erica edwards, nbc news. >>> right now, the 45th annual lessons family annual book festival is under way in rockville. our guests join us with more on the book festival. welcome to all of you. thank you for bringing your books along. >> thank you for having us. >> are people buying books? are they still interested in hard books? >> absolutely, people are still buying books. we have some of the most sought after authors. people love to talk to the authors. we have q & a and they get to sign their books and meet the authors. >> even millennials? >> some books are still published as a hard book so it's great. >> let's start with you, to find out a little bit about that book. it's called redefining moments and end of loss stories. you wrote this you say for your father. >> my dad actually wrote it. in 30 days. he viewed end of life as an opportunity and wrote redefining moments and stories for better living in 30 days. it seeks to start a new conversation about the book, about the website redefining moments. >> does your faeshther, was he author? >> yes, his first book was very well rece

nbc's erica edwards has more. >> reporter: it was a brightly colored laundry detergent pod like these that caught the eye of little alexander rhode. he swallowed it and became so ill he had to be rushed to a minnesota hospital where he spent several weeks. >> i want to get this awareness out to other parents. >> reporter: since the product hit the market in 2012, more than 750 children have been hospitalized after coming into contact with the pods. one child, a baby in florida, sadly died after putting one in his mouth. dr. gary smith of nationwide children's hospital in columbus, ohio, led the new research. >> laundry detergent pods are concentrated and have strong chemicals in them. sometimes the chemicals get into the eyes, sometimes they're swallowed. if they're swallowed they can cause severe burns to the esophagus and the stomach. >> reporter: manufacturers are concerned about the problem and are making changes like improving the warning labels, making the pods look less attractive and switching from clear to opaque packaging. the american cleaning institute wrote manufacturers

nbc's erica edwards has the latest. >> reporter: thomas eric duncan's four children will be providedor in a financial settlement between duncan's family and texas health presbyterian hospital in dallas where he died of ebola. >> texas health presbyterian took the initiative to go ahead and make this situation a better situation so we can all move forward. >> reporter: the details of the agreement are confidential but it will also create a charitable fund in duncan's memory. that money will go to victims of ebola in africa. a statement from the hospital reads in part, we have, again, extend our sincere apologies to the family. duncan arrived at texas health presbyterian in late september with a 103 degree temperature and told staff he'd recently come from liberia. he was sent home only to be rushed back to the hospital several days later. the hospital later apologized in a video conference during a congressional hearing. >> unfortunately, in our initial treatment of mr. duncan, despite our best intentions, and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes. >> reporter: meanwhile the

. >> reporter: erica edwards, nbc news. >>> and there will be a vote saturday to replace barbara cone two candidates are a veteran entrepreneur who lives with his wife and newborn son in mcclaen and says promoting conservative priorities is a priority. and his opponent is manager of a consulting firm that bears his name. republicans will vote saturday from 10:00 to 2:00 at colvin run elementary school. >>> it's official. t the golden girl of swimming won't stay in the d.c. area. she signed and will be headed to l.a. stanford posted this picture to the twitter page. she won gold at the 2012 olympics at the age of 15. she's broken seven world records and she's been to our studios several times. i even took a picture with her. >> we both did. that's something we will cherish for the decades and decades to come because she has miles and miles ahead of her. >> and she's so nice. >>> we have weather on the way. we've been watching what's to our west and shivering because of some of this video. >> are you worried? >> not worried. you need to be prepared for cold. as long as you take that wi

nbc 10 national correspondent erica edwards with the story. >> reporter: dr.tin sallia knew and accepted the risks associated with working as a surgeon in his native sierra leone as he explained earlier this year. >> there was something inside of me, people in this part of town needed help. i took this job not because i want to but i firmly believe it was a calling. >> reporter: salia, a legal u.s. resident somehow became infected with ebola while in africa. by the time he arrived at the nebraska medical center this past saturday, he was in extremely critical condition. his kidneys were not working when he arrived and his respiratory system quickly failed. >> he progressed to the point of cardiac arrest and we weren't able to get him through this. >> reporter: doctors gave salia two experimental therapies the evening he arrived in omaha, zmapp and a plasma transfusion from an unnamed ebola survivor. >> when you get beyond a certain point, the most egregious medical advances will not be helpful necessarily. perhaps one of the things we want to take away from th

edward snowden. what is done from erica, are our secrets being jeopardized?nd there you have just a moment on morning joe. what happened? >> i went on to television host trying my hardest to be nice and everyone was rude, so i defended myself in the protocols of britain saying, stop bullying me. if you're going to be condescending, don't do it from the gutter. >> and you took over the notes? >> oh, yeah. i thought in a professional way. >> what you think of the u.s. media? >> some of it is good. this is u.s. media. i'm enjoying this. i don't think there is an international distinction. there's media dominated by corporate interest whether it is in britain or france or america. media have- some been lovely and friendly and open-minded. i think it is a commonly held view, and that is true, debate is held within narrow parameters. if you try to stray outside them, you get into trouble. i think that is why i think it is good to do it comedically, not to respect the parameter of debate, not to accept the frame of the oh, well, you can vote for this person or that