host: david harvey joins us to talk about adult literacy. he is the president and ceo of proliteracy. what is it? guest: it is an international organization, we have about 1200 local and community-based organizations that serve adults who are in need of reading, writing, basic math and english language. internationally we support about 99 programs in 53 developing countries. host: the department of labor says unemployment among adults without a high-school degree is at 15.5%, 50% higher than the average. with 32 million consider below basic with reading and writing, how do you define for the sake of this discussion, in literacy, and are their degrees of illiteracy among adults? guest: the wolf -- roth equivalent is the grade level system. adults who are at the below basic level basically are functioning below a third grade or fourth grade education all level. but level just above that, the basic level, is functioning between a fourth grade to seventh or eighth grade reading level. these are folks who have a lot of the problems with things we

we'll talk about how the recession is affecting adults who haven't graduated high school with david harvey, president and c.e.o. of pro literacy. and we'll take your calls on

we'll talk about how the recession is affecting adults who haven't graduated from high school with david harvey and take your calls on the so-called public option in the health care debate with the american prospect. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> afghanistan's presidential election is on thursday. next, a pentagon briefing on efforts to protect voters and the status of afghanistan security forces. this is an hour. >> we've got you here in the briefing. >> today our breefers are from the australian army and the canadian forces. the chief of the election task force for the international security assistance force and brigadier general is the spokesman. general can'twell has been the chief of the election task force since march of this year and spokesman for the past several months. as i mentioned, both of these officers are joining us today from kabul and this is the first time they have joined us in this forum. with that, i'll turn it over to you for opening remarks and we'll take questions if you like. tlemen, i am general eric >> ladies and gentlemen,

who have not graduated high school with david hardy, the president and ceo of pro literacy -- david harveyen, dana kalkstein. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day -- dana goldstein. >> this fall, and to the highest court. -- enter the highest court. the supreme court's, on c-span. >> president obama today praised israel for helping new settlement construction and loosening checkpoints on the west bank. he spoke with reporters after meeting with egyptian president mubarak at the white house. this is a little less than one- half hour. ozóéñu+)uagpçvzdt >> i want to publicly thank president mubarak. there was my speech at the cairo university. it was an extraordinary visit. not only because of the great welcome that i received from the president and the college students who were in attendance but also have an opportunity to visit the pyramids was a once- in-a-lifetime experience for me. the united states and egypt have worked together closely for many years, and for many of these years, president mubarak has been a leader and a counselor and a friend to the united states. we, ob

that is with david harvey, the ceo of pro-literacy. we will take your calls on the public auction in the health- care debate with david goldstein with the american prospect. washington journal is live on c- span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. on c-span2 tomorrow morning, a conference with public health and hospital officials emergency responders, and industry leaders live at 9:00 ieastern. >> this fall, into the home to america's highest court, from the grand public places to those only accessible by the nine justices. the supreme court coming the first sunday in october on c- span. >> now health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius, on efforts to combat medicare fraud. she also says the administration continues to support the so- called public corruption and health-care legislation being considered on a catholic bishop capitol hill. -- being considered on capitol hill. >> we would ask that you put your cell phones on silent. it is my honor and privilege this morning to welcome the secretary of the department of health and h

david. and professor adam lark, scholar at the american enterprise institute, and the chairman and managing partner of bedford oak advisers, harvey izen, good to see you as well. let me start out with you, professor, are we going to see a recovery this year? >> probably not. and when we do see it, it's going to be very, very slow. we'll see a recovery where the economic growth will be positive, maybe 1, maybe 1.5%. but unemployment's going to continue to rise. we're not going to see a really rapid recovery, and unemployment's going to keep rising for at least another year. >> and the markets, harvey? >> you mean he's right? >> i don't know, he's giving us answer. if you want to respond to the answer and rebut, that's your -- >> you know, it's an interesting approach. the markets, as you know, are on a tear. and the markets believe that everything's wonderful and great and we're never going to have a downtick. and i'm just totally staggered and amazed by it, lou. >> and sound a little skeptical about it all, for some reason. >> well, the point is is that there's this concept now that things are okay, but they're not going to get t

david beckham will be in the audience. >>> move over victoria, paula abdul is the talk of the town on tmz. it may not be the end of the "american idol" road after all. harvey levin joins us from l.a. is she in or out? >> reporter: well, she's out right now but i don't think it's for good. we have spoken with very well connected people in idol and the door is not closed. and they are clearly about that. i know what you have heard. but this is negotiating. it's the way hollywood works. we are told that they want -- they are keeping the door open and, you know, paula had this emotional reaction partly because she felt disrespected. we got her last night at jfk and she was kind of wishful about missing her comrades in arms and how simon already misses her. i'm telling you this is great for season 9 if paula comes back at the last minute. it will do nothing but help the show's ratings. >> do you think this is a carefully chore rio graphed pr move for the show? >> no, i don't. i think this is negotiations with benefits. i think they are at an impasse. they made a deal that paula found insulting. paula tweeted emotionally and idol called her bluff. everybody know

harvey, janet kellie, ronnie murphrray and coe walker. please stand up so we can acknowledge your effort. and the individual award winners, again, if you are here, please stand up. davidelectronic engineer in the portland, ore. field office, and second, franklin haynes, information technology specialist and system as analyst in the looseduluth. we applaud your efforts. [applause] thanks, again. i would be happy to continue to speak about the employee work -- the extraordinary work of our employees' everyday, the diversity of their backgrounds, brett of their work and commitment to public service is something that we all can learn from. on behalf of my colleagues on the commission and the american people who we all here represent, thanks to each of the award winners this year for your duties, your work above and beyond the call of duty. we appreciate them immensely. with that, if there are no further comments or announcements -- commissioner, please. >> [inaudible] summer internship recognition to broad watson in our office, -- brad watson in our office. if he would stand up, we appreciate it. [applause] z