts as well. for example with salvage the bones even th

previous year when paul harding whose book, first novel was published by a very tiny press called bellevue literary press, when he won the pulitzer, it was the same thing. there were low six-figure sales that ensued, and his next books are going to be published by a larger house. and i'm sure that that pulitzer prize win only helped to boost not only his profile, but also his sales. >> and booktv covered three of the pulitzer prize winners for 2011 in our coverage this past year. you can go to booktv.org and in the upper left-hand corner is a search function. you can type in the name of the author, and you can watch it online whenever you want. we covered eric foner for "the fiery trial," ron chernow, and siddhartha mukherjee for the emperor of all maladies, a biography of cancer. well, the last time we talked to sarah weinman was at the national book awards, and the national book award winners for the 2011. fiction, jasmine ward, "salvage the bones." nonfiction was steven green great, "the swerve." poetry, nicky finney, "head off and split." sarah weinman, what does a national book award

it hit the roof of this home one bellevue circle before finally stopping after crashing through the window of this van. sgt j d nelson says he is happy no one was hurt. >> the can fail to hit its mark, they had a misfire. this the homemade cannon that a television show has made the have used on many episodes previous to this. it has been fired and if fired correctly on numerous occasions. >>reporter: he says the sheriff's office called the bomb range until the safety measures can be reviewed. is not known if mr. busters will be allowed to who-- perform future experiments there. quick break and be back with more as we follow the dismantlement of the occupy in kama. we will take a live look this morning at the james lick freeway. >>james: some breaking news this morning we have live pictures of the occupy sf campus. we will try to get that up for you soon as possible to so you know, the in camera at the embarcadero plaza has been dismantled by a score of police more than 100 police officers, fire into all been reported there, ambulances all surrounding that area at justin herman plaza where

julie holland is a psychiatrist and also the author of "weekends at bellevue." dr.let's review the numbers. one in four women are now taking a mental health drug and also women are being prescribed these medications at a higher rate than men now. why the increase? >> well, a couple of things have happened. in the mid-'90s the pharmaceutical industry was allowed to start advertising on television and magazines and a lot of ads do target women. the other thing that happened was 9/11 happened. everyone was very anxious and fearful, couldn't sort of turn off the alarms. people started giving themselves permission to take anti-anxiety medicines and sleeping pills and that sort of got the ball rolling. >> we just heard savannah talk about the stigma. the stigma did decrease, do you agree with that? >> at least in new york city it feels like the stigma is very much gone. when i started my practice people came to me and were anxious and depressed and they didn't know why. i had to explain medicine, it was okay to take it. now they come and say which medicine should they tak

the next is alan in bellevue, nebraska. >> caller: hello. >> guest: hello. >> host: go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: i was going through the channels and happened to turn on week tv which i enjoy very much on the weekends, and i just wanted to call to convey my observations and reactions to your program. mr. mezrich, your free spirit and your incredible focus, and you bring a wonderful boy minneapolis to booktv. and you can make up your own question for me to answer. i will read your books in the future. thank you. >> guest: oh, i appreciate that. [laughter] thank you very much. >> host: booktv is now buoyant. >> guest: i like being described as boy yafnlt i'm very full of energy. >> host: and this is another topic we just mentioned in passing, but dorothy mollton from new york city, i have never heard of ben mezrich. i'm a woman well past a certain age. he's charming and delightful. best "in depth" i've seen, and i'm going to read his books. i'm curious, how old is he? >> guest: yeah. i look really young because i sleep in a hyper bollic chamber. not really. i live i