once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. it's tough to present bad news as good or to focus on silver linings when the cloud cover just won't break. but that was the task that faced the obama white house this morning when they were presented with these numbers. 131,000 jobs lost in july. 71,000 private sector jobs created which was good except experts had predicted it would be 83,000. add it all up and 14 million people are still looking for work. that made it difficult today for the president to find much good to say. >> there's some good trends out there. that's the good news. but for america's workers, families, and small businesses, progress needs to come faster. gwen: so let's look behind the numbers. are there indeed good trends out there, abc's the president was saying today? >> there really are. the president is in a position where he wants to sell whatever silver lining he can find but bottom line, losing 131,000 jobs is really a political disaster for this administration. and when you look -- take away the census w

once again live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. this week's primary results show that several things we've come to expect. insiders are struggling, outsiders attractive. but money, it turns out, cannot always buy you love or power. in alaska, republican senator lisa murkowski's career is still up in the air. in arizona, gop senator john mccain spent $20 million to save his. and in florida, which always manages to have the most interesting elections, hospital executive rick scott spent $39 million and won the gop's gubernatorial nod while democratic congressman kendrick meek was able to beat back another outsider's $50 million to win his party's senate nomination. but november brings a brand-new fight. what do we make of all of this? let's start, karen, with alaska. >> well, alaska was a big surprise, probably the biggest surprise of this election year so far and no one was more surprised than lisa murkowski, the senior senator from alaska, who thought -- and everyone else thought -- that she was going to cruise to a pretty easy pri

gwen: really? covering the week, helene cooper of the "new york times," martha raddatz, jeanne cummings of politico and michael duffy of time magazine. >> covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill." produced in association with national journal. funding for "washington week" is provided by boeing, exxon mobil, the epics in excellence in journalism, annanburg foundation and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. we got a surprise announcement, the palestinian president and israeli prime minister will come to washington in two weeks to begin face-to face peace talks without pre-conditions. >> i don't think that it should be an option for us now. i would view this as the last shot. >> we want to make sure there are iron-clad arrangements that there will be peace and security because you can't have one without the other. >> former sen

gwen: good evening. it is our job to valiantly interpret the meaning what have happens at our nation's ballot boxes. even when there's no single message, no single winner and no single loser. these summertime primaries are telling us how little about a lot. the democrats are facing a host of dire questions, according to the latest polls. has the economy hit bottom? 64% say no. do you approve of the job the president's doing? 48% say no. do you approve of the job congress is doing? 72% say no. ok, so that's good news for the republicans, right? not necessarily. 46% have negative feelings about the gop and even the tea party movement is viewed more negatively than positively. that's the way everybody is feeling right now. so how did all that unhappiness play out in this week's primaries? let's start in colorado. dan, why don't you start. >> in colorado what we saw, gwen, was on the one hand a good night for the incumbents, that was on the democratic side wrrks appointed senator fended off a very difficult

. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we get an update from special correspondent saima mohsin in karachi. and examine how pakistan's government is coping with the crisis. >> lehrer: then, we talk to law professor valerie hans about the dynamics of a jury's deliberation illinois governor rod blagojevich was found guilty on one of 24 charges. >> to give credit to the entire jury-- there wasn't any animosity; there wasn't any yelling or name-calling. they were very professional, they were very thoughtful. >> ifill: judy woodruff explores the latest research on detecting and treating alzheimer's disease. >> lehrer: we have an encore report from fred de sam lazaro about the shortage of clean drinking water in ethiopia. >> ifill: and jeffrey brown gets the views of columnists eugene robinson and ross douthat on the proposal to build an islamic center two blocks from ground zero. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and by the al

i'm gwen ifill. heavy rains pounded pakistan where flooding has now affected 20 million people. >> brown: and i'm geoffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, special correspondent syma mawson reports on the disaster from the indus river valley in southern pakistan. and we talk about the aid effort with michael young of the international rescue committee. >> ifill: then the political fire storm ignited by the president's comments about building a mosque near ground zero. as seen by former representative rick lazio of new york and new jersey mayor mohammed hameeduddin. >> brown: judy woodruff examines a proposed ban on private security contractors in afghanistan. >> ifill: author pill yam powers explains how disconnecting from our screens may well help us reconnect with our lives. >> we saw in our family life where something was being leached out of our togetherness and our communication by turning awhich away from each other to the screen. they were emailing across the house, you know, when we could walk

>> warner: yes, gwen. also people here are making connection tweb the violence and the lack of a new government here. as you know, elections were held five months ago. the two top vote-getting parties and other parties have still not been able to come up with a coalition or power- sharing arrangement. what i've heard from people, shop people, shoppers , mothers, young mothers that we have spoken to today, and in fact a couple of young army officers whom i spoke to off camera, is that this lack of government is also another invitation to those who would try to exploit the still considerable weakness of this iraqi state that is trying to stand itself up. i would say both the political transition that has not yet been completed as well as the military one is making people nervous here. >> ifill: where does the political transition stand now, margaret? are we still in a stand-off position there? >> warner: yes. in fact, gwen, yesterday the stand-off became more of one. the current prime minister or acting one

i'm gwen ifill. a christian charity says it has no plans to leave afghanistan after ten members of its medical team were killed in a taliban ambush. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on the killings and the dangerous work of aid groups in afghanistan from "new york times" reporter rod nordland, and international development expert barmak pazhwak. >> ifill: then dan balz of the "washington post" takes us to colorado, where tomorrow's primary voting could prove to be a test of the nation's political mood. o have an insurgency going on. just a lot of voters that are unhappy with the status quo, with washington. >> brown: special correspondent kira kay reports on a very different campaign, this one in rwanda, where hutus and tutsis turned out in large numbers >> we want peace, but we need peace in our hearts. there is still a lot of suspicion. there is still a lot of fear. there is still a lot of frustration. >> ifill: and energy and environmental writers eric po

gwen? >> ifill: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll look at the latest science on how much oil is still in the gulf of mexico. i'm gwen ifill. and i'm jim lehrer. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

gwen: so let's look behind the numbers. are there indeed good trends out there, abc's the president was saying today? >> there really are. the president is in a position where he wants to sell whatever silver lining he can find but bottom line, losing 131,000 jobs is really a political disaster for this administration. and when you look -- take away the census which was a big part of that. the census has started to lay off a lot of the temporary workers. so the private sector created the 71,000 jobs.

i'm gwen ifill. president obama declared today the combat mission in iraq will end, as scheduled, at the end of this month. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, former bush administration official michael rubin and former clinton administration official brian katulis discuss the u.s. pullback amid continuing violence and ongoing political stalemate. >> ifill: then, tom bearden reports from a ship playing a key role in the effort to contain the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. >> the process of killing the well winds down. it's almost done. >> woodruff: u.s. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius is here to talk about the latest developments on health care reform. >> ifill: jonathon miller of independent television news has an update on the floods in pakistan that have killed more than 1,000 people his weekend. >> woodruff: and jeffrey brown has a book conversation with ocean explorer jean-michel cousteau about his famous father, jacques cousteau. >> ifill: that'

i'm gwen ifill. more than half a billion eggs in 22 states have been recalled after an outbreak of salmonella. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we talk to food safety expert caroline smith dewaal and journalist elizabeth weese about the latest on the investigation and how to prevent future contamination. >> ifill: then special correspondent saima mohsin reports from pakistan's swat valley about the humanitarian crisis caused by the massive floods, and daniel wordsworth of the american refugee committee assesses the aid effort. >> brown: we preview key contests in tomorrow's primary elections in florida and arizona. >> ifill: we get an update from santiago, chile, on the rescue efforts for 33 miners, trapped but alive after 17 days. >> brown: and photographer mario tama offers images of new orleans taken in the five years since hurricane katrina. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> the people, the resilience of this city has been something that's been incredib

. -- gwen kaplan. note i am a two-term past president of this commission, and i was present when the small business commission went to being a full commission in 1998, so i am proud to see the good work that you have continued to do for smoak -- so many small businesses. my business itself is a direct marketing company on 16th street, ace mailing, walking distance from here, and i am pleased to be joined on the team from the buttner enterprise group, who is with us today, and randy, from an industrial company, who is not with us, but he is a native-american-owned business, and another who is very active in the asian american business community. .that person is on our team, as well as rick from a disabled veteran enterprise, an engineering company, so together, we really do form the rainbow correlation bringing our best to doyle drive. regina has been a tremendous supporter of us of all of our activities, and she has been with us from day one since we started one year ago, making sure san francisco busi