got me to 70 years old i'm going to have to rethink this thing it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ big chill. another day of record lows expected in parts of the country as winter makes an early arrival. new video released of darren wilson, the police officer who shot michael brown in ferguson, missouri, how does it fit into the picture as the city still waits for a grand jury decision? everybody smile. at a gathering of world leaders, president obama delivers a stern message to one of his counterparts on an international stage. and what was it like 65 stories up with no immediate way of being rescued?

hey, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." in a surprise move, chairman of the joint chiefs general martin dempsey is in baghdad today, his first trip sense american troops were sent back to iraq and the u.s. began its bombing campaign against isis. the general told a gathering of marines at the u.s. embassy that the momentum in the fight is starting to turn against isis. much of that fight is still focused in kobani, syria. the u.s. and its partners launching a new round of air strikes there today. there are reports from the ground that kurdish fighters have gained ground along kobani's southern front during fierce fighting overnight. joining us now is marie harf. let's talk about new data obtained by nbc news. this finds that isis in iraq has

significantly increased since the u.s. air strikes began. about 800 year-to-date attacks, 140 just last month. is this campaign actually working? >> well, we've always said this is going to be a long-term campaign. isis is a tough adversary. we know that. we've seen them gain in strength over the past months. that's why. the president made the decision to take direct military action against them in iraq and syria. we know this will be a long-term challenge. you can't judge how it's going by any one day or one week on the battlefield. but general dempsey is right. we are starting to turn the tide. this is going to be a long fight. but we are having some success. >> marie, honestly, wouldn't you think with the firepower that we can bring to this battlefield, if you will, that things would be decreasing by now? wasn't that presumed at the start? >> in terms of numbers, alex, obviously they don't tell the whole picture. what we're focused on is taking targeted military strikes that

do a couple of things. degrade isil leadership, isil fighters and their ability to fund themselves. if you look at the strikes we've taken in syria at some of the oil refineries, trying to cut off some of their funding. we do know that there is a huge presence of isil fighters in iraq and in syria. this is going to be a long fight. but american airpower combined with our partners does have a significant impact on them. >> back to the general in baghdad today. let's take a listen to him during a hearing on capitol hill thursday. >> i'm not predicting at this point that i would recommend that those forces in mosul and along the border would need to be accompanied by u.s. forces. but we're certainly considering it. any expansion of that, i think, would be equally modest. i just don't foresee a circumstance when it would be in our interest to take this fight on ourselves with a large military contingent. >> marie, is there a plan on the

table, maybe not yet being considered but drawn up for u.s. troops to actively fight on the ground? >> well, first of all, i go back to what the president has consistently said, that we will not send american troops in combat roles into iraq. he's said that repeatedly. that is still the case. and general dempsey also in that hearing said he had not made that recommendation to the president. in the second clip you played, did not believe that would be in our interest. so the president's been clear. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff provides his military opinion to the president. but he also was clear he had not recommended that to the president. >> how about the iraqis? do they want americans to take on a front-lines role? >> the iraqis know at the end of the day, this is their fight to fight and to win. and just because we don't have troops in combat roles doesn't mean we are not standing side by side with the iraqis. we have a number of assistance units providing assistance and advice to the iraqis helping them take on this fight.

obviously we provided them with weapons and intelligence as well. there are a number of ways to help the iraqis as we gain in strength. but the president's been clear, no troops in a combat role. >> i understand you're traveling with secretary kerry to vienna on monday for the nuclear talks. will there be a final deal? >> our negotiating team is heading out monday. the secretary will be joining a couple of days later. but you're right, the deadline is coming up on the 24th. we believe there is still time to get a deal done and we believe that the time is now for iran to make the decisions it needs to make to back up the words it said very publicly, that it doesn't want a nuclear weapon, with concrete and verifiable steps. we are very committed to seeing if we can get this done. but at the end of the day, some tough decisions have to be made, we're going to work hard in vienna up to the deadline to see if we can get it done. >> let me ask you about tuesday, on which the senate is going to take up the keystone pipeline bill.

is there a big question if congress even has the power to force approval of the project? because that is supposed to be the state department's job. what recourse does the state department have if the senate passes this bill. >> the state department has been undertaking a transparent, thorough objective analysis and look process into whether we will at the end of the day -- what decision we'll make on the keystone pipeline. that process resides at the state department. that process is not finished yet. any legislative action is completely separate from that process and doesn't impact it. at the end of the day, if the senate takes action on this and if there is more legislative action on this, we can have that conversation. but the process in terms of whether or not we mr. approve the keystone pipeline resides at the state department and it's ongoing. what we've seen on the hill doesn't impact that at this time. >> marie harf, thanks so much. a city on edge. this weekend in ferguson,

missouri, residents, police and the nation are awaiting the grand jury decision in the shooting death of teenager michael brown by police officer darren wilson. new today, police tapes obtained by "the st. louis post dispatch accounts show officer wilson leaving the police station for the hospital two hours after the shooting along with fellow officers, as well as a union lawyer. and then returning to the stationhouse 2 1/2 hours later. also obtained, police radio chatter in the moments before the shooting when a dispatcher reported a theft in progress. >> 25. it's going to be a black male in a white t-shirt. he's running toward quick trip. he took a whole box of swisher cigars. >> nine minutes later, officer wilson says that he's on the way. >> 21. put me on canfield with two. and send me another car. >> and then five minutes later after the fatal encounter with michael brown, hints of what's to come and the request of back-up from the other officers. >> get us several more units over here. there's going to be a problem.

>> any available ferguson units that can respond to canfield and copper creek? >> if officer wilson is not indicted, he can immediately return to active duty. but if he is indicted, he will most likely be fired. michael brown's homes are back home tonight after a trip to geneva switzerland. joining me from ferguson, missouri, msnbc's tramaine lee. what kind of information do these videos provide and what is the community reaction? >> reporter: in a big sense, the latest video and audio adds to the cacophony of sounds. we don't know what happened during that confrontation at the car. but for the first time, we get to hear darren wilson.

we get to see him in moving images. but not long after the call went out about the robbery, he identifies two men walking the street, one of them being mishgz brown. it's adding color to the bigger picture. i get tired to saying people are anxious. but that's the only word to use. they're anxious and tired. it adds to the swirl of speculation that's been overwhelming this community in the lead-up to the grand jury's announcement. >> according to our affiliate, chief thomas jackson has said if officer wilson is indicted, he will be fired. he has also said that if he is not indicted, he will return to active duty. i understand that you spoke to chief jackson this morning and he's clarifying those remarks, right? >> reporter: right, within the last hour, i sat down with chief jackson. and he said his words were taken out of context, particularly the idea he will welcome darren wilson back immediately.

he said if officer wilson is indicted, he will likely be fired because it's a felony offense. but if he is not indicted, he is legally allowed to return to his job. but even at that point, there will be an internal investigation that may or may not determine whether he did something wrong and committed some sort of fireable offense. but he's saying that legally officer wilson has a right to his job if he's not indicted on any charges. >> we're expecting that decision by the grand jury on whether officer wilson will be indicted anytime now. what is the feeling from people there on the ground and do we have a time line as to when this could come down? >> reporter: along with the anxiety that people are feeling, i also get the sense that people are downright tired. it's been almost 100 days. protesters have been in the streets almost every night. sitting across in chief jackson, he's tired. folks are just ready to get to the next step.

now, with that, there's still a mystery of when the grand jury will announce. we've heard mid october. from that point, day to day and week to week. whether it comes earlier in the week or later in the week, no one knows. >> but you are going to get a heads-up, right? >> reporter: they say if it happens during the weekend, there will be a 24-hour notice. we've been in talks about when will the media know? we're hoping we get some as well as the family. the family believes they'll get a day heads-up. but until that happens, who knows. >> right. thank you so much. a doctor from sierra leone is coming to the u.s. for treatment after testing positive for ebola. that plane is expected to touch down this afternoon. 44-year-old dr. martin salia, a sierra leone citizen and pimplt u.s. resident is being sent to nebraska medical center.

he is the third patient to be treated at that center. the other two have made successful recoveries. for the first time, we're hearing from the window washers who helplessly dangled from the world trade center. >> once the panic came in -- first instinct, emergency stop. that didn't work. but i just grabbed on, hold on and hope we wasn't going to fall over. once it came to a stop, it actually dragged us a little higher on that position. kept going up. but once that happened, it was relief and calmness. >> unbelievably, the washers say they have no problem going back to work. it's one small hitch for manki mankind. the european's space agency sits in idle mode after getting in a shady area blocking its

solar-powered batteries. that means it may run out of power soon. >> we're not sure whether the batteries still have enough energy so that we can transmit this data when we will get the contact again this evening. >> the satellite orbiting the comet will continue to look for any signal from that probe. frigid temperatures are settling in. we'll hear what's in store for the weekend ahead. and today starts the second round of open enrollment for the affordable care act. how americans are responding to it next. then there's trusting your vehicle maintenance to ford service confidence. our expertise, technology, and high quality parts means your peace of mind. it's no wonder last year we sold over three million tires. and during the big tire event, get up to $140 in mail-in rebates on four select tires. ♪

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pretty as a picture there. unseasonably cold temperatures across much of the nation at this hour. here in new york city, it is certainly chilly here but hardly as bad as some other parts of

the country. they are already dealing with piles of snow and more is on the way as the next week wears on. these are scenes from boise, idaho, as well as portland, oregon, where winter arrived a lot earlier than expected. the weather channel's mike seidel is in lawrence, kansas. >> reporter: good afternoon. from the university of kansas in lawrence where we are awaiting the kickoff early this afternoon between the jayhawks of kansas and the tcu horned frogs. both teams not used to this weather in mid november. temperatures in the low 30s for kickoff. last week's game was in the upper 50s and the average is 25 degrees warmer than it will be for kickoff today. that's the kansas jayhawk marching band going through their pregame warm-ups. as far as the cold weather goes, we've had a very chilly week. records have been set. as much as 50 inches of snow up in the lake areas, lake effect. and snow out west, too. boise had a record snowfall of over 4 inches.

temperatures never got out of the 20s. what's ahead? another bone-chilling air mass. the staying power of this cold air is amazing for november. nearby kansas city has been below freezing since tuesday. the stage is set for rain for most of you getting into monday. the monday commute from atlanta to d.c., philadelphia and up towards boston. on the back edge, some snowfall. cincinnati, looking for 3 to 5 inches of snow. and then next week, we'll be measuring the snow in feet in the preferred lake effect areas. northeast of cleveland, south of buffalo and north syracuse. the rest of us will be in the deep freeze. but there is light at the end of the tunnel. next weekend, the weekend before thanksgiving, all the weather models indicating most of the country will warm up. best place to be today, alex, south florida. temperatures in miami, well into the 70s. >> and the keys, too. thank you so much, mike. to politics now, president obama in brisbane, australia,

meeting with leaders of developed countries. the president addressed students there and talked about america's leadership role. >> we're leading the international community in the fight to destroy the terrorist group isil. we're leading in dealing with ebola in west africa and in opposing russia's aggression against ukraine. >> the second round of enrollment for obamacare begins today and runs through february. the president used his weekly address today to sign americans up. >> if you missed your chance to get covered last year, here's the good news. starting november 15th, today, you can go online or call 1-800-318-2596 and get covered for 2015. >> let's get some more now on obamacare from msnbc's casey hunt who's in washington for us. hi, casey. >> nice to see you, alex. >> let's talk about what officials have done.

why the change? is the administration trying to lower expectations? >> that seems to be the case. they've made a few assumptions here, one, that the same number of people will enroll in these plans but over a longer period of time. so fewer this year. but at the same time, this is a political conversation as well as a policy conversation. so this gives the white house a different benchmark than what was in the cbo report. the congressional budget office made estimates about how this would play out. they're essentially saying, the cbo got it wrong, we're lowering the thargt. that gives them a pushback if the sign-ups don't hit $9.5 million. >> the gallup poll gives the plan pretty good marks. 71% of the enrollees called it good. do you think public acceptance

is likely the stifle the continued republican opposition to the affordable care act? >> i think that you actually saw some of this at the end of the midterm campaign. the last couple of months of that campaign, we were expecting it to be all about the health care law when we first started talking about those elections. but by the end, it was about other things. it wasn't about the health care law. that's in some ways reflective -- you saw mitch mcconnell in kentucky not sure how to criticize the law because it was so popular there. i think you're going to see a shift in the conversation toward making changes to some of the aspects of the law. and that is a new thing and may allow congress to make some changes that would help the law move forward. i think the question is whether or not republicans are going to be willing to make small changes that might contribute to its ultimate success as opposed to just focusing on repealing the law in its entirety. >> several videos were released this week showing speeches made by jonathan gruber, a highly

paid white house consultant on obamacare. here's the comment that got the most attention. >> lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. and basically call it the stupidity of the american voter or whatever. but basically that was really, really critical to get anything to pass. it's the second best argument. i wish mark was right, we could make it all transparent. but i'd rather have this law than not. >> gruber said overall this week his comments were made off the cuff and he does regret them. but how is the white house reacting to gruber's comments? >> for republicans, gruber came across as condescending, particularly towards voters, saying this is about the stupidity of the american voter. that's not the way you want to go and it's contributed to republicans have ever said was wrong with this law. but the white house has distanced itself from gruber. josh earnest said the white house was extraordinarily transparent in the passage of this law. so i think they realize what a

problem some of these comments are. and they're trying to make sure that they don't -- aren't perceived as being in line with gruber's attitude. >> thank you so much. >> thanks, alex. it's an ambitious plan, train 100,000 urban youth to write computer code. we'll go live to the event next. kicks in on car stereo] ♪don't stop now come on mony♪ ♪come on yeah ♪i say yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪yeah ♪'cause you make me feel like a pony♪ ♪so good ♪like your pony ♪so good ♪ride the pony the sentra, with bose audio and nissanconnect technology. spread your joy. nissan. innovation that excites. [singing] ♪mony mony

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schools where kids learn on computers only here in philadelphia basically, the organization called "yes we code" has teamed up with my brother's keeper to do what's called a hack-a-thon. they bring kids together from particularly low-income areas and teach them how to code. last night, about 60 kids pitched ideas for their own apps. they had to explain in one minute or less what their app was about. and 12 teams were picked to develop and sort of help the kids learn how to put into the practice the ideas they had. last night, the mayor of philadelphia was one of the many people who are fans of the initiative who came down. let's listen to what mayor nutter had to say. >> these young people are doing things many of us could never have imagined doing when we were kids. but i'm excited about what they're doing and what their lives are all about because they're going to lead the future in this city. they're going to create

opportunity that many of us could never have dreamed of. >> and, alex, he is absolutely right because some of the ideas that were pitched last night are things i wish we had right now, including one of the teams that is behind me that's developing one of the winning ideas. you want to take a look? >> yeah, let's talk to them. >> let's walk over here. this young man is pharaoh. he pitched an idea for an app that now the teams are workingen. tell us about your app. >> our app's name is change your community. you can find a website about us next week. basically the idea of the app is for people to be able to take pictures of abandoned buildings and post it on a website or an application and then people can post different ideas for renovations and raise different amounts of money for fund-raising to renovate them into things the community actually needs. >> so as you can see, these kids

are brilliant, first of all. and they come up with terrific ideas to have real-world applications and then they're going to figure out how to build it. very cool. >> oh, my gosh. give them a big high-five. well done. that's very cool. thanks. will the new republican majority in congress end up shutting down the government? it seems some gop members are at odds with each other. we'll sort it all out for you. /7 /7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates. ♪ [ male announcer ] united is rolling out global, satellite-fed wi-fi to connect you even 35,000 feet over the ocean.

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." the senate will likely take up legislation on approving the keystone pipeline next tuesday. it follows the house passing that proposal yesterday by a vote of 252-161. those in favor including 31 democrats. but the pipeline's fate remains up in the air with president obama potentially vetoing the bill if it gets to his desk. joining me now, john garimendi.

you voted no on this bill. why? >> this is just really not the way we ought to go. we know we have a serious climate problem. if we're going to build a pipeline to make the world more dependent on oil, at least we ought to be promoting clean energy. the wind production tax credit is expiring, other tax credits for clean energy are expiring. so we're going to be left with oil and coal. doesn't make any sense to me. we ought to have a balanced program. by the way, this is the earmark of all earmarks. there is a very substantial tax reduction for transcanada in this piece of legislation. they don't have to pay into the oil spill trust fund, the only pipeline company in america not paying into the trust fund for cleaning up oil spills. >> according to a recent pew research poll, 59% of people

favor building that pipeline. 31% oppose it. that's a pretty clear majority. but shouldn't congress and the president follow the will of the people or do you think the people don't understand the complexities of the issue completely? >> well, i'm sure people have an understanding of this. sure, we want to build pipelines. there are some immediate jobs, construction jobs, maybe 50 permanent jobs that may be associated with this pipeline, all good. but people also understand if you take a look at the very same poll, that we do have a thing called climate change. and we have to address it. the president was just off in china cutting a very, very significant deal with china where both china and the united states would make a serious attempt -- not an attempt, but seriously reduce our greenhouse gases. that is extremely important. you can't do that by allowing those programs that actually lead to the construction of green energy systems and the

thousands upon thousands of jobs that are associated with that, you cannot let those laws expire. and that's what is happening as the republicans push this keystone pipeline issue. couple them up. put them together. do the green energy. if you're going to build the pipeline, do the green energy at the same time. >> congressman, i want to switch to immigration. the president expected to announce an executive order on imgreat lakes before the end of the year. he reiterated that vow yesterday. here's what house speaker john boehner said earlier this week. >> we're going to fight the president tooth and nail if he continues down this path. >> the government funding bill could have that strict language. leaving that option open? >> all options are on the table. >> government funding bill. are we headed to a government shutdown over this? >> well, that's quite possible. clearly the radical elements in the republican caucus are beginning to rumble. it's like a far-off storm, you

can see the black clouds and hear a little bit of the rumble. let's keep in mind that the president cannot do anything that is not allowed by the current law. and let's understand. the current law is clearly not working well, but the president does have certain powers under that law to take administrative action. he cannot do anything not allowed by the law. so he is going to do something probably next week. we don't know what. it may very well lead to a major conflict in congress. and as i say, that storm cloud isn't so far off. the rumbles are there. you can hear the thunder. will there be lightning? i don't know. but the republicans did shut down government just 13 months ago to a disaster for them politically. we'll see what happens here. it would be a terrible thing to do. more important, let's pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. it's in the house of representatives. it could be taken up tomorrow and i guarantee you the votes to

pass a comprehensive bill are there tomorrow if boehner would put that bill on the floor of the house. >> right. but the message of possibly hijacking the government, shutting it down over this, again, what kind of a message is that sending to the american people just after the midterm election? >> well, it's certainly not kumbaya. it's certainly not that we're all going to get along together and work in a bipartisan way. the president's been very clear about this. he's worked for six years and asked for six years for congress to pass a comprehensive reform. the senate did, a bipartisan reform. it's been in the house of representatives for almost 18 months now. take it up. let's see if the votes are there. i'm sure the votes are there. let's find out. but shut down the government when in fact the problem can be solved next week? monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday -- this problem can be solved if mr. boehner would allow that senate bill to come to the floor of the house of

representatives and let's see if the votes are there. i think they are. >> let's talk about the open enrollment for the affordable care act which begins today. a lot of news this week after video surfaced of the comments that jonathan gruber made. let's take a listen. >> you get a law which said healthy people are going to pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed. lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. and basically call it the stupidity of the american voter or whatever. but basically that was really critical to get anything to pass. >> jon told msnbc this week that he regrets these comments. are you constituents starting to question the affordable care act after hearing things like this? >> well, first of all, stupid is mr. gruber and he's dead wrong.

it had debate from both opponents and both supporters and was in the senate for three months being debated, being discussed, a lot of press on it. gruber is the stupid one here. he's just plain wrong. my constituents in california have had a program that actually works. we have, i think, almost 4 million people that are insured now both in medi-cal or medicaid. there are problems with every program. over time, you have to change, you have to be able to adapt and improve. that's what we ought to be doing instead of all this chest-beating and threats of shutting down government and on and on. >> but do you at all understand how when people hear these kind of comments by a man who was one of the architects of obamacare or the aca, that they might get a little bit put off here and might start thinking, maybe there's something to it and it

might just cloud everything up? >> well, it certainly has done that. but he's just plain wrong. it wasn't that way at all. this thing was debated over two years, heavily debated, heavily in the press and everything else. and all of the elements were known before there was any votes. whether you read all of the language in every page, that's another matter. but clearly we knew what was going on, what was there and how it would work. he talked about the tax issues. we knew that when we voted on this thing. and we also knew it wasn't perfect. and what we should be doing as representatives of the american people is to make this thing work, to make the improvements, to make the changes that are necessary and there are probably several, maybe a dozen or more changes that would significantly improve this piece of legislation. but all the talk, we're going to shut down government, we're going to repeal it or kill this thing or strangle it or whatever

doesn't solve the underlying problem. and the american public -- you start repealing this law, you begin to take away some very, very important things like the end of insurance discrimination is in this law. if you're a woman, previously you were faced with insurance discrimination. simply because you're a woman. those days are over. if you had a pre-existing condition, those days are over. so that kind of improvements that the law made would be eliminated if the repeal of the law were ever to take place. and i don't think it's ever going to be repealed but it certainly stands for improvement and changes along through time as we grow and as we learn how this thing can work for the benefit of the american public. >> representative, good to see you, sir. thank you. >> thank you. the grand jury in the michael brown shooting is in its final stage. we could learn its decision anytime now. michael brown's family is urging restraint by protesters once the

grand jury does decide whether officer darren wilson should be indicted. faith jenkins is joining me with more on this case. can you walk us through the implications of the grand jury decision, if the grand jury does not indict officer wilson. is there any chance he could still be prosecuted? >> very unlikely, alex. the federal officials have said they don't think they have enough evidence to pursue civil rights charges against wilson. if the grand jury doesn't indict, it probably means when it comes to criminal charges, the case against officer wilson is probably finished. now, what will happen once we get the decision from the grand jury? we've been told by the prosecutor that he will release the transcripts of the grand jury testimony. so people will be able to see what that testimony consisted of and was it testimony that supports the grand jurors' decisions. it's been a really interesting case so far because of the way the prosecutor decided to

present the case to the grand jury. >> is it a normal process for a prosecutor to refrain from making a decision and then just hand off that responsibility to a grand jury? >> no. prosecutors are hired or in this case elected because of their judgment-making skills, because of the ability to make a decision, prosecutorial abilities. the an it's been so problematic, the prosecutor decided to put in all of the evidence and flood these grnd jurand jurors with as evidence without giving them legal direction and guidance, without telling them, these are the charges that we want you to consider. they gave them all the information and then the decision is up to them. as a prosecutor, you're the legal expert. you're the person that's supposed to go in and guide the grand jurors, that's what usually happens. you go in, you present your

evidence, you tell the grand jurors, these are the charges that we want you to consider. these why in most cases, if prosecutors want an indictment, they get one. but the opposite is also true. if they don't have for an indictment, they usually don't get one. so while mccullough may see, we put everything in and it's the decision of the grand jury, it comes back to him and his decision and the way he presented this case to the grand jurors. >> how will it affect the justice department's investigation of the shooting? >> the justice department's investigation is still ongoing. we've heard from federal officials already that they don't believe that charges against officer wilson will be on the federal level because of the difficulty in prosecuting officers for federal civil rights charges. there's an extra element in civil rights charges, that's the element of intent, the element of willfully violating someone's civil rights. it's a higher burden. it's hard to prove. that's why most times the

justice department takes a step back and lets the state pursue their case first. >> faith jenkins, good to talk with you. thank you. the navy s.e.a.l. who says he killed osama bin laden and the major backlash against him. ahead, i talk to one f of his brothers in arms about whether the outrage is warranted. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days.

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wholesome ingredients like the original recipe and lets you bake just the batch you want. so bake the world better, and turn any moment into a warm cookie moment. find them in the frozen aisle. nestlé. good food good life. zblmp he did it for the right reasons. that's what former u.s. navy s.e.a.l. robert o'neill is saying, that he killed osama bin laden in that nighttime raid in pakistan 3 1/2 years ago. >> one of the things we fought were was freedom. a lot of these freedoms, free speech and free opinion. i hope they see i'm doing it for the right reasons. the reason is this platform i've been given, helping 9/11 families and also helping vets. >> joining me now, retired navy s.e.a.l. john mcguire.

you heard robert o'neill saying he's come forward for the veterans and the 9/11 families. what's your reaction to that? >> first of all, hello, alex. thanks for having me. it's hard to understand some of the things he's saying or why he does it. but it's not in the special forces world for us to talk about our missions and who does it and when we do it. >> what about the books? you've got a couple of them out there, they've written books on the raid and say they have been ostracized from the s.e.a.l. community. what are you hearing from with the s.e.a.l.s you've spoken? >> this whole situation began with the white house announcing osama bin laden was killed by the navy s.e.a.l.s. our enemy wants to know what we do more than we do. so for operational security, for safety and security of our men and women, we can't know these things.

now, if they write a book, then there are channels they go through with the pentagon to make sure no secrets are disclosed. what they're saying in interviews or in books aren't necessarily being vetted, which could put people in harm's way. so i don't speak for other navy s.e.a.l.s. i was a s.e.a.l. for ten years. i only speak for myself. but we're not happy because that's not what we do. and it's not one guy, it's a team and there are men and women who never set foot in afghanistan or pakistan that were part of the success. and it's a team. >> absolutely. robert o'neill certainly couldn't have done what he did on his own. the s.e.a.l.s have this nickname, the quiet professionals. explain how that idea plays into the s.e.a.l. character. >> it's not just the s.e.a.l.s. we are a brotherhood of air force, navy, army and marines. now you have the air force

pararescue guys, the army rangers and special forces guy, marine special ops along with the s.e.a.l.s and others. we don't talk about what we do. you know that going into it. we realize that everybody wants to know what we do. tell you what, both these men you're talking about are amazing men and are capable of great things. with our culture and the way we bring each other up, we just don't go forward and talk about the details. it's one thing for you to think you know what type of weapon a navy s.e.a.l. uses or how long it takes a navy s.e.a.l. to get to a target. it's another thing for a navy s.e.a.l. to come on tv and confirm that. our enemies are watching and they want to know. i've watched a lot of movies and books in my time that give us farfetched capabilities. we shouldn't confirm what we do. >> the operational secret that is you referenced earlier, aside from breaking the code, the accusation from the government

is bissonnette has exposed operational secrets. have you seen anything to suggest that? >> i couldn't confirm that. say i see something in the book i know you shouldn't know about, i'll leave it up to the pentagon. >> okay. how about, did you think from the start of this mission that the details concerning all that it meant for this nation would stay secret? >> i was skeptical it would stay secret. since the white house announced right away that navy s.e.a.l.s killed osama bin laden, obviously that was too much. but i understand that he is an evil person who is responsible for the death of over 3,000 americans. so americans needed a little bit of closure. so i get it. osama bin laden is dead. that's good to know. navy s.e.a.l.s did it, we didn't need to know that. but that's enough. that's where it should stop.

when you see the diagrams of his compound, his house and step by step, helicopter crashed her, personnel got out of the helicopter here -- i think me and all special warriors cringe because americans don't need to know those details. >> for a guy who didn't want to talk about details, you gave me a great interview. thank you very much, john mcguire. >> all right. take care. tense times at home and abroad. one american president trying to keep the peace. ahead, a look at two days in june, the new book that examines a pair of major speeches by president kennedy and how they transformed the nation. here we go. ♪ fifty omaha set hut ♪ losing feeling in my toes ♪ ♪ nothing beats that new car smell ♪ ♪ chicken parm you taste so good ♪

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a group of parents at a chicago elementary school are up in arms over the curriculum used in their fifth-graders' sex ed class. pamphlets were recently handed out. the school district is

apologizing saying parents were accidentally giving the teacher ease manual, not the curriculum. but parents want to know why even the teacher guide was so graphic. >> some aspects of it did come across more as a "how to" rather than, here's the biology, here's the education. >> things that no sixth-grader, who is 11, maybe, should ever be exposed to. >> chicago public schools admits it made a mistake and issued this statement, the objectionable material is not and never was part of the student sexual education curriculum. it was mistakenly downloaded and included in the teachers' manual. coming up, jon stewart in the director's chair and the one question i asked him that stumped him. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups.

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might surprise you. the u.s. troop drawdown in afghanistan is almost ending. why is there talk of a deal between the government there and the taliban, the government the u.s. fought to overthrow? and the warning about drones. they are being found flying near sporting events potentially putting tens of thousands of people in harm's way. good day to all of you. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." here's what's happening. in a surprise move, chairman of the joint chiefs general martin dempsey is in baghdad today, his first trip since american troops were sent back to iraq and the u.s. began its bombing campaign against isis. general dempsey said the momentum in the fight is starting to turn against isis. joining us on the phone is retired army colonel jack jacobs. colonel, welcome. what does this trip today tell you from general dempsey? >> well, he gets briefed all the

time, many times a day. so the meetings -- to see what's going on is really more window dressing than anything else. he already knows what's going on. first of all, he had to meet with the prime minister. and that's important. but really he's demonstrating that to keep faith with the troops there and those who are going there. we're going to have a fairly steady stream of advisers who are going to be out in the field with the iraqis to train them to resist isis. so he's the commander and he's got to demonstrate solidarity with the troops. just a matter of time before he went there. and i bet he's going to go again pretty soon, too. >> okay. nbc news obtained new data that found attacks by isis have increased significantly since the u.s. began its bombing campaign. does that tell you the plan's working? >> well, it tells you something

that everybody who's got any military experience knows already from experience. and other people know it instinctively. and that is, bombing alone is not going to help. just targeting nation's devices, their weapons, ammo dumps and that sort of stuff will have an immediate tactical effect positively from our standpoint, but ultimately isis is just going to find other ways to get around the bombing because just bombing alone doesn't work. you actually have to seize and hold terrain that is relinquished that is given up by the bombing. troops on the ground are what's really important. >> to that end, you had general dempsey saying in the capitol hill hearing, he's considering proposing that happen. you know the president has said repeatedly that it's not going to happen. what are the chances?

>> well, they're not zero. by the way, we have advisers who are going to be on the ground. i was an adviser. and the fact of the matter is just because you're an adviser doesn't mean you're not exposed to combat indeed. it's very likely we'll have americans exposed to combat. but troops on the ground are important and you need to have a lot of them. they don't necessarily have to be ours. but there's a lot of stuff going on right now behind closed doors trying to cobble together a coalition of states in the region who can provide troops. but a tough one because you're going to have resistance. but troops on the ground are essential. >> colonel jack, thank you. president obama could face a new challenge from congress next week and it could involve members of his own party. the controversial keystone

pipeline, the house approved the measure yesterday. the president said yesterday that politics should not play a role in the decision. >> i have to constantly push back against this idea that somehow the keystone pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the united states or is somehow lowering gas prices. >> let's bring in nbc's kasie hunt from washington. what are the chances this is going to pass in the senate on tuesday? >> last i've talked to my sources, the democrats who support it say they have about 59 votes in the senate. so obviously that's one short of what it needs to be to overcome the filibuster that's likely to come from environmentalists on the left. so they're expecting the republicans to support it. the places you want to look to see whether or not this is going to pass are some of the outgoing senators. mark begich, mark udall.

but hoeven and manchin, the moderate democrats are trying to scrape together enough votes to push it through. >> if it goes through, how likely are we to see a presidential veto? >> president obama has hinted at a veto. but has not actually come out and issued a formal veto threat as of yet. this is shaping up to be the first of many potential confrontations between the president and congressional republicans combined with some of those centrist democrats. you saw centrist democrats almost hopefully revolting against harry reid this week in the senate as they went behind closed doors to choose their majority leader. he put elizabeth warren from the left wing of the party into a leadership position. but i think that what happens with keystone is going to sort of show you what could happen over and over again in the coming months. >> how much of what senator

landrieu is doing has to do with her run-off election next month? >> all of it, alex. this is all of a sudden an issue because we have this one senate election left on the map. and in the house, bill cassidy is her opponent. he's a congressman from louisiana. they announced -- the republicans announced they were going to put him on the energy committee should he be elected. and that helped kick off this whole thing. mary landrieu's team says she saw an opening over the weekend and she actually ticked off both democrats and republicans in pushing this forward because republicans in the senate are also sort of reluctant to give her a win. but she's really stepped up and taken credit for this and he's running as somebody who is the energy chair who can get things done for her state. that's what she's trying to demonstrate she's doing. >> thanks very weighing in from washington. other news now, heavy smoke from a lava flow is causing breathing problems in hawaii right now. that smoke is billowing straight

towards homes in pahoa. local authorities say they've been treating a lot of people for headaches. the lava began flowing from the kilauea volcano back in june. a scare at work at a mill in oregon. heavy snow and ice caused the plant's roof to collapse on friday. officials say repairs could take weeks and fortunately none of the workers was injured. the winter blast hitting much of the country isn't going away anytime soon. in some places, it's going to be 30 degrees below average. the weather channel's dr. greg postel is here with the forecast. >> it's kind of a snowy weekend, maybe a little odd for november standards. but definitely one to keep an eye on because the roads and the travel could be impacted significantly. let's have a look at the areas that we're dealing with snow. today, it's this batch. tomorrow, it will be that batch. so let's break it out and time it for you.

not a whole lot anywhere. we're kind of thinking 1 to 3. today, scattered in nature and the system works itself out. watch into the south, this band of snow, maybe not that wide. but where it does snow, it may come down at a decent clip and accumulate on everything. not your typical november snow that only accumulates on the grass. this is going to get on the roads and impact travel perhaps significantly so all the way through your day tomorrow and into monday morning in parts of northern ohio. but speaking of cold, this is what's going to make it even more miserable if you don't like the cold. look at some of these numbers on sunday. 20 degrees below average will be common across the region. monday as well. these numbers are more like cold outbreaks in january let alone november. look at this, it goes all the way to the southeast and the east coast. i also want to point out, there's going to be a lot of lake-effect snow between now and next week as well.

>> thank you. the new deal with the u.s. reaching with china to fight climate change, coming up, a guest who says you can't fix the environment until we fix the economy. and later, jon stewart talks about his new film and the question i asked him that he had no answer to. >> i think the satellite must have just -- >> did you not understand the question or -- >> no, i understood it. dave, i'm sorry to interrupt... i gotta take a sick day tomorrow. dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine. [coughing] hey amanda, sorry to bother you, but i gotta take a sick day. moms don't take sick days, moms take dayquil. the non drowsy, coughing, aching, fever, sore throat, stuffy head, power through your day medicine. i make a lot of purchases foand i get ass. lot in return

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a city on edge this weekend in ferguson, missouri, residents, police and the nation are awaiting the grand jury decision in the shooting death of teenager michael brown by police officer darren wilson. new today, police tapes obtained by the st. louis post dispatch show the radio chatter in the minutes and seconds leading up to the shooting as well as officer wilson on tape in the

hours after the fatal encounter. let's bring in anthony gray, the attorney for michael brown's family. anthony, with a welcome to you, these new images, these things we're just finding out today, it feels like they should answer some questions. but what specifically did you take from the new information? >> well, what i got out after it was that it corroborated and bolstered the eyewitness accounts of what dorian johnson said in his initial interviews, that they were confronted on canfield by this officer, that something occurred on canfield that ultimately led to the murder-style killing of michael brown jr. beyond that, i don't glean any other new information other than i guess we can completely refute the allegation that officer wilson had some orbital blowout of his eye socket.

that's clearly seen in this video not to be true. he seemed to be healthy. the notion that he was severely injured and compromised now is completely rendered to be false. >> as you are well aware, this grand jury's been in session since august 20th. why do you think this process has gone on for so long? >> i believe, alex, they are having a trial as opposed to a probable cause hearing. it just seems like the amount of evidence and information put in front of this grand jury is indicative of what you would see in an actual full-blown jury trial. the only thing missing is that the lawyers on our side don't get a chance to cross-examine the witness. that's part of the reason that i feel that the process has taken so long, because they're putting on so much information, a lot of which is probably not even relevant. you only have to determine if there's probable cause to arrest

officer darren wilson. six witnesses accounts, discount five of them, four of them, if one of them are telling the truth, you have probable cause and the case should go to a trial. >> it's been said that folks in ferguson are weary of all this, understandably so. it's been demonstrations every night and the like. but is the city on edge at all because we also hear that when a grand jury decision comes down, they're going to let schools know anywhere from three hours to 24 hours in advance to get kids home just in case. what's your sense? >> sure. my sense is that the community is on edge, is anxious. a lot of the feelings have been ginned up by the reports that we're getting from the media about all the potential or the expected outbursts and rioting and those kind of things. i'm not sure if those media accounts will push reaction by the community. you really don't know. and you cannot forecast behavior.

you can just hope for the best, plan for the worst. i guess that's what they're doing. but the fact of the matter is, it looks like the plan is for war and not for peace and not for a trial. and that is kind of unsettling in a sense. but that's where we are right now. >> yeah, actually the way you just said that is unsettling. anthony, a bit earlier today we had ferguson police chief tom jackson telling our affiliate that if officer wilson is indicted, he then gets fired. he also said if wilson is not, he can return to active duty. but he clarified those comments a couple of hours ago with msnbc saying that legally wilson is entitled to return to his job but there would need to be an internal investigation to determine if he's able to come back. give me your reaction overall to chief jackson's comments. >> i find that to be startling that he would make that comment. there's no question that based off of what we know thus far, there are some protocols within

the department that were not adhead adhered to. i can't cite the policies themselves but clearly when you have an officer calling out saying he's going to confront two gentlemen -- and this is in his own audiotape and he doesn't reference the connection of what happened to the convenience store, you've got a protocol break there in communication. he now wants to retroactively fit all this into what happened at the convenience store which opens the door for some policy violations. there are other policy violations that in my mind he could be brought up on and that could cost him his job as well. but the notion that he would go back as a ferguson police officer all of this is absolutely absurd, in my opinion. >> and in part, why is it absurd? are you worried about if he does go back, there's going to be a volatile reaction in the community? >> and as well so. i'm not saying volatile in violence but volatile in

emotions, for sure. the feelings that people will have, the frustration that a large majority of that community will have, having this officer back on the same streets, patrolling the same area, having this dark cloud of suspicion over him, being cleared by a grand jury in a process that was secretive that convened, in my opinion, a full-blown trial. now he's going to be back on the streets, i think it's irresponsible to even suggest that would be the ultimate outcome. >> what's your prediction on when we're going to hear the results of the grand jury whether to indict or not? >> i have to punt on that and say at any moment now as the media has been reporting because when it comes down to deliberations, you could deliberate or five minutes, five hours or five days. difficult to tell how long deliberations will last on this case. at any moment, we can expect to

get an announcement if they're done with their work, which i suspect they're getting very close to being done with. >> good answer and the one i expected basically. thank you so much, anthony gray. appreciate your time. >> thank you. have a great day. >> you, too. imagine seeing this at your next outing to a football game, ahead, how the latest invention in aviation technology has people fearful of threats from above. ey. the setting is perfect. you know what? plenty of guys have this issue, not just getting an erection, but keeping it. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and you only take it when you need it. good to know, right? if ed is stopping what you started... ask you doctor about viagra. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach and abnormal vision.

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president obama's in australia today at an economic summit with g-20 leaders. more than 50 years ago, president john f. kennedy was facing off against russia, then it was over the proliferation of nuclear weapons. on the domestic front, president kennedy was facing a national divide over civil rights. a new book looks at two major initiatives by president kennedy on those issues. and joining me now, the author of this book, andrew cohen.

we have those two days beginning in june on the 10th of that month. let's listen to part of his speech. >> chairman khrushchev, we have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly begin in moscow looking towards early agreement on a comprehensive test band treaty. >> those talks of which the president speaks, andrew, how crucial were they to slowing the arms race? >> well, they were absolutely crucial at the time, alex, because nobody had thought that the soviets and the americans eight months after the cuban missile crisis in which they nearly incinerated the world could possibly begin having a dialogue about peace. and that was what began on june 10th, 1963, when jfk goes to american university and humanizes the russians and says to americans, you have to look at the russians differently. makes an appeal to nikita khrushchev.

khrushchev responds to that appeal. they talk about what will be the limited nuclear test band treaty. but it will be the first of the arms control treaties of the 1960s and '70s and '80s. and it will show at the height of the cold war, the americans and russians can do business with each other. >> let's listen to part of this speech. >> 100 years of delay have passed since president lincoln freed the slaves yet their heirs, their grandsons are not fully free. they are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. they are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. >> two powerful speeches on two very different topics. what drew you to them? >> well, these are momentous days in the presidency of john

f. kennedy. it's where he pivots on the two biggest issues of his generation, nuclear arms and civil rights. he does it in different ways. the speech at american university was written am in secret. jfk worried if it leaked in advance, his appeal to the russians would be sabotaged by conservative elements in the united states. the next day having faced down george wallace in alabama, that was the stand at the schoolhouse door, jfk goes on the air almost without preparation. he gives his speechwriter two hours to write a seminal civil rights speech in which jfk will do that day what he had done the day before to a different audience. he will humanize and appeal to african-americans as he's humanized the russians the day before and ask americans to think differently about black americans and will introduce the civil rights -- what will become the civil rights act of 1964. he'll introduce it, the most sweeping comprehensive legislation of its type.

in two days, president kennedy is tilting on both these issues. what i've tried to do is reconstruct intimately those 48 hours in the white house and why the president acted the way he did. >> you look at these two issues the president faced, we still face these problems of racism in this country. we're again in a tense relationship with russia. so half a century later, how have things changed and how do you think the president might have dealt with things today? >> well, i think president kennedy always felt you have to talk to people, you have to reason. and he used the power of rhetoric. then, the power of speechmaking was much more in a sense appreciated and much more practiced in society. president obama can give a wonderful speech. but my sense is he stopped giving great speeches after he became president. he in a sense was captured by the washington sense of language. president kennedy felt if you talked to people and you negotiate with them -- i'm not saying he would negotiate with

president putin today but he would attempt to make americans understand there are other views here. i think that sense of understanding was very important in how jfk approached both issues. he felt if you did things in a certain way, americans would respond and you could in a sense get away from old prejudices. that's what he does in these two days. i call it his crowded hour because he's not only dealing with the russians but also with wallace in montgomery. and he finds time to think more broadly about what i call his lyrical journey to peace and freedom in those two days. >> andrew, thank you so much for talking with us about your book. >> thank you. what's the real impact of the u.s. climate change deal with china? will it help stop the massive smog in beijing and why doesn't any of it go into effect now in china? you got the bargain kind? you would need like a bunch of those to clean this mess. then i'll use a bunch of them. what are you doing? dish issues? ...

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open its checkbook for the global effort to fight climate change. president obama this morning pledged $3 billion to a green climate fund to help developing nations reduce their carbon emissions. the move comes just days after president obama announced the u.s. and china reached a historic deal on climate change. let's listen. >> as the world's two largest economies, energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gases, we have a special possibility to lead the global effort against climate change. that's why today i am proud that we can announce a historic agreement. >> the deal calls for the u.s. to reduce emissions up to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. china will raise its usage of nonfossil fuel up to 2% of its energy consumption by -- 20% of its energy consumption. let's bring in naomi klein. how significant are these two

events? put it in perspective for us, the u.s./china deal and the commitment to developing nations. >> well, i think within the context of current political realities in the united states and internationally, it's important, particularly important for the u.s. and china to come together, particularly ahead of the g-20 summit which is being hosted in australia, which has a prime minister that was elected promising to roll back action on climate change. so he's signaling internationally, we're taking this seriously. i've covered climate summits in the past and they reliably degenerate into finger-pointing between the u.s. and china. so to have them coming together, i think, is definitely buoying spirits ahead of the next round of climate negotiations. but if we look at it from a scientific perspective, what we need to do to avoid catastrophic warming, to keep temperatures

below 2 degrees kecelsius of warming, it's not in the same stratosphere. it sounds impressive, 28% reductions, but obama is talking about reducing emissions at the high end by 3% a year between 2025 and 2030. what climate scientists tell us we need to be doing now is reducing global emissions by 6% a year every year. that's a world average. that means that wealthier countries, like the united states, have to be reducing by even more, by around 8% to 10% a year. so we have this conflict. this is what my book is about, between political realities and physical realities. by current political realities, this is impressive. >> but what about the economic -- you say in your book you can't fix the climate until we fix the economy. what has to change before there can be a real commitment to control climate change? >> more than anything, it's

really about an ideological shift. the money is there. you also mentioned that $3 billion commitment. it sounds impressive. but put that in context of the fact that the u.s. spends around $52 billion a year on fossil fuel subsidiesubsidies. but if we increase taxes on polluters and increasing royalties, that's outside the bounds of political discourse. what i'm arguing in the book is that we won't do what we need to do to prevent catastrophic warming unless we change the ideological landscape, unless it becomes politically acceptable to go after polluters, to make polluters pay, to regulate corporations. and we need to address these core inequality issues. >> what should we do as a nation to get to that political will, to put the climate ahead of profit? >> this is why it's not just -- it's not something that we can talk about just looking at it as

a narrow sort of technocratic or narrow technological problem. we know the technologies that do and don't work. but we lack the sense that government has a right to govern, that if you face a problem on this scale, it requires wartime levels of intervention in the economy. and it's not that that's not possible. it's that we have a political landscape, an ideological landscape that has shifted so far to the right that we've convinced ourselves that it's politically impossible. what i argue for in the book is a battle of world views that shifts things in the other direction and so then we can align our political realities with our physical realities because right now we have this fundamental conflict. and either we're going to face our physical world changing in completely unacceptable ways or we're going to have to shift those political realities. the truth is you can change the laws of economics but you can't change the laws of nature. >> very good point you make there.

naomi klein "this changes everything." thanks so much. comedian jon stewart has added another bullet point to his resume. he wrote and directed his first feature film. he tells the story of an iranian journalist accused of being a spy after he appeared on "the daily show". >> it's a comedy show, it's stupid. he's a comedian pretending to be a spy. >> can you tell me why american pretended to be a spy has chosen to interview you? >> why would a real spy have a tv show? >> joining me now is jon stewart. this is fun to talk to you about, a film. >> yes, nice to be here. >> it's great. was this an entree for you into filmmaking or just this particular story you wanted to tell. >> this particular story. he became friendly after being

released from prison when his work brought him through new york. and he and i would hang out and talk about politics and family and culture and all these different things. he was writing his memoir and i was going to try and help him get it produced. but i don't know anything about doing that. so about a year and a half into it when we couldn't get writers and directors aboard, the feeling was just, if we wanted to see this film made in our lifetimes, i was just going to go off and write it. >> i have to ask this -- i don't think you feel guilty about it, i've read that. but he did appear on the show just before he was arrested. the clip was shown to him during his interrogation. is this at all a mea culpa to him? >> not really. he and i worked together on it for so long. i don't know if it was a mea culpa. i also think that -- the truth is, when he was arrested, other people we had spoken to had been arrested as well, but also

hundreds and thousands had been arrested. it was clear they were doing a sweep of the reformist movement. this was a much larger effort on their part. >> in the time since you started this project, the u.s. seems to be making some progress with iran. there are the current nuclear talks, the president sent that letter to the ayatollah and then the legislation from president rouhani. how hopeful? >> i'm always hopeful. the level of dialogue between our two countries over these past -- since '79 has been on the one hand, we prefrefer to t as the axis of evil. they refer to us as the great satan. the caricature and the one-dimensional nature of the dialogue has to improve. >> you're hopeful in a sense but does that hope also translate to here domestically? you're stock and trade is calling out hypocrisy, the ridiculousness of washington. are there any politicians who

you respect and think are doing good work? >> i think the satellite must have just cut out. >> did you not understand the question or -- >> no. i understood it. >> should i go to the next one i have here? >> i got no names, man! i got no names. >> are there any potential 2016 candidates -- >> here's the thing. right now, the system is -- the only thing i was going to say, i think the system is incentivized slightly backwards right now. i think the media system is incentivized for contradictiext. and the political system is incentivized towards money. those two together have created the kind of quagmire we're in. but i feel hopeful that's going to swing in another direction. it's untenable. >> the film i know is is going to be awesome. thank you so much, jon. >> thanks for having me.

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growing concern about what's happening at many college football games. most fans could become unsuspecting victims of a threat from above. kerry sanders is in florida. >> reporter: when fans back in here or any stadium across the country, their attention is on the field as the players are over here, maybe over here. but the faa says there is a new threat. and it's coming from up there. drones. ♪ madison, wisconsin, when the badgers beat the fighting illini last month, much of the attention that gameday turned skyward to a tiny drone with a camera, an unauthorized violation of restricted airspace. >> when we see an object like

this, we immediately think of what could happen if the pilot loses control, if the battery dies, if there's a gust of wind and this thing comes crashing down into fans, into players. >> reporter: the faa and local police say increasingly drones are showing up over packed stadiums. like the university of texas home opener this year, police confiscated a drone with its camera and captured a student who said he didn't even realize what he was doing was a violation of federal law. and this drone was photographed by an alert news photographer when it mysteriously showed up over the kansas/texas game. law enforcement says it would be especially difficult to stop a drone if it had a small bomb strapped on board. >> there are national security implications, people have talked about terrorism and what could be carried along with a device like this. >> reporter: veteran drone pilots? >> i'll let you know when to go up. >> reporter: say those who buy them and treat them like toys can quickly run into problems.

>> i've been a hobbyist for 15 years or more. and when i first started, i crashed a lot. >> reporter: ben richardson flies in airspace now designated by the faa. >> i would definitely not fly over a stadium. >> reporter: because? >> because bad things can happen. >> reporter: beyond the stadiums, the faa reports it's getting daily reports, sometimes two or three a day, of drones flying too close to airports, to planes and helicopters, clearly there's a problem with those operating the drones not understanding the rules. alex? >> kerry sanders, thanks for that. residents of a small new england town are fuming over the sale of tobacco products. the town could become the first in the country to put such a ban in place. an open forum about the idea ignited a heated debate this

week but it only got three speakers to be given the opportunity to speak their views before the meeting was abruptly ended. >> people are angry. >> this is a small town. you're taking away people's rights. >> i cannot support such a unilateral and radical approach. >> you people make me sick. >> i find smoking to be one of the most disgusting habits anybody could possibly do. on top of that, i find this proposal to be even more of a disgusting thing. >> marcella garcia is joining me right now. to say that this has people upset would be an understatement. the chair of the board of health was escorted from this meeting by police, nonsmokers are speaking out against the plan. why does this have people so upset? >> it's pretty wild. i think it's because of the radical idea that this is a product that is legal and they're taking this incredible step which would largely be

symbolic in saying, we have to reduce availability of tobacco products in order to curb incidents in young people. i think it's creating a lot of tension because of that. and also because the board of health presented this proposal wi without consulting the local businesses, which would be affected by this. >> it proposes the ban of sale of all tobacco-related products. at the meeting, some residents smo spoke about the economic impacts. >> it's not going to help anything in town. it's going to cripple us. >> she obviously is not representing the town of westminster, the people of westminster or the american way. >> we would seek compensation for the retailers who lost sales and may lose their businesses. >> i want to say the first man in that clip is brian vincent, the owner of the vincent's

country store. he said his store sells $100,000 worth of tobacco products every year. he said, having other adults decide what legal item we're not allowed to consume just makes you wonder, if this passes, what could be next? sugar, bacon? won't neighboring towns benefit by this? >> there are studies that say the owner of the vincent store has been putting out information about the number of sales that he would lose but also, like you were saying, it's important to know that people that buy tobacco, it's the other products they buy. that accounts for about a third of the sales in convenience stores because it's different when you're talking about a grocery store or a different type of store. but for a convenience store, that is a third of the sales. so it is a big impact, for sure. >> you know this region well. what do you think the people of westminster will do if the ban goes into place? what recourse would they have? >> honestly, the board of health has complete authority to do this.

they have the right to do this because the massachusetts supreme judicial court through a ruling a few years ago enabled the towns to do this. to do this. i think it will be a huge -- there will be a huge, huge backlash. there seems to be a lot of opposition to this measure. i think it would be wise to maybe -- maybe a different type of measure. they were very, very well-intentioned but didn't realize the unintended consequence would be really, really significant to this business owners. >> indeed. >> they have to come up with a different solution. perhaps increase education to prevent tobacco. what they want to do is impact teenagers and not necessarily people that smoke already. they realize they cannot influence or cannot make people stop. >> get the ones before they start. absolutely. >> correct. >> that's a focus. thank you so much for weighing in. i appreciate it.

>> thank you, alex. the new call to give the taliban a chance in afghanistan. i'll speak to a correspondent to covered the country and get her take next. the setting is perfect. you know what? plenty of guys have this issue, not just getting an erection, but keeping it. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and you only take it when you need it. good to know, right? if ed is stopping what you started... ask you doctor about viagra. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. ask your doctor if viagra is

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more than a decade of war in afghanistan will come to a close at the end of this year. the u.s. will have removed most of its troops in the country. about 9,800 troops will be left in the region at the end of december. half of that will remain in 2016. joining me now the author of "the secret sky." i'm so glad to have you here, having spoken with you in the past about this. i want to get to your time living there in afghanistan, covering this war and the situation. talk about, we have a general who is reviewing everything. is that normal procedure before a draw down? >> it's very normal. we've seen it with generals in the past. looking at troop numbers, increase or decrease the numbers. this isn't unexpected. in fact, with the current situation in iraq and what we

have seen when we didn't leave a residual force in iraq, and what's happening today with isis and the islamic state militants there right now, it's something to think about. what's going to happen to the future of afghanistan if we completely withdraw the troops within a couple years? it might not be sustainable with the afghan security forces. they need to be trained properly. right now, they're not at 100%. >> we're looking at the future, but today, a snapshot of life in afghanistan looks like what? >> it's fairly visible, when you compare it after 13 years of war. things have improved. we've seen not just women going back to school but more men going back to school as well. we have 7.9 million afghans that have returned to try to get an education. the literacy rate is going up. it's still low. afghan women have gained rights again. they're back in the work force. they're back to being mid wives and in the government.

it's an achievement we should be proud of as the international community, after investing so much time and money there. it's very fragile achievements we have seen. >> speaking of being proud, i'm proud of you in writing this book, "the secret sky." it's a romantic novel. it's young love, but they're not -- it's forbidden love. talk about it. >> i appreciate that. thank you. it's a book that's based on my experiences in the four and a half years i lived there. in fact, before that, traveling in and out of afghanistan. it's based on the rural villages. what we don't talk about is the 90% of afghanistan that is remote. the hard to reach places. the reason we've been there 13 years. i tried to go into the cultures and the ethnicities and the complications as to why it's difficult to be in afghanistan. why it's difficult to be an afghan. it goes into how easy it is to manipulate afghan youth and muslim youth to join islamic extremism. what i've seen from readers of

the book is they're surprised that it's not just romance. >> i would expect a beady something from you. you're not doing the fluff stuff. "the secret sky," great stuff. that's a wrap for me. see i don't go tomorrow at noon. man: [ laughs ] those look like baby steps now. but they were some pretty good moves. and the best move of all? having the right partner at my side. it's so much better that way. ♪ [ male announcer ] take the next step. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it helps pay expenses that medicare doesn't cover and lets you choose or keep any doctor who accepts medicare patients. call or go online and request your free decision guide. use this guide to help you choose from a range

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