Moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff its the biggest burst of hiring in the u. S. In nearly three years. The Labor Department reported numbers today that had economists sitting up and taking notice. A monthly survey found u. S. Employers added a net of 321,000 new positions in november. The unemployment rate, which comes from a separate survey, stayed at 5. 8 , that is a six year low. And, in another hopeful sign, the average hourly wage rose nine cents, the most in 17 months. Well examine whats behind the numbers, later in the program. Protests over the killings of black men by white police kept going today with no sign of a letup. They were fueled again by fury over a grand jurys decision in new york city. The panel decided tuesday not to issue an indictment in the death of eric garner. Jeffrey brown reports on the days developments. Brown one of the latest demonstrations came this morning in aurora, colorado, where hundreds of High School Students staged a walkout. A Police Officer even gave out highfives as they marched past. In chicago and other cities, more protests geared up as the afternoon wore on. That followed a night of demonstrations nationwide, with thousands giving voice to anger and frustration. Were fired up cant take it no more brown in new york, especially, emotions were still running high over the eric garner case. Most of the protests were peaceful, but minor scuffles did break out. This morning new York Police CommissionerWilliam Bratton said today there were more than 220 arrests. Some of them were much more assertive so those arrests include disorderly conduct, some assaults on Police Officers. I believe my officers showed remarkable restraint in the face of in many instances a lot of provocation. Brown meanwhile, the District Attorney in brooklyn announced a grand jury will probe the killing of an unarmed black suspect in a dimly lit stairwell two weeks ago. A rookie policeman has said his gun went off accidentally. Also today, the n. Y. P. D. Launched a Pilot Program to start outfitting officers with body cameras. But many protesters dismissed the gesture. Eric garners murder was caught entirely on film and the Police Officer who killed him has still not been indicted. So, it kind of makes you wonder whether or not body cameras would actually do anything. Brown elsewhere, some 150 people marched in phoenix overnight, after a black man was killed tuesday by a white officer who said he mistook a pill bottle for a gun. Were not going to stand for them and their brutality against black people. Were not going to just sit back and watch while our people get killed. Brown an internal investigation is underway in the phoenix shooting. Woodruff in another development, more than 100 activists arrived in jefferson city, missouri the state capital after marching 120 miles from ferguson. They protested Police Treatment of blacks, and the killing of Michael Brown in ferguson last august. New jersey lawmakers have found no evidence that governor Chris Christie helped create traffic jams at a major bridge for political gain. At the same time, the joint legislative panel does not rule out the possibility that he might have been involved. Christie is a potential republican president ial candidate in 2016. He has denied any role in the bridge scandal. The International Criminal court dropped charges of crimes against humanity against the president of kenya today for want of evidence. Uhuru kenyatta had been accused of fomenting Ethnic Violence after a 2007 election, killing more than 1,000 people. Prosecutors accused kenyatta and his supporters of obstructing the investigation and intimidating witnesses. This is a painful moment for the men, women, and children who have suffered tremendously from the horrors of the postelection violence, and who have waited, patiently, for almost seven years to see justice done. I have decided to withdraw the charges against mr. Kenyatta after carefully considering all the evidence. Woodruff in nairobi, kenyatta was cheered and congratulated after getting the news at a meeting of business leaders. Supporters also celebrated in the streets, chanting byebye, icc. The man who was once head of chinas feared domestic security agencies was arrested today on charges of corruption, adultery and leaking secrets. Zhou yongkang was also expelled from the ruling communist party. That made him the highest ranking figure to be prosecuted so far in president xi jinpings corruption crackdown. Zhou had been a key rival to xi. Back in this country, congress has voted to block suspected nazi war criminals from getting Social Security benefits. The Senate Approved the bill last night, and sent it to the president. That followed an Associated Press investigation that found dozens of nazi suspects collected millions of dollars in benefits since 1979, under a legal loophole. Nasa took a big first step today toward a potential mission to mars. It was the first, unmanned test flight for the orion capsule, and it went off without a hitch. The spacecraft blasted off atop a deltafour rocket just after dawn, from cape canaveral, and it reached a peak altitude of 3,600 miles. About fourandahalf hours later, orion made a bullseye splashdown, 630 miles southwest of san diego. Its hard to have a better day than today, it was a lot of fun, very exciting, each part of the mission. Of course, part of the reasons its exciting is its a difficult mission, its a tough environment to fly through, tough objectives that we set for this flight. But it appears that orion and the delta 4heavy were nearly flawless. Great job by the team. Woodruff orions flight path took it deeper into space than any craft built for humans has gone, since 1972. That was when apollo 17 made the last manned flight to the moon. On wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 58 points to close at 17,958; the nasdaq rose 11 points to close at 4,780; and the s p added three, to finish at 2,075. For the week, the dow gained seven tenths of a percent; and the s p was up four tenths; the nasdaq fell a fraction. Woodruff still to come on the newshour. How will the new defense secretary relate to the white house . What to make of the much better than expected jobs numbers. Mark shields and david brooks on the weeks news. A one of a kind survivor of pearl harbor. And, new questions on Rolling Stones report of a Sexual Assault at the university of virginia. Woodruff now, president obama announces a change of command at the Defense Department as the military faces multiple challenges abroad. Today, im pleased to announce my nominee to be our next secretary of defense, mr. Ash carter. Woodruff the president s event in the roosevelt room at the white house confirmed what was widely expected, hes chosen ash carter to succeed chuck hagel at the pentagon. 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 nations foremost National Security leaders. Carter is a pentagon veteran, although hes never served in the military himself. He was deputy secretary from october 2011 to december 2013. And before that, the technology and weaponsbuying chief. Its an honor and a privilege for me to be nominated for the position of secretary of defense. Woodruff the honor brings with it a host of major challenges, including the battle against Islamic State fighters in iraq and syria. Winding down the u. S. Mission in afghanistan. The ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the resulting struggle with russia. And deep budget cuts straining the Defense Department. Theres also the question of working with the white house. Two previous secretaries robert gates and leon panetta accused obama aides of micromanagement. And hagel reportedly complained of a lack of influence. But carter made clear he means to have his say. 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. Republicans will control the senate that considers carters nomination. Today, they generally praised his qualifications, but arizona senator john mccain warned he, too, may have limited sway at the white house. Woodruff we explore all this now with, retired Brigadier General david mcginnis, he was a senior Defense Department official during president obamas first term. And, david rothkopf, c. E. O. And editor of foreign policy. He has a new book, National InsecurityAmerican Leadership in an age of fear. We welcome you both to the program. Thank you. Woodruff david rothkopf, let me start with you, what do you make of ash carter to be the secretary of defense . Hes a smart guy, hes very decisive, he will be candid with the president. He has a lot of experience. Hes brilliant. But hes just one man. Leon panetta, bob gates were Excellent Choices also for secretary of defense and as you noted in the piece at the beginning, theyve had real problems in the white house. There havent been changes in the white house so im not sure why we expect change in outcomes. Woodruff general mcginnis, whats your take on ash carter . Hes solid. Hes well prepared for this job. Hes been at this business as the president mentioned for two decades. Ive seen him work in the Clinton Administration and ive worked with him in the obama administration. Hes probably much more qualified for the job than his two predecessors were. Woodruff how do you think hes going to manage the pentagon . What should we know about that . He understands the dynamics of the management better than his two predecessors do. Theres a critical component in getting the president the answers he needs, the options he needs to get the job done to make the right decisions as commandecommanderinchief and k hes i in a much better position to do that than his two predecessors were. Woodruff david rothkopf, how do you see his ability, his managing the pentagon, his understanding of the pentagon, how hes seen by officials of the pentagon . Hows this different from his predecessors . He was deputy secretary for some time, was the head of procurement there. Hes had several stints within the pentagon. He knows the military brass, the bureaucracy, he understands how to make it work and has been effective in making it work in the past and that is quite different from the folks that precede him there in this administration. Woodruff but you still believe hes going to have difficulty getting done what he believes should be done because of the white house. Well, look, you read the gates or the panetta book and you see the frustrations. You saw the frustrations in thenned of hagels term in office. I think the problem is this first of all, the white house does micromanage. The white house does tend to a topdown style that has alienated some of its cabinet. But secondly, its seeking to pursue course in a place like syria and iraq that is full of ambivalence and halfway measures and hes going to have military brass at his back saying thats no way to fight a war. Sooner or later when he makes with the white house, theyre either going along, which will be a big change, or not, and he will feel like a shock absorber and the precious that ultimately did in hagel. Woodruff general mcagain news, how do you him handling it when the military wants one thing and the white house Something Else. The military is happening today like in the last 40years, a twodimensional, geographic environment. Youve heard discussion about boots on the ground. We need to put people on the ground to control things. The reality is these conflicts are being dealt with in other environments, information environment, the human environment. Thats how i. S. I. S. Was so successful in managing the human environment and managing the information environment months before they moved. And the pentagon doesnt know how to do that. One of the challenges ash is going to have is to get the pentagon to provide the president realistic objectives in these environments and capabilities to operate in those environments, and that hasnt been happening. And i think the president is very frustrated by that over the years. Woodruff why do you think hell get it when the people who preceded him didnt . Hes innovative, he understands the process and the capability of the department of defense, not just each service. Each service is constrained by its culture and wont go outside that culture. To be successful in these new environments, we have to come together in the cold wore jointness. Woodruff david rothkopf, what about that . You hear the general making the points that ash carter brings skill and knowledge that the folks who came before him didnt have . Well, he does. I think the best hope weve got is this is the fourth secretary of defense for this president , that this is the sixth year in office for this president , that hes learned and that hes also facing a lot of pressure that hes going to have to learn how to work bet were his cabinet and military. Woodruff what do you mean facing pressure . Well, theres been a lot of criticism from the outside that the president of the United States has not been responsive to his cabinet. There have been articles about alienation. A lot of people left. Wasnt just pa panetta and gates who wrote the books. Some in Hillary Clintons book and valery nasers book. So theres a change needed, but there hasnt been a lot of evidence that change has taken place. One can remain hopeful. Woodruff do you think there will be a change in the way the National Security council operates . No, i think it will continue to operate the way its been operating. One of the frustrations of the view of micromanagement is the president has not been getting the input he wanted from the pentagon and the National Security council has been filling the gap. Thats been a big gap. We can go back to the start of how to deal with afghanistan. That took six to eight weeks just to get a meeting and the president satisfied. We cant have a defense establishment that operates that way and you want its commanderinchief that way. I think the change has to be in the pentagon, thats where we disagree, rather than in the white house. Woodruff we hear it and its all beginning to unfold. Well watch for cbs to get confirmed and watch closely. General mcginnis and david rothkopf, we thank you both. Thank you. Woodruff lets take a deeper dive into todays surprising good labor news. Jobs growth revved up last month with more than 300,000 added. At this pace, the economy is on track to produce the largest number of jobs in 15 years. One development that also caught much attention, average hourly wages rose higher than expected the largest increase since june of last year. Even so, earnings have grown a slugglish two percent in the last year. Hari sreenivasan has the story from our new york studios. Sreenivasan im joined by diane swonk with a Financial Services firm. Whats behind the higher number today . A lot of good news. We had meet on the bone jobs in things like business services, an area hard hit during the recession, includes accountants, technical consultants, engineers, architects. Thats the good news. We also saw manufacturing and construction jobs, awful low base but still jobs in that sector. Then a huge hiring in retail, also food, restaurants, all those kind of areas. Sreenivasan Holiday Season . Not just holiday hires. 20 was in the auto sector to sell cars. We dont tend to buy those for gifts in the Holiday Season. The Department Stores and the big box retailers didnt hire up and thats because theyre showing off their online presence. We saw warehousing and packaging. Shippers are hiring because last eyear we had bad weather and online spending and i was one of the ones who didnt get their presents on time. Its not good when it comes three days later. Theyre trying to get that in order all year. Not all jobs are created equal. Whats the quality to have the jobs were seeing . We had really good quality jobs. In the last six months, were seeing the good quality jobs coming back. The temporary hires we used to talk about, these are not temporary. These are fulltime hires and fulltime jobs. On the other side, a large majority of the jobs are minimumwage jobs and also the number of people taking multiple jobs went up there month and part of it is things not related to retail hiring season but also hedging against the Affordable Care act, theyre not providing healthcare but they have to get hours down below 30 hours and some people in the restaurant work 48 hours a week so theyre splitting one job into almost two. Sreenivasan so more parttime work. Exactly and were seeing more people hold multiple jobs and a number people accepting parttime when looking fulltime is high. A step in the right direction. We didnt land on the moon, because as good as the number was, we have a long way to go. Sreenivasan we have the caveats when we look at the numbers, but how many months do we need to go back to say there is something positive happening here . This has been a transitional year. We get the meet on the bone jobs, the fulltime jobs that are graduate jobs. One o