tony rohr was asked to keep his franchise open. once message spread on facebook the company backtracked. >>> you can call him iron man. in japan kimio nakagawa was recognized by the japan government for excellent ironing. each year the labor ministry pecks out the nation's finest craftsman, usually a chef or craftsman. he irons by hand not a presser. he says the best iron never leaves a trace. >> look at that fold. >> so masterful he gets orders from people hundreds of miles away. i could use him in my house indeed. time for a look back the icy comet is still speeding toward the sun. ison is its name and expected to skim 1 million miles from the solar surface this afternoon. nasa is unsure if it will survive. one year ago today the largest powerball jacket in history, $379.9 million, the massive wings split by two people, one in arizona, the other in missouri. >>> happy birthday to jon stewart, he's 51, ed harris 63 and berry gordy jr. is 84. here's what's come up later op. the "today" show, the newest addition to the butterball ho

joining us tonight on the ed show, tony rohr. you were quite the conversation on many talk shows around the nation, very inspired by your willingness to stand for your employees and protect a holiday that has been a real tradition in this country. take a moment, if you can, tony, just tell us how this all unfolded in your words. good to have you withis tonight. >> okay. thanks for having me on. basically what happened was i had been told that it was mandatory for us to be open on thank give. and i didn't agree with it. i had the whole day to think about it. and as it happened the next day, i had a meeting with my boss. and i just decided i wasn't going to agree with it. so i went into the meeting. and i said, look, we need to talk about this thanksgiving right. it's not right, i'm not going to agree with it. i'm not going to open the door. i'm not going to make anybody work. they told me they were opening because it was a gettive decision and because other people were opening they were going to open too. and i said well, you don'

tony rohr row fuefused to open indiana store which he manages. pizza hut said he quit. the story is getting national attention. tonight pizza hut issued this statement. we fully inspect an employee's right to not work on a holiday. as a result, i would strongly recommended that the local franchi franchi franchisee reinstate tony. we look forward to welcoming him back to the team. >>> a rabbi added a menorah. he handed out jelly donuts and menorah's. that's a good combination. >> and hanukkah, the next time it will happen together? >> 76,000 years. >>> fun show tonight, garth brooks on the program, he'll po perform for us. >>> we're already getting the couch ready for tomorrow, a lot of football games. >> did you move the couch? >> no, just have to get it prepped for everyone. get the cushions nice and soft. >> the warriors and sharks in action tonight. let's head to dallas first and check in on the warriors. the mavericks, the former warrior there. fourth quarter, warriors coming back. the mafs would answer after that. warriors lose 103-99. >> we execute and defend the

well some shoppers love being out and about that does not mean that workers do, including tony rohr. as manager of this pizza hut, he said he would not open up. when asked to resign, he claims he refused. >> thanksgiving is supposed to be one of the two days we are closed a year. >> he said he wrote his bosses this letter. not, hise was fired or bosses disputing that he was let go, it got the attention of pizza hut headquarters. on facebook it posted "we fully respect and employee's writes to not work on a holiday, which is why the vast majority of pizza hut in america are closed on thanks giving. as a result, we strongly recommended that the local branch easy -- franchisee reinstate the store manager and he agreed." rohr said that he did receive a call, but is unsure whether he will go back. it wasst didn't think right. >> in case you are wondering if they caved under national checked, and they are indeed open. >> scott, thank you. 7 on your side with a consumer alert. the number one holiday gift this year is a gift card. gift card spending is projected to reach a high this year. sp

tony rohr, a pizza hut employee for ten years was fired after refusing to open his restaurant on thanksgiving. more and more businesses have decided as you know to stay open today. and this is the first year rohr was asked to keep his pizza hut open on thanksgiving. this story does have a happy ending. the word of rohr's firing spread across the internet causing pizza hut to respond on facebook saying, he has been rehired by the store owner. all is well. >>> time for your turkey day helping of sports. let's get right to it. thanksgiving means family, food and, of course, a full day of football. so plan your meals accordingly. the first course begins at 12:30 eastern with an nfc north battle between green bay and detroit. your second course begins at 4:30 with the oakland raiders taking on the dallas cowboys. the cowboys are hungry for the win as they are tied for first in the nfc east with the eagles. for your final course served up right here on nbc at 8:30, afc north fight to the end between the steelers and ravens. both are 5-6 and two wins away from the division leading bengals. >>> home

. >> all right, tony rohr, thanks for joining us. a lot of people admire your tenacity to stick up for your workers. i'm ed schultz. politics nation with al sharpton starts right now. happy thanksgiving to you. >>> and happy thanksgiving to you. tonight's lead, a reality check for the right wing turkey. on this day, this day before thanksgiving, president obama gave america a clear choice. between those who want to help the less fortunate and those who want to make their lives worse. but he began the day with the annual tradition, the pardon of the white house turco. this year the lucky ones were popcorn and caramel. >> the competition was stiff, but we can officially declare that popcorn is the winner. proving -- there you go. proving that even a turkey with a funny name can find a place in politics. and now, before these turcos get away, with the power vested in me, i want to grant popcorn a full reprieve. come on. i want, popcorn, you have a full reprepare from cranberry sauce and stuffing. we wish you well, and we're going to giv

. >> tony rohr said he didn't want to make employees

tony rohr has worked at the elkhart restaurant for more than 10 years but was told to write a letter of resignation after his refusal. rohr tells he instead of running letter explaining that he believed the company should care more about its employees. thanksgiving and christmas days had been the only guarantee days off for the restaurant workers. a statement from pizza hut says it respects an employee's right to not work on the holiday. rohr says he hasn't decided yet whether to go back to his job. the bay area has its own thanksgiving football tradition dating all the way kron4's haaziq madyun takes to the field for this years san francisco high school championship football turkey day game >>: high school football fans were going wild here at the keys are stadium in san francisco this thanksgiving but for the 89th annual si of five championship game of a better known as the turkey bowl. >>: it's a tradition. every time we go to the turkey bowl we have to let it. but the lines of verse as the lincoln high school mustangs. >>: wang dan class of '71. >>: link and hired a lump patrick

tony rohr says his bosses told him it was mandatory -- and that's when he decided to take a stand. >> catherine: tony wrote a letter spelling out why he felt it was important to give employees a break. and says he refused to make it a letter of resignation - which his bosses had requested. one of his bosses claims tony quit voluntarily - but he says that's simply not true. >> catherine: pizza hut's facebook page has been inundated wit posts criticizing the company's decision to open on thanksgiving. >> catherine: >> pam: in contrast fry's electronics supporting their employees and their wish to be with family this thanksgiving. >> pam: the bay area company will not open any of its stores for post-thanksgiving dinner shopping tomorrow night. the stores however will be open in time for black friday shopping. >> our employees had to work late and come back early last year when we tried this. we are a family owned business we've been open for 29 years i think the tradition of staying with your family on thanksgiving is more than a boy more important that a few cells. sales. >> pam: people

tony rohr has been employed by the pizza hurt in elkhart, indiana, for ten years, working up to manager. but when the boss told him he had to open on thanksgiving, that was it. tony refused. and he was fired. however, when the world got out, social media exploded with outrage. and this morning, we're happy to report that pizza hut has offered tony his job back, admitting they made an error in judgment. tony was trying to protect his workers from having to work on thanksgiving. and we wish them all a happy and pizza-free thanksgiving. >> what a lovely story. >> yeah. great story. >> we've seen the shopping madness. >> right. >> grow exponentially. good to see somebody dial it back a bit. >> hopefully the employees won't use the time to go shopping. >> the irony there. >> good point, dan. >>> well, the holiday shopping season is starting earlier than ever this year. and for many shoppers, the turkey is a brief timeout between runs to the store. rebecca jarvis is at toys "r" us in times square, for a look at the thanksgiving shopping madness and some of the best deals out there. happy than

tony rohr says when he refused the thanksgiving hours he was asked to write a letter of resignation. he says thanksgiving is important. >> thanksgiving and christmas are the only two days that they're closed in the whole year and there are only two days those people are guaranteed to have off to spend with their families. >> he just wanted to give his employees thanksgiving day off. the franchise owners fired him. but now as i said they offered him his job back. pizza hut's corporate office says it was an error in judgment. no word whether rohr has accepted the offer to stay on. >>> today's thanksgiving football feast kicks off with the lions hosting the green bay packers. as lions' head coach jim schwartz says i guess we don't have to worry about setting an extra place for josh sitton. >> they're a bunch of dirtbags or scumbags, that's how they play and how they're coached, that starts withier coach, with the head coach, schwartz, he's [ bleep ], i wouldn't want to play for him. >> seriously? scumbags and dirtbags? come on. i know the lions have a few problems with dirty play, i kno

. >> tony rohr said he didn't want to make employees work and doesn't want his job back. >> a 5.6 magnitude quake hit close to bushehr, a province in iran. it was 40 miles north of a nuclear power plant. it damaged buildings and affected electricity in many areas. >> a ferry in hong kong crashed killing 85 people. it was travelling to macau when it hit an unidentified object. there are no reports of people missing and an investigation is underway. >> those are the headlines "america tonight" is up next. hello, and welcome to hello, and welcome to this special holiday this special holiday edition of "america edition of "america tonight." tonight." since since thanksgiving brings thanksgiving brings to mind the origins of to mind the origins of this country. this country. to begin, we look to the to begin, we look to the star spangled banner, star spangled banner, america's most famous america's most famous flag is safely tucked flag is safely tucked away at the smithsonian away at the smithsonian museum here in museum here in washington. washington. be 200 years ago it was be 200 years ago i

rohr refused to open on the holiday and he was hired because he told the owners in a letter that the workers deserved the day off. >> why can't we be the company that stands up and says we care about the employees and you can have the day off and during a year two days they are off to spend with the family. >> reporter: the pizza hut corporate office stepped in and said he should be retired. the statement said quote we feel strongly that the situation could and should have been avoided. the vast majority of pizza huts in america are closed on thanksgiving and say that the local franchise reinstate the manager and they got the holiday off and the restaurant did not open on thursday. worries that the macy's thanksgiving day parade huge inflated characters would be on the ground but they did fly and they took a grip as the winds were 26 miles per hour. the low-flying balloons encountered a few obstacles and spider man defeats the villains but met it's match by a park, a tree branch took off the super hero's left arm but was strong the rest of the parade. one volunteer helping with the b

tony rohr, thank you so much for your time today. >> thank you. >>> from restaurants now we move you to retailers. many of the people working today are minimum wage employees, income inequality is an issue that has been gaining traction lately. in this week there were some big victories for those fighting for a higher minimum wage. we got maryland montgomery's and prince georges counties, both voting to raleise their minimum wage by 2015. and sea-tac in washington around the airport that approved a $15 minimum for some of the workers, the nation's highest. joining me is the president of river research and a columnist for reuters and "the atlantic." always great to see you here. when you look at raising of the minimum wage, you know, getting beyond all the politics, does it work? >> yeah, i mean, this is the question. it is certainly true that it works in that it brings people up to above poverty level, right? so the minimum wage of $7.25 in the country given a 30-hour workweek doesn't even bring you to the poverty level if you are a family of two. bringing it to $15 brings you above