beautiful, beautiful. eric: yeah. going to need a lot of baby food. martha: mine weighed, 8, 9 and then 10 pounds, i said, okay, i'm out. [laughter] "happening now" starts right now. ♪ ♪ ♪ jon: president obama reaching to the past for someone to lead the world's most powerful military force into its future. moments ago the president announced he is nominating ashton carter to be secretary of defense. welcome to "happening now" on this friday morning, i'm jon scott. >> hi, everybody, i'm heather noward in for jenna lee today. ashton carter is a former deputy defense secretary who workrd in the pentagon under president obama and president clinton. if confirmed, he will be the president's fourth defense chief. >> today i'm pleased to announce my nominee to be the next secretary of defense, mr. ash

carter. with a record of service that has spanned more than 30 years as a public servant, as an adviser, as a scholar, ash is rightly regarded as one of our nation's foremost national security leaders. heather: well, and then ash carter spoke himself, and he promised the president, quote, candid advice. molly henneberg is live at the white house. hi there, molly. >> reporter: hi, heather. president obama says the u.s. and ashton carter, if he's confirmed as defense secretary, would face no shortage of challenges, from how to contain or fight the islamic state or isis to ebola in west africa to budget constraints. carter accepted the president's offer in part because he respects and his high regard for the president's leadership, and he spoke today of what he believes his role would be as defense secretary and as an adviser to the president. >> if confirmed in this job, i pledge to you my most candid

strategic advice. and i pledge also that you will receive equally candid military advice. and finally, to the greatest fighting force the world has ever known, to you i pledge to keep faith with you. >> reporter: for his fourth secretary of defense, president obama has selected someone who's an academic. carter has never served in the military, nor has he been elected to congress as his predecessor, chuck hagel, had. but carter has forged his reputation as a defense strategist and a nuclear expert. hagel, who did not attend the event today, is leaving after less than two years at the job but will stay on until a new secretary is confirmed. that's when lawmakers likely will ask ashton carter very pointed questions about just what kind of advice he would offer the president on issues like isis, afghanistan and gitmo. heather? heather: molly henneberg at the

white house. molly, thank you. jon: well, people who count on obamacare could see their premiums go up next year, but the white house says the market is more competitive and stable and consumers could find better deals by shopping around. in fact, the growth rate of health care spending now at the lowest rate on record, but that hasn't kept fellow democrats from questioning the wisdom of the administration's focus op obamacare during the -- on obamacare during the depths of the financial crisis. ed o'keefe with "the washington post," what about these numbers, first of all, ed. roughly a 5% increase on average for most people's premiums next year under obamacare. is the white house proud about that or concerned? >> well, they say they're, they don't really say because they say essentially, look, if your premiums are going up, you could always shop around, and you very well may find a lower price. of course, there are going to be people who see big percentage increases, but there will be people who have their price go down a little bit. 5% is the average, and just like

anything else they're encouraging people to shop around. i think more than anything people at the white house, across the administration, congressional democrats breathing a sigh of relief that at least so far the healthcare.gov web site is working much better than it did last year, and people are able to more seamlessly shop around, sign up and move on. obviously, price increases happen. i think the fact you're seeing the market stabilize, that was one of the goals of the law, and so far at least that appears to be holding steady. jon: republicans seem to have moved on from their efforts to try to repeal this thing. >> well, they have at least for this calendar year. it was pointed out to the speaker yesterday, john boehner, that you go to capitol hill right now, you talk to republicans, all they're really upset about and focused on is doing something regarding what the president did about immigration. they said hold on a second, aren't these the republicans who were running against obamacare and vowing to repeal it? the speaker didn't rule that out.

next year we will work on some ideas to do that. and certainly, we've been told to expect attempts to repeal the final law which ultimately would probably fail, and the president would veto that. but then you'll probably see them work on chipping away at specific parts of the law or at least fix parts of it. i think the big one we'll see a lot of support on is doing something about that tax on medical devices. i've talked to democrats who say it's something that really infuriates them either from a business perspective or a patient perspective. why should you be taxing oxygen tanks, people need to breathe, why should there be a tax on that? i think you will see attempts to work on that. it would be a sign potentially of some bipartisan agreement, but certainly not yet, and that is notable given that you've got this big spending bill coming up, really the first one republicans will put their fingerprints on. jon: and it's not just republicans who have been squawking about obamacare and its cost. you had chuck schumer on the

democratic side, you have now tom harkin, the longtime democratic senator from iowa criticizing the focus they put on obamacare. >> yeah. a longtime champion of health care reform. schumer's argument, i think, is a little more strategic politically. when we were doing this as a democratic-controlled congress, the economy still wasn't in great shape, perhaps we should have focused on that, and i think, look, most democrats would say looking at the results of the 2010 elections and the recent elections when the health care law was a big concern, yeah, from a crass political perspective, we should have been focused on other issues. but i think once you talk to, you know, the grand majority of democrats, they would say, look, it was still a good thing to do this. we've tried to address it. sure there have been problems, but over the long term we expect it will work out. i think schumer's point is we probably would have done better in the polls in november if we had focused on broader economic

issues and not just this law. jon: all right. it's going to be a fascinating couple of months -- >> sure will be. jon: -- especially as the new congress comes in and they try to decide what to do about the president's executive action on immigration as well. ed o'keefe from "the washington post," have a good weekend. >> you too, jon. take care. heather: new information coming in on a second night of nationwide protests closing down streets and tying up a whole lot of traffic. this following that new york grand jury's decision not to charge a white police officer in the death of eric garner. rick leventhal is covering this story for us. he is live in new york city with the latest where new york looked quite a bit, well, quite different from ferguson. hi there. >> reporter: certainly calmer today, heather, but dramatically larger crowds last night on the streets of new york and several other major cities with protesters trying to disrupt the lives of others in order to draw more attention to their cause, the outrage over the lack of an indictment in the garner case on the heels of another grand jury clearing the officer in the

death of michael brown in ferguson, missouri. a could estimated of more than 7 -- a crowd estimated of more than 7,000 clogged the brooklyn bridge, the holland tunnel and the west side highway. there were more than 200 arrests by the nypd, most for disorderly conduct, some after skirmishes with police. and there were other large demonstrations in washington, boston, chicago and san francisco all with a common theme, protesters chanting "no justice, no peace, no racist police." the nypd has launched a retraining program and has begun an internal investigation into the actions of police officer who was the subject of the grand jury case after his apparent chokehold of eric garner. there are many who say race had nothing to do with garner's case, that he had 31 prior arrests and was clearly resisting, and the police union president says the mayor has thrown cops under the bus.

>> if you're speaking, you can breathe. unfortunately, he died for a number of reasons, and as the grand jury saw and the medical examiner said, it was not a chokehold that killed that person. so we feel badly that there was a loss of life. but unfortunately, mr. garner made a choice that day to resist arrest. >> reporter: and the officer's attorney says he doesn't believe the federal civil investigation will lead to charges against his client calling it a, quote, regular street encounter that doesn't fit the parameters. heather. heather: rick leventhal in new york city, thanks. jon: new details about the woman accused of butchering an american teacher in abu dhabi. her dramatic arrest and what police there are now saying about her alleged plans to target more americans. leland vittert live from washington with details on that. leland? >> reporter: well, jon, police in abu dhabi have wasted no time on this investigation that was made all the more difficult because the killer covered herself or in a burka. police say the suspect has

confessed and targeted the victim simply because she was an american. in an overnight raid, they stormed a house and captured what they describe as a 38-year-old united arab emirates citizen of yemeni origin. police in abu dhabi believe she had help but believe the house that they raided was the base of operations. police believe the suspect also planted a relatively crude bomb outside the home of an american doctor that was defused before it could hurt anyone. this woman they've arrested is allegedly the woman seen in the mall surveillance tape in the killing of an american schoolteacher who was 47 years old, originally from hungary, an american citizen. she was a kindergarten teacher and mother of twin 11-year-old boys. their father has flown to abu dhabi to pick up his sons. the u.s. embassy had noted calls on social media for attacks against teachers in the region, and the leader of isis has made continued calls for lone wolf

attacks. they are inherently uncoordinated. obviously, the emirates makes a ripe target as there are a lot of americans, it is a relatively open society with shopping malls, beaches, glitzy hotels, and the uae is also part of the bombing coalition against isis. the embassy there has advised americans to now keep a low profile in public. jon? jon: let's hope they have the right woman. leland vittert, thank you. heather: back here at home jobs are up and the economy seems to be growing, but a lot of us want to know when the paycheck will finally catch up with our bills. plus there's this, a teenager is dead after a horrible hit and run crash, and now police are wondering if he was targeted because of his faith. you get sick, you can't breathe through your nose suddenly, you're a mouth breather. a mouth breather! well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. cold medicines open your nose over time, but add a breathe right strip and pow, it opens your nose up to 38% more.

so you can breathe and do the one thing you want to do, sleep. add breathe right to your cold medicine shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. and look for the calming scent of new breathe right lavender, in the sleep aisle. right! now you're gonna ask for my credit card - - so you can charge me on the down low two weeks later look, credit karma - are you talking to websites again? this website says 'free credit scores'. oh. credit karma! yeah, it's really free. look, you don't even have to put in your credit card information. what?! credit karma. really free credit scores. really. free. i could talk to you all day.

jon: now for some crime stories we're following for you, a man is custody in kansas city after a teen was hit by an suv and later died at the hospital.

police think it was intentional. the 15-year-old boy was getting into a car at the somali center when an suv plowed into him. someone had been threatening the muslim community there for months. the search is on in houston for 25-year-old doctor. the pediatric intern. her dark gray toyota camry is also missing. and closing arguments set for tuesday in the murder-for-hire trial in detroit. he's accused of hiring someone to kill his wife. testimony wrapped up yesterday after eight weeks. heather: a fox buzz alert to bring you this morning with some great news on the job front. the labor market says the u.s. added 321,000 jobs in the month of november, the most in nearly three years, and that is a sign of a growing economy. but the question a lot of folks are asking, when will paychecks catch up? joining us from the fox business

network, fox business correspondent peter barnes. that's a good question, when are companies going to feel comfortable in paying people more? >> reporter: well, wages did start to catch up last month, average hourly wages rose to $46.66 -- 24.66, the increase was double what analysts were expecting, and they welcome the news as a sign worker incomes might finally start to pick up. president obama also welcomed the report which showed broad-based job gains across most sectors of the economy and the biggest monthly increase in payrolls in nearly three years. >> overall wages are rising, a very welcome sign for millions of americans. so we've got an opportunity to keep up this progress if congress is willing to keep our government open, avoid self-inflicted wounds and work together to invest in the things that support faster job growth

in high paying jobs. >> reporter: but year-over-year wages are still stuck in low gear, up just about 2% which is slightly ahead of inflation. house speaker john boehner said, quote: middle class families across the country are struggling to get by on wages that haven't kept pace with rising costs. the president's response has been more of the same. the same massive regulations, the same rising premiums and the same uncertainty for manufacturers and small business. and the unemployment rate remained unchanged last month at 5.8% with nine million people still looking for work and seven million more working part-time but wanting full-time jobs. heather? heather: peter barnes in washington for us. peter, thank you. don't miss peter on our sister network. if you're not sure where to find fox business, log on to foxbusiness.com/channelfinder. jon: in yemen terrorists are threatening american hostage luke summer.

his family pleading for his release. ahead, how the pentagon tried to rescue luke summers and what could have gone wrong. then, our legal panel weighs in on the dramatic trial of tiffany stephens, the 39-year-old accused of trying to hire a handyman to kill her ex-husband. ♪ just look at those two. happy. in love. and saving so much money on their car insurance by switching to geico... well, just look at this setting. do you have the ring? oh, helzberg diamonds. another beautiful setting. i've just got a bit of sand in my eyes, that's all. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

thank you.

ordering chinese food is a very predictable experience. i order b14. i get b14. no surprises. buying business internet, on the other hand, can be a roller coaster white knuckle thrill ride. you're promised one speed. but do you consistently get it? you do with comcast business. and often even more. it's reliable. just like kung pao fish. thank you, ping. reliably fast internet starts at $89.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. heather: terrorists from the al-qaeda affiliate in yemen giving washington just days to respond to a video threat against the american hostage luke summers. the pentagon now says that it tried to rescue him last week in the desert in yemen. pentagon officials are are saying the u.s. and yemeni forces rescued a few hostages, but summers wasn't there. some are now saying that the pentagon and the white house simply took too long to make the decision. let's bring in mike baker, a

former cia covert operations officer and president of diligence llc, a global intelligence security firm. hi, mike, lots of complaints about this between the time it was believed that the intelligence came out that it was believed he was at this location in yemen and the time this was officially signed off on took about a week or so. can you explain sort of the chain of command and how long something like that should take to act upon? >> sure. well, first of all, it's not like the movies, so you don't suddenly get action able intelligence, boom, up go the choppers on something like a hostage rescue. each case is different, presents unique problems based on the ground truth in that particular location and resources available and how good the intel is. and if we look at this timeline that we're dealing with -- and it's interesting that the pentagon and the white house have put out this information about this unsuccessful mission from last month, in part because some of the information was leaking out -- but it's

interesting because the credible, potentially credible information about where luke summers was located in yemen, where he was being held by al-qaeda, aqap, surfaced about the 17th. and then if you look at the timeline, it took the pentagon about four days or so to look at that intelligence, determine whether it's credible, look for any other potential corroborating source, develop an operational game plan, how would we carry out this rescue attempt based on the intel that we have, and the intel is never going to be as good as you want it. if you wait for the intel to be good and absolute, something bad's going to happen. heather: i guess you're never going to have it at 100%, but according to "the wall street journal" and some of the things i'm reading, the pentagon signed off on this quickly and chuck hagel did, and then it went to the white house. and it seems as though that's where things slow down. explain how that works once it gets to the white house.

>> you're absolutely right. it took about six hours. once jsoc submitted their game plan to the pentagon, the brass at the pentagon took about, by all reckoning, about six hours to say, good. heather: that's fast, right? >> that's fast. get it over to the white house. that's where i think there's a combination of things. right now you've got a very political white house, it looks at everything through a political lens. you've got a collaborative, deliberative process in the white house, they want everybody's opinion. so i think it took about 48 hours or so based on the timelines that we're seeing from the pentagon and national security team information that's released about this. now, you could argue that after all these years of dealing with the terror threat once a plan is reviewed, approved by the pentagon and handed over to the white house and it involves the lives of u.s. citizens, that it shouldn't take that long. and it's very interesting because the national security spokesperson said, well, look, the president approved it as soon as he had unanimous approval or recommendation from

the national security team. heather: so it becomes a decision by committee. >> it becomes a decision by committee, i would argue, but this should take single-digit hours. this should not take a couple of days to get out of the white house. now, having said that, it's no guarantee because, again, you're dealing with imperfect intelligence. it's no guarantee that if you had shortened that time frame up that we would have gotten ahold of luke summers. heather: boy, i hate to talk about a failed attempt on the part because our men and women do so much to successfully try to get these americans. the case of jessica lynch who was held hostage 2003, 2004 in iraq, the case of some of those americans in somalia, they were rescued. i wonder if things are changing because we did have that case just about six months ago of james foley who was killed in syria after a failed rescue attempt. what do you think is going on here? are things just simply slowing down? >> well, we're living in a world where we want zero risk to begin with, so that does create this

more of a deliberative, contemplative process rather than saying, okay, our risk averse calculation, let's speed that up. we now want to say, okay, can we guarantee we're not going to have casualties? look at benghazi, an attack underway. i would argue there was a tremendous amount of political pressure on the brass to say, well, yeah, we can guarantee no casualty, so now we can send in the cavalry. but with the hostage rescue attempts including foley and now luke summers where they're not successful, there's nothing like an unsuccessful mission to breed political recriminations, to breed people saying, well, you know, the military didn't act quick enough or the white house -- heather: and maybe that's why we're seeing the leaks now. usually these things are kept under wraps, but we're starting to hear about it. mike, i want to ask you about one more thing, and you and i have talked a lot about the lack of human intelligence and how that hurts us. how could that potentially have come into play in this

situation? >> well, you, once you spend any time in operations or whether it's intel or military, you learn to make decisions to get off the x with imperfect intelligence. in other words, you're never going to get what you want. so that's why i say that you look at a situation like this, and if you come from that world, you understand. sometimes these things work, sometimes they don't. and you, you do the best you can in terms of evaluating risk versus gain and then what you want, as we've been talking about, you want the process to move quickly. you want -- once you've developed your game plan based on the truths you've got, the information you've got and what you know about that environment and what you've got in terms of resources, you want that process to move as quickly as possible because if it is actionable intelligence that you feel is credible enough to plot and plan and carry out this operation, you don't want to waste time. so often times the problem is, as you've noted here, you vetch out that -- you stretch out that period of time for improving an

operation, and that's where things can go wrong. heather: by the way, just want to mention that we asked the pentagon about this, colonel stephen warren said this went from theory to execution at a fast clip, so the pentagon at least standing by its position on this officially. mike baker, thank you so much. have a terrific weekend. always appreciate your expertise on this. >> thank you. jon: that bombshell expose about sexual assaults at the university of virginia facing some criticism after the journalist behind a "rolling stone" argue is accused of questionable reporting. our media panel weighs in. plus, this, take a look. that is the orion spacecraft coming down into the pacific just a few hundred feet off the ground now. these pictures are coming from a nasa drone that was dispatched. that capsule was just launched this morning, as you might know, from cape ca navallal. got up into space, was doing 20,000 miles an hour and now, as a test, those three chutes are

slowing it down to 20 miles an hour. phil keating was there for the launch. he can help us through the splashdown. phil? >> reporter: this is tremendous, first-of-its-kind video from a nasa unmanned drone aircraft that's been flying out 600 miles southwest of san diego over the pacific for several hours now, and the orion has performed perfectly, flawlessly, and it is about to splash down out in the pacific ocean. the drone capturing the live shot of the parachiewpts deploying, those huge orange parachutes that help slow the orion down from the 20,000 miles an hour it was doing as it reentered the earth's atmosphere. huge test for the heat shield, the largest ever designed for a spacecraft, 16 feet plus in diameter, sustaining 4,000 degrees fahrenheit. this would be about 80% of what it would sustain, it would be 5,000 degrees fahrenheit if it was returning back to earth from

the moon. so that's a big test for the heat shield. this is an unmanned test flight, of course, that launched just minutes after sunrise this morning from the cape ca cape canaveral air force station. about 20,000 spectators thrilled who had all come out to watch this historic test flight of nasa's spacecraft of the future. that is the orion. this is unmanned. there's going to be another unmanned test flight before we actually put astronauts in there. that should happen, the astronaut trip, in 2021. and then the plan for nasa is to get to orion out to an asteroid that another spacecraft will capture, it'll actually capture it, bring it into the moon's orbit and the astronauts will do a spacewalk onto that asteroid. and the ultimate plan here, why there is such enormous excitement at nasa and its subsidiaries is that this is the

spacecraft, according to plan and intention, will eventually in the 2030s take astronauts all the way to mars, making them the first human beings ever to set foot on the red planet. this is an historic day here, an outstanding test flight, the maiden voyage for the orion. the castle built by lockheed martin, blasting it off, that was built by united launch alliance. nasa involved, marshall space center in alabama, stennis outside of new orleans in mississippi, just a whole collective congratulations going out amongst themselves today as the orion now splashing down. there's a navy ship out there, a specially-designed navy ship, and a couple of boats will go out to the spacecraft as it floats on the ocean. the waves out there are roughly 4-5 feet, so that's really great. anything bigger than 11 feet, and it really would have been a

tricky recovery operation. so in about several hours they'll tow it back to the ship, put it underneath the ship inside a special hangar that'll fill up with water and bring it back to sand san diego over the weekend. jon: looks like a success. phil keating, thanks.

heather: right now a quick look at what's to come in this hour of "happening now." the journal isist behind a shocking article on an alleged gang rape at the university of virginia now coming under fire, several media outlets raising

major questions about who the reporter didn't talk to. our media panel will take a look. and then stunning developments in the case of a montana man who's accused of shooting an unarmed german exchange student. new testimony that could turn the tables in this closely-watched self-defense trial. and dining out may now require a little bit more math on your part if one big city restaurant has its way. the new checks adding one more line for a tip. we'll tell you who that might go to. jon: some new developments to bring you on an explosive article in last month's "rolling stone" magazine. it detailed a shocking allegation or alleged rape, i should say, gang rape in a from they werety house at the university of -- fraternity house at the university of virginia. now the journalist behind it is facing criticism as several other reporters raise concerns because, among other things, she did not interview the alleged perpetrators of the attack or their lawyers to get their side of the story.

some are wondering whether the attack happened at all. let's bring in judith miller, pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter and lynn sweet, washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times." let's talk a little bit, first of all, judy, about just what happened. this was alleged to have taken place at one particular fraternity on the uva campus. i mean, fraternities are relatively small, so not a whole lot of men can be implicated here, and the suggestion, i mean, the story says this woman was taken there and gang raped. but the criticism these days is that she apparently didn't go to the house, doesn't offer to, you know, didn't ask to speak to any of the alleged perpetrators of this crime. >> right. that's the main objection to the story which is very well reported and extremely powerful, jon, which is why it's raised so

much anxiety both within the university community and among the general public. jon: is well, let me stop you there -- >> she didn't, she didn't talk to the people whom she accuses of having conducted this rape. she says that she tried to reach them. eric wemple of the washington post said did you send them certified letters, e-mails, how hard did you try. so the fact that she relies on so many anonymous sources is being raised to cast doubt on the entire article which i think is unfortunate. jon: let me just clarify something, because you said well reported, but you do have some qualms about some of what's gone on here? >> well, of course. you know, whenever you're using anonymous sources -- and almost everyone in this story is anonymous, you know, the perpetrator, the victim is anonymous, they're using pseudonyms -- it's incumbent upon you to go the extra mile to make sure you contact the people whom you're accusing of a

terrible, terrible crime. but i think what's really sad as far as i'm concerned is that this has really buried the importance of the story, the issue that the journalist raises which is the climate at the uva campus and perhaps other campuses about sexual misconduct. she points out, for example, that there were 183 cases of people who were expelled from the university since 1998. not one, not one of them for sexual misconduct. that's a rather unusual situation, i think, given what seems to be going on today among american campuses. jon: yeah, she started to sort of back away from, well, i guess her belief in the victim's account. she says the degree of her trauma, there's no doubt in my mind that something happened to her that night, what exactly happened, you know, i wasn't in

that room, i don't know. >> well, reporters all the time, as judy knows and you know, jon, you're not there. it's incumbent on the reporter to figure it out and in a credible and, given that it's "rolling stone" and they were not under a deadline pressure and this was a story of choice not of need, it's just tragic that you take this very, very serious issue of date rape and rape on campuses and now have to have some fog over it because the author didn't do all her work. and one thing that i found most interesting in the "slate" interview when she was asked how did you try and contact the boys, she said, well, the web page contact was out of date. please. okay, i can hear judy raising her eyebrows now, right? >> right. [laughter] >> do a little more than that. >> yeah. >> and that's the problem. frankly, because she wanted to write with a compelling, anecdote alleyed, she took away what does seem to show in her

reporting that the university is acknowledging that there is a problem on campus. so she had a story, but because of the need to have a powerful narrative to try and, what, make us realize that the pain and suffering that the woman goes through is real? i think we know that. i think there's a lot of sympathy for rape interviews. so trading off a narrative lead that now turns out to be a side show taking away from what uva seems to recognize and there is data there that they're talking about problems there. jon: right, judy. judy, as you point out, there is a larger issue here that deserves some coverage, but the fear is that she may have gone overboard, may have even, you know, either accepted as gospel some things that respect true or may have -- that aren't true or may have funnelinged some of this herself, and if that's the case, it takes away from the larger issue. >> right, exactly. and that, i think, is the real tragedy of this situation. >> yeah.

>> sabrina erdely will or will not survive this as a reporter. so far "rolling stone" is standing behind her reporting and saying they did try to reach these people, the young men involved, but i think the issue itself of date rape and the fact that in many campuses we're hearing the opposite, that is that the people being accused of carrying out a rape don't have rights and are being kind of railroaded into admitting things they didn't even do. i mean, this is a hot topic that requires really thoughtful debate and yelling about whether or not she did or did not conduct her, this reporter conduct herself appropriately and do her due diligence has completely buried that issue and undermined the importance of it, and i'm sorry about that. jon: and, lynn, very quickly, again, the fraternity house, everybody knows which fraternity we're talking about here, and every member of that house is suddenly a suspect. >> right. which isn't fair either. that's why i think, you know, this is why when reporters want

this vivid narrative lead, you'd better make it airtight. and by the way, if you have a controversial story, i don't know why she's doing these interviews because she doesn't seem to have, as "slate" said, she doesn't have the mastery of the topic that when you live with a story you have. she should let her story speak for itself. and, by the way, it's hard to believe that none of these students have lawyers involved, because lawyers even -- are even good issuing a no comment. and i can't tell you, you just don't even see that out there. >> right. jon: lynn sweet, judy miller, good discussion. thank you both. >> thank you, jon. heather: well, an accused killer on the hot seat. he is claiming self-defense, but wait until you hear what a hairstylist heard him say. >> lots of things that show this case was not justifiable force.

jon: let's head over to the

"outnumbered" studios, sandra and andrea, what do you have? >> >> hey, jon. well, now they tell us. the administration finally anytiming many premiums -- admitting many premiums will go up on healthcare.gov next year, but, hey, the affordable care act can still be affordable if you shop around all over again. so much for if you like your plan, you can keep it, right? >> plus, hillary clinton says smart power means america should empathize with its enemies. what does that mean, and how how would it play on the campaign trail? >> and if you thought victoria's secret models were promoting perfect bodies, some of those angels reportedly calling themselves feminists. could they be right? >> all that plus our hashtag one lucky guy, one of our very favorites, at the top of the hour. jon: looking forward to that. see you then. >> thank you. heather: well, some blockbuster testimony in the trial of a montana man who admits to shooting and killing a foreign exchange student who entered his garage at night after two recent

robberies had taken place not long before. marcus karma is the homeowner, and he claims he was acting in self-defense when he shot the student. now a jury is hearing that case. but in a stunning twist, listen to this testimony: >> he had said he's really tired and that he'd been sitting up for three days waiting to shoot some f-ing kids. >> that testimony coming from a hairdresser who had apparently seen him just a day or two before he shot that young man. fred tecce is a former federal prosecutor, ashley merchant is a defense attorney. fred, boy, this case had been looking like it was in the homeowner's favor because montana has really strong stand your ground laws, but does this now point to premeditation? >> boggles my mind what people tell their hair dresser, that's why i have the same guy cutting my hair for 20 years. i actually think it wasn't a tough case for the state.

this guy pulled his shotguns out of his garage, he's waiting, there's nothing in your garage worth shooting a kid over, i'm sorry. i think the guy's going to get convicted. heather: ashley, what about that? jon and i were talking about it yesterday, jon's from the west, i've got family in the west, there's a real strong sense of, you know, this is my property, you don't just enter someone's property. >> i think without this hairdresser's testimony with a montana jury, i think the state would have had a very hard time getting a conviction because montana jurors tend to like stand your ground and the right to to bear arms and the right to protect your property from burglars like these kids. they were actually there to commit a crime. but with this hairdresser's testimony, it really, really turned what his intent was, whether or not he was really protecting his home or whether or not he actually was setting out to kill these kids. health. heather: and, fred? >> i believe in firearms, i believe in protecting your home, okay? but if someone comes up the

steps of your house, you shoot them. you don't leave your garage open and clean your shotgun waiting for people to come steal your personal possessions. he stepped over the line. heather: some of the neighbors said it was unusual for him to keep his garage door open, he did keep it open that night leading some to believe he did plan this all around. fred and ashley, i'd like you to stick around for another story we are following in connecticut. we'll be right back to talk about that on the other side. ty? don't put off checking out your medicare options until 65. now is a good time to get the ball rolling. medicare only covers about 80% of part b medical costs. the rest is up to you. that's where aarp medicare supplement insurance plans, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, come in. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could help save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. taking informed steps really makes a difference later. that's what it means to go long™.

call now and request this free decision guide and explore the range of aarp medicare supplement plans. all plans like these let you choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. call now and request your free decision guide and start gathering the information you need to help you go long™. ♪

heather: well, to connecticut now and a murder-for-hire trial case where tiffany stephens is accused of enlisting a handyman to kill her ex-husband. her attorneys now grilling eric stephens. listen to this. okay, we don't have that ready,

but in case we do get it ready, we'll bring that to you. essentially what -- he's on the stand, the ex-husband is on the stand, and we've got fred tecce and we also have our other guest with us as well. they're really coming down hard on the ex-husband, and they're asking him, you know, did you, did you degrade your wife, did you mock your wife, did you do this, did you do that, did you place her phone number on craig's list advertising sex, they are now trying to paint the victim as the bad guy. fred? [laughter] >> it's like -- i'll let ashley tell you, but it's criminal defense 101, try to get the jury to look at everything else in the world except for the one most important fact which is this woman wanted to pay a man five grand to kill her husband, so she picked a guy who was a bad guy because, unfortunately or fortunately, rack buys, priest -- rabbis, priests and nuns don't kill people for money. what the criminal defense lawyer

is doing is attacking all of this, and at the end of the day, he can't t away attention for the two taped phone calls made by this woman setting this whole thing up. heather: ashley, i wonder if they're trying to use this as sort of a mitigating factor in the case. what do you think of that? >> oh, definitely. they're trying to divert any attention they can from these audio recordings. there's nothing worse than when your client commits a crime on tape. and they've got an audio recording of her hiring this hitman and trying to make these arrangements. they've got to do everything in their power to try and deflect from that and focus on something else and make the victim out to be the bad guy. and also they're trying to come up with an alternative theory that maybe a bookie was trying to kill him, maybe somebody else in his life was trying to kill him hoping to deflect from the truth and what really happened in this case. >> i guess, fred, this is what you would call reasonable doubt. >> no, not hardly because if it was a bookie, while he try and kill him? if the guy gets the daughter, he

gets $50 million, and bookie gets paid. that theory's not going to go anywhere. a tough case for the defense, unfortunately, that's what you get. heather: it sounds like you throw in a bunch of money, he's reportedly worth about $50 million, and somebody wants custody of their daughter, and it just sounds like this whole case is ugly. it's got to be hard for the jury to look at that, but we're going to have to leave it there. >> i just feel bad for this 9-year-old, the daughter whose custody is at issue. heather: it is an ugly case. fred, ashley, thanks for sticking around to talk about this topic. jon: brand new stories we're working in the next hour of "happening now," police in florida searching for a suspect who might have sparked this tragedy. and new york city's mayor expected to roll out new legislation that will ban the city's iconic horse-drawn carriages. the reason behind this

controversial move and what drivers and their supporters are saying about it.

jon: we have some great stories coming up in our second hour, "outnumbered" starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> this is outnumbered, i'm sandra smith, and here today is harris faulkner, andrea tantaros, kirsten powers and today's hashtag one lucky guy, one of our favorites, tucker carlson, and he's "outnumbered." >> i'm always grateful to be hashtagged, and i'm glad to be here. >> profoundly outnumbered. i know you. >> it's like the alamo, but i like those odds. nice to see you. >> good to see you. you've been with us since the beginning, we love having you. >> i love the show. and i watch it. i'm one of your viewers. >> awesome. we appreciate that. let's get right to it. the president tapping ashton carter as his pick to succeed chuck hagel as