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BP Compensation Fund; Israel to Ease Gaza Blockade; Gunmen Kill Mexican Mayor; Bloodshed and Tears in Mexico; Focus on Gay Parenthood; Frustrated Volunteers in the Gulf; Michael Jackson's Final Days

Aired June 20, 2010 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Father's Day to fathers everywhere.

It's at the top of the hour, everyone.

Remember BP's estimate of how much oil was spilling from the broken well in the Gulf? We're on day 62 of this disaster and we find that privately the company's estimate was 100 times greater; 100,000 barrels a day in the worst case and that $20 billion fund BP setup to compensate spill victims? Not so easy to collect as some people are discovering.

Our Chris Lawrence is in New Orleans right now. Chris, the man put in charge of paying these claims has a huge task ahead of him.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. You know, the easy part is going to be these quick emergency payments with little documentation. The harder part, Kenneth Feinberg says is going to be trying to put a price tag on some of the long-term business interruption.

Now, Feinberg is being paid by BP, but he defended that. He said, "Who else is going to pay? I'm not going to ask the taxpayers, the government shouldn't have to fund this." But he says that he will be completely independent and answer the question of what these fishermen and other businesses can expect once he starts to take charge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH FEINBERG, OIL CLAIMS ADMINISTRATOR: He flies a claim and he gets paid and he gets paid promptly. The President of the United States has instructed me: get these claims paid, get them paid quickly. When I met with Governor Barbour, he told me frankly, "Ken, time is the enemy," and he's so right here.

I must make sure that this $20 billion fund provides for prompt payment, full compensation, it's an independent program. I'm not beholden to the administration; I'm not beholden to BP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Some of the folks I spoke with say they're -- Feinberg's appointment made them cautiously optimistic but they're still a little suspicious about all of this. Feinberg says the thing that would help him the most would be if the oil would stop flowing because that would give him sort of a break date and make it a lot easier to make some of these calculations on what's been lost.

Unfortunately, that's still a few months down the road. BP says it's now collecting about a million gallons of oil a day. It is probably going to be capturing somewhere around 90 percent hopefully by the beginning of next month, but those relief wells will ultimately -- hopefully stop the actual oil flow. That's still a couple of months down the road, Don.

LEMON: All right. Chris, thank you very much for that.

In other news tonight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel plans to ease its blockade of Gaza. The restrictions will continue on military-related items and the naval blockade of Gaza remains in place with military officials inspecting goods.

Today's word comes three weeks after the nine Turkish activists were killed in a confrontation with Israeli forces aboard an aid ship trying to reach Gaza.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is tracking this story for us in Jerusalem. Paula, this is very important development, isn't it?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Don, yes. It's not what the Palestinians wanted or many leaders were calling for which was the complete lifting of this blockade, but it's certainly significant in itself, the fact that there will be more aid being allowed to go into Gaza and one and a half million residents of the Gaza strip.

Israel said there isn't a humanitarian crisis, but said the United Nation says there is a humanitarian crisis. So certainly this is going to help.

But what the U.N., which is very active in Gaza, is saying is they also want to see exports being allowed out of Gaza, it's not just what's allowed in. They want to see that small businesses are able to reassemble as they have been decimated by this three-year blockade.

They say 80 percent of the population is relying on handouts, and people are sick and tired of this. They want to be able to earn their own money, they want to be able to provide for their own families and stop being a handout state.

So this is what the NGOs are going to be watching. The Israel says that these restrictions will be eased with immediate effect. So the NGOs are looking to see if they were be able to bring raw materials into businesses so that the people of Gaza can try and rebuild their own economy -- Don.

LEMON: And Paula, the timing of all of this, the deaths of those nine activists, those Turkish activists on that flotilla, how much pressure, if any, did -- did that put on this to happen? HANCOCKS: It put huge international pressure on Israel over the past few weeks, certainly since that flotilla incident. Now, in the beginning there was pressure for an investigation, pressure to find out exactly what happened. But once that international pressure was there, it then turned to the blockade itself, which was why the flotillas were trying to go to Gaza, to take humanitarian aid.

And even though Israel says that they intended to ease the blockade all along, many people believed that certainly this international pressure has made Israel realize that even though they need to look after their own security, there is more that they can do to try and allow the people in Gaza to have somewhat of a normal life.

But I should point out, there is a fear on the Palestinian side that this -- this will take some of the pressure off Israel. They still want this blockade lifted and saying that it's not just in the interest of Israel's security as the United Nations also agrees, it is counterproductive. It has given Hamas some stress within Gaza itself, which is obviously not its intention -- Don.

LEMON: Paula Hancocks, thank you very much for that report.

Mexico's violence drug war is wreaking havoc on families and residents.

CNN's Karl Penhaul has done extensive reporting in the region and he joins us here live to tell us what he knows.

And Congressman Joe Barton's apology for what he said was the government's quote, "shakedown of BP", has gotten him into hot water with some of his colleagues. We'll look at the GOP reaction.

And don't just sit there be part of our conversation. Make sure you send me a message on Facebook or Twitter. Check out my blog at CNN.com/don.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The White House blasted BP's CEO Tony Hayward for taking off from the oil disaster in the Gulf to attend a yacht race in England. President Obama's Chief of Staff described the move as just one more gaffe in a long string by Hayward.

Take a look and judge for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP: I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.

Food poisoning is certainly a big issue when you've got a concentration of this number of people, in temporary camps, temporary accommodation. It's something we have to be very, very mindful of.

We're sorry for the massive disruption it's cost their lives. And you know we're -- there's no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I'd love my life back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The Gulf oil disaster is having a huge impact on politics all the way to Washington.

Let's bring in our senior political editor Mr. Mark Preston. Mark good to see you.

You know the Sunday's shows were full of Republicans running away from GOP Congressman Joe Barton. You know he is the guy who apologized to BP and then he had to apologize for his apology. Here's an example of what we heard today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: I think that was a dumb statement by Senator -- by Congressman Barton, and he repudiated it later. He only spoke for himself and --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Ok, Mark, so what's going on here? I mean, those are some tough words that he wasn't the only one saying.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: You know Don, those are tough words. We heard Senate Mitch McConnell, he's the Minority Leader in the Senate, come out and say similar things this morning.

This has been going on for several days now Don. The Republicans are very upset at Joe Barton from Texas for saying this comment for showing some empathy for BP.

The fact of the matter is Don, once Joe Barton had made that comment on Thursday, he was immediately pulled aside and told if you do not go out and apologize, if you do not go out and take that back, we are going to strip you from your senior position on the Energy Committee in the House. He went out and did that.

Republicans, Don, thought they had Democrats up against the ropes when it comes to this issue down there. President Obama is in the White House, Democrats control Congress, the oil keeps spewing. And then we saw this from a very senior Republican. The GOP is very unhappy.

LEMON: And Mark, here's the people we're going to say, what would possess him to even say something like that?

PRESTON: Who knows? I mean, he's like -- how could he go out and -- even if he believed that in his own heart that he thought that the government was actually doing something wrong by quote, unquote, "shaking down BP by creating this fund", why would you go out and say it? It's really not the politically smart thing to do.

I think Mr. Barton clearly realizes that. LEMON: All right, let's look ahead Mark on Tuesday, Tuesday is primary day. So Utah has the Republican run off to replace Senator Bob Bennett, who was unseated at his own party convention and then there's our favorite state for politics, of course, South Carolina. What's coming up there on Tuesday?

PRESTON: Well, on Tuesday Nikki Haley and Gresham Barrett are in this really much watched run off for the GOP nomination for governor, Don.

And why would we really care about this race? Well, because we have this woman who came out of nowhere. She beat back the Republican establishment, she almost won the nomination a couple weeks ago, but Don, along the way, we had all this controversy around her.

A couple gentlemen came out and said that they had extramarital affairs with Nikki Haley, but yet, that seemed to help really with her base and it helped with voters.

She denied having them, she almost won the nomination. She heads into Tuesday, Don, clearly as the front runner. If she wins, it will be a big win for Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin really got in her corner early -- Don.

LEMON: And you know I had to mention the South Carolina senate race and the new Democratic nominee, Alvin Greene, still a big talker all across the country. I want to get your reaction, Mark to his response, when I asked him about his reasons for running.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A lot of people around the country are wondering why you ran. Why did you run?

ALVIN GREENE: To make a positive difference.

LEMON: To make a -- in what way like you -- what's your platform besides making a difference? That's very broad.

GREENE: Jobs, education and justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Ok Mark, when I asked him about his platform, many times they were one-word answers or they were these huge umbrella issues that he talked about jobs, education, whatever, which many politicians talk about. Does he really have a grasp on the issues or does he really have a platform where most people can sort of look at and judge for themselves?

PRESTON: Well, Don, he has no background at all. He has no political experience, he's never run for office before and the fact is, you do have to question, what does he know about trying to bring jobs to South Carolina? What does he know about the economy? What does he know about the justice system? What we do know about this with the justice system is that he is in the justice system, Don. He is facing a felony charge, obscenity charge right now. He still needs to get by that. But as far as him being the nominee right now, this nominee that came out of nowhere, the South Carolina Democratic Party this past week, Don, decided not to challenge him as the nominee.

So he will be the nominee heading into November. If you have money, and I don't often say this, put your money on Senator Jim DeMint, the Republican incumbent. He's going to win in November.

LEMON: All right, Mark, you went out on a limb. All right, thank you very much for that.

Blasts rock the streets of Baghdad, an update on the situation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're going to check some of your top stories right now. Twin bombings kill 29 people in Western Baghdad today. At least 65 others were wounded as suicide bombers detonated 2 cars packed with explosives near a government building and a bank. A wave of violence has killed 100 people across Iraq this week. It's feared insurgents are trying to wreak Iraq's financial -- wreck Iraq's financial and political situation as politicians continue to wrangle over forming a new government.

Election Day in Colombia has turned deadly. Seven police officers and three soldiers were killed in attacks blamed on leftist rebels. The police were on patrol in the north when a roadside bomb destroyed their truck. Meanwhile, to the south FARC guerillas are blamed for an ambush on soldiers carrying election materials. The attacks come as voters headed to the polls in the presidential run off.

Bloodshed also in Mexico, gunmen shot and killed the mayor of the town of Guadalupe. Authorities say Mayor Jesus Manuel Lara Rodriguez was killed in front of his wife and child as he walked to his car at his home in Juarez home. Northern Mexico has become a battle ground between rival drug cartels and police.

Mayor Lara apparently had taken up residence in Juarez to protect his family. Juarez, near the U.S. border has become a key point and a key front in the drug war.

I want to bring in CNN's Karl Penhaul to drill deeper on this story. He's been covering the violence and he joins us here in Atlanta. What exactly is going on with this mayor? What's happening? What is this, a symbol of something obviously much bigger and deeper going.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think overall, despite whatever the specifics of this particular case are -- and it looks like some kind of retaliation, presumably one drug cartel believed that he was probably working for the other and that's why they executed him in that fashion.

But I think in a broader sense, what it tells us is this. That as much as the Mexican authorities, with the help of the U.S. authorities, as much as they militarize that frontier, as much as they're trying to apply a military solution to the drug problem there, it just is not working. Things are getting worse and worse.

Now, I've just come back from Mexico -- I was three weeks in Mexico along the border area. I was in a town called Reynosa, which is in Tamaulipas state. That's just across from Texas, and across from McAllen and across from Brownsville as well.

And there -- you know, just to give you a perspective on how close this drug war really is to the United States, a woman that I talked to there who had lost her son the day before, I spoke to her, it took her longer to get to the cemetery in the city than it would have done for her to drive across the border into Texas.

LEMON: There's been concern also about the people that they have put in place and not necessarily militarizing the area, but the police officers and the cops there in Mexico, that they're corrupt as well. What's going on with that? Is that as big of a problem as we're hearing here in the United States?

PENHAUL: Absolutely endemic. I would say that from my experience on this trip. It is much worse than we've been hearing about, much worse than I had imagined before. It is at a point in some areas where the police force is no longer just a corrupt police; it is acting at the armed wing of a cartel.

And again, this mother that I was talking to -- I believe we have a clip that we can show you there -- and she'll say a little bit about that.

LEMON: Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENHAUL (voice-over): Maria Jesus Mancha has just buried her son. Twenty-seven-year-old Miguel Angel Vasquez was gunned down as he drove home late one night. Another victim of a ruthless battle between drug gangs in the border city of Reynosa.

MARIA JESUS MANCHA, VICTIM'S MOTHER (through translator): Just think how many other people are being left without their children because of these damned people. They took my son, the thing I most loved in this life.

PENHAUL: Police sources told the local newspaper he was killed in crossfire when a drug gang ambushed police. Vasquez's mother doesn't buy that. She's convinced some of Reynosa police are siding with one of the cartels.

MANCHA (through translator): I blame the authorities, our bad government and the police. You must realize these people are disguised as police. PENHAUL: She knows voicing such opinions could be a death sentence.

MANCHA TTRANS: If they want to kill me for saying this, then here I am. They killed me when they killed my son. I'm already dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It is so sad.

She's taking a risk by doing this. Does she feel that that's the only recourse she has and maybe the only way to help is so that people here in the States can hear and that they can get help down there?

PENHAUL: I don't think you can ever underestimate the kind of risk she's taking. I did say to her, hey, you know that what you're saying to me could be a virtual death sentence for you, and she pleaded with me. She says, "Please do not edit these words. Please put this criticism out that I'm giving you. Many of us feel the same. Many people will not say it because the cartels and the local authorities imposed this law of silence." But she said, "Whatever. I will speak because I already feel as if I'm dead. They killed me when they killed my son."

And it really is that. These people are so desperately trapped. They can't see what they're seeing. They can't talk about what they're hearing. They have to pretend they've seen nothing. They have to pretend they've heard nothing. And we talked to her psychotherapist there as well and she says that this is a real blow for your own identity when you just cannot say, when you cannot speak out about what's going on in your city.

Reynosa is 10 minutes from the border with Texas. It's a city of 500,000 people. It's not a village, and it's so completely controlled by the drug cartels. We had to be inside by 8:30, 9:00 every night. Everywhere we went there were cartels truck following us all, young guys on foot, following us, watching our every moves.

PENHAUL: It's unbelievable. And I could sit here and talk with you forever about this. And imagine also the risk of reporting down there as well.

Is this woman -- we have to go but, is this woman ok, as far as you know, now, because as you said, it's a risk?

PENHAUL: Again, I will check in the next coming days, but now that we're starting to put these stories out, that is where the flash point could come.

The cartels themselves during the intermediary had given permission for us to speak to her, but now I'm sure they're not going to be too happy with what she's saying.

LEMON: We'll be watching. Thank you, Karl Penhaul. We appreciate it. Tonight we're going to introduce you to a couple who struggle to have a baby. There they are right there. This is Gary and Tony. They're going to join us in just a few moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This week CNN will go in depth on gay parenthood in America. We followed two men who spent their lives being pioneers for gay activism. Now they want to follow the most traditional route any couple can take -- forming a family and having a baby.

CNN's special correspondent, Soledad O'Brien, follows their struggle against the legal and personal obstacles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BROWN, PROSPECTIVE PARENT: Her number is up.

SPINO: Do you remember what she looks like?

BROWN: Of course, I remember what she looks like.

SPINO: I mean -- I only --

BROWN: She's a beautiful redhead.

SPINO: Ok. It was a while ago. What if she dyed her hair?

BROWN: I think I'm more nervous about meeting her mom.

SPINO: Oh, totally.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A big day for Gary and Tony. They're picking up the mother of their future child.

SPINO: Oh, my God. How are you? Hello. I'm Gary.

BROWN: You changed your hair. It looks beautiful.

O'BRIEN: An agency has located Holly, a Florida woman, willing to sell her eggs for $8,000.

BROWN: I wanted somebody who had my background because it was going to be Gary's sperm. So I wanted somebody who had green eyes. I wanted somebody who was Irish and Dutch.

O'BRIEN: Gary and Tony picked Holly. Her employer doesn't want her to use her last name because she's donating her eggs to a gay couple.

(on camera): Did it ever give you pause to be providing eggs for two men who clearly can't have a baby?

HOLLY, EGG DONOR: I -- it never even crossed my mind. Why would that bother me? They need eggs, I've got eggs. They deserve to have a family like everybody else.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): For Gary and Tony, this is more than a financial transaction.

BROWN: I know a lot of people in your position don't want to have any kind of contact or relationship or whatever -- just the fact that you're open to it at all is --

HOLLY: I'm so glad that we are able to do this.

O'BRIEN: Holly has been taking fertility drugs to increase her egg production. Now her eggs will be extracted so they can be fertilized with Gary's sperm.

DR. MICHAEL DOYLE, CONNECTICUT FERTILITY ASSOCIATES: There's an egg. She's doing great.

O'BRIEN: The doctor emerges with good news.

DOYLE: She did great. The procedure -- we finished -- sit down. The egg retrieval went great. We got 14 eggs.

When the donors have the ability and the access to be involved in the donation and know this, families they're creating at the other end is even more special. I think that's the way Holly feels.

BROWN: That's why we picked her.

HOLLY: Wow, I'm going to go make a baby together, kind of.

O'BRIEN: Gary and Tony have begun their journey to having a baby.

BROWN: Holly is always welcome. So she's never going to have to feel like she's being denied something. I think she gets that. She gets that she's giving us this incredible gift, and it's pretty amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Pretty amazing and very emotional.

Gary Spino and Tony Brown join me now from New York. Good to see both of you. Gary, I'll start with you. Your name is first on the documentary we're doing.

How much pressure are you feeling with so much attention for your experience? Do you feel like the gay community in many ways view you guys as role models?

GARY SPINO, GAY FATHER: Actually, a number of people have written to us and come up to us and it hasn't even aired yet and just cried and said what a difference they think it's going to make in their lives and in the world. It's pretty amazing. We didn't really do anything, like these women did most of the work for us, and we have this beautiful baby. LEMON: You know, Tony, most people don't realize even with that, you have to gain legal custody of the baby even if you have a surrogate in that way.

BROWN: Yes, Gary's legal rights were created in something called a pre-birth order which was basically we had to sue these incredible people who were helping us in North Carolina to have their names removed off of the birth certificate. When a married woman has a child, the husband is the presumptive father of that child, so we had to sue them to take our surrogate and her husband's name off the birth certificate to put Gary's name on, and then I had to adopt here in New York so that I can create a legal relationship with our son.

LEMON: So, Tony, you realize that many people are going to watch, it's going to make some folks uncomfortable. I mean, let's just be honest here. What do you say to that? You know, it hasn't even aired yet. Just watching the premier and listening to you, some people are going to be made uncomfortable by it.

BROWN: Well, you know, honestly, I think if people do watch it they're going to see more what's more in common with us than what's different with us. We went through the exact same anxieties that, you know, prospective parents go through, worrying about the pregnancy, you know, trying to prepare and get everything ready and save money.

You know, I have a feeling that there is far more in common with us than what's different, you know, from other parents that have kids. So I'm hoping we're going to be able to show that. I hope the people will watch the documentary and see that.

LEMON: Gary, do you agree?

SPINO: Oh, absolutely. I think when kids are involved, people's prejudices tend to fall by the wayside. I mean, it happened in the '70s when interracial couples were getting together and having kids and the in-laws were not speaking to their in-laws until the couple got pregnant and had a kid, and then all of a sudden everybody wanted to be grandparents no matter what that child look like or the color of their skin was, they loved that child. So I mean, it's been happening already at home.

LEMON: Yes, Well, hey, it's a pleasure to see both of you. I got to meet you via satellite at a premier, one of the premier parties the other night here in Atlanta. So thank you both, and I won't give away much.

BROWN: Thank you very much, Don.

LEMON: You have to watch the documentary to find out what happens with the baby, but we'll see you. Thank you so much.

SPINO: Thank you.

BROWN: Thank you.

LEMON: The story runs here on CNN, the documentary, "Gary and Tony, have a baby," Thursday on 8:00 p.m. Eastern, again, only here on CNN.

Where can I get some extra money? Well, if you're in Canada, we want you to listen up. We'll tell you how a camel and a tiger spotting could earn you some big bucks.

And volunteers eager to help with the oil cleanup told to go away. We'll hear from a man whose help was refused.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It is a weekend for honoring fathers, but when you're the namesake of a famous person, it can be a tremendous burden. There are many examples of those who have had problems trying to follow in the footsteps of their famous dad.

Ray Charles Robinson, Jr. has had his own struggles which he has chronicled in his new book, it's called "You Don't Know Me, Reflections of my Father Ray Charles." I got a chance to talk with him about his relationship with his famous father.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LEMON (on camera): People are going to say, well, I've seen the movie. Like, why do I need to read the book? What's the book going to tell me that I haven't already seen?

RAY CHARLES ROBINSON, JR., AUTHOR: It's everything you didn't see in Ray. Simply, I mean, you have his childhood, you have an illustration of the relationship that was not basically explained between my father and my mother. How they met, how he pursued her, what they went through to build that relationship on a sound foundation. And for him to go from being just Ray Charles Robinson to being Ray Charles, and that was the distinct moment and I see his whole career change.

LEMON: Is it still hard - I mean, do you find yourself that moments going overwhelmed by your father, by the story, by his death?

ROBINSON: I miss him a lot. There's a lot that you fell. I feel that our time was too short, and not being around him when he was dying, yes, I'm still overwhelmed, but there is healing in that in this book.

LEMON: It can be tough this time of year.

ROBINSON: I was lost after he died. When I got the first call, I was in Russia and I was making a film, and I was in St. Petersburg, and he called. You know, I found out that he had had an accident, and he may have to have hip surgery. The first words out of his mouth, I said, who is this? He said, "it's your father, and it's just nice to hear your voice, son." And at that point I said, he's dying.

LEMON: So at that moment it was like, "oh, my gosh, he's actually dying." ROBINSON: There was panic and anxiety. OK. He's not going to be here. He always used to come and tell me, son, I just want you to be able to do things on your own, you're talented. I need you to focus on what you really want to do, and you can do it. He said, but what are you going to do when I'm not here? You're not going to have me to come to.

And that's when what it means not to have a father on this father's day, because good, bad or indifferent or whatever your differences are, you still have your father to go to and say I love you and choose to take the high road and say it's just good to touch him and kiss him and this is the person who gave birth to you, gave you the right to walk this earth. I think that's something.

LEMON: He would touch you.

ROBINSON: He would touch me and he would come to us in the front and feel my shoulders, feel my wrists and my hand and my face. That was his way of saying - he said, I just want to see you, son. That's a beautiful thing, you know. That's something that no one knows about, and those are our moments, and that's where I go.

LEMON: Because you didn't think you would be here?

ROBINSON: No, nor did my family. My family did not think that I was going to make it. I was, you know - I have to tell you, I was in deep despair. I was in deep despair after my father passed away and just simply out of control. I mean, not out of control, just sinking deeper and deeper and deeper into depression. And cocaine or something like that, it just enhances everything that you do.

Did I know better? Every day. Did I know that maybe the next time it could be my life? Yes. One day I looked in the mirror and I said, that's it. What are you doing? What are you doing? You got to move on.

LEMON: And that was it.

ROBINSON: That's four years ago.

LEMON: Did you get to say everything you wanted to him?

ROBINSON: To my father?

LEMON: Uh-huh.

ROBINSON: Yes.

LEMON: Do you want to share it?

ROBINSON: You know, we were sitting in his office, and I said, dad, you know, I love you. Your life is special, and he told me, "son, you're special." And he says, you don't have to do anything but be my son. That's enough. And I'm proud of you and I'm proud of what you've done. LEMON: You said he did the head thing. How did he do? What did he do? What did he say to you? You can do it. If Jamie Foxx can do it, you can do it.

ROBINSON: You would ask him something personal. Dad, all I know how to do is play the piano and sing songs. So that was his answer about answering personal questions about girls or about life. If something too complicated for him that was his answer. I just know how to play piano and sing songs.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: We continue our tribute about fathers with a documentary of a man facing a terminal illness. He goes to extraordinary measures to make sure his kids do not live life without a father figure. Watch "Dads for my Daughters," a special Dr. Sanjay Gupta documentary, it's at the top of the hour.

We want to check some of your top stories here on CNN. Israel is promising to allow all goods into Gaza except for weapons and military items. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government plans to ease the Gaza blockade. He met with Middle East envoy Tony Blair in Jerusalem today. The former British Prime Minister and the White House praised Israel's decision but Hamas dismissed it, saying the blockade should be lifted entirely.

Sons, daughters, and grandchildren of veterans who lost relatives in Vietnam paid special tribute on this father's day. They scrubbed clean the granite wall of Vietnam veterans memorial in Washington. In the process, they polished each of the 58,000 plus names on it. Now, once the wall was clean, the families laid roses at its base.

$20,000 could be yours if you spotted a missing tiger and two camels. The animals were in a trailer that was stolen from a motel parking lot, just outside Montreal. They were taken to a Toronto zoo which is offering the reward. Zoo officials are afraid that Jonas, the tiger and the camels, Sean and Todd will die if they don't get enough water.

BP allegedly turning away volunteers to help with the gulf oil disaster? We'll hear from one of them, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In every catastrophe, people follow the call to help, but in the case of the gulf oil disaster, some say a lot of that good will is going to waste because of BP and they have not been responding to it. BP staffers will take your name and your contact information, but do they ultimately use your offer to help?

The man who created this web site says no. Don Abrams of Ocean Springs, Mississippi created the site where local people could report if a boom was not working. The booms are floating barriers BP has set up to keep the oil off the shore. And some of them like this one on Horn Island, Mississippi, end up where they're not supposed to be at all. They're supposed to be in that water, instead they're on shore, twisted.

Abrams said he tried and tried to get the information to the right people but to no avail. So Don Abrams joins us now via Skype. First of all, thank you for joining us. When did you first set up this boom web site and what were the people reporting on it? How are they reporting on it?

DON ABRAMS, CREATOR, OILSPILLVOLUNTEERS.COM: Well, I became aware of the problem in late April, and when the first BP people arrived here in Mississippi on May 1st, I found out that we were dealing with people that didn't even know Mississippi had barrier islands. So that made me a bit nervous. I set up a system, just a simple web base form, where people could enter contact information and additional information and a description of the problems that they were seeing with the containment booms.

That was done on the 2nd. We immediately began trying to turn the entire system over to BP or to modify it for their use, and although we did hear a few encouraging things at the beginning, the story was always, well, I can't make the decision, I need to speak to someone else and we'll be back in touch.

LEMON: So they weren't very receptive to the idea of you even helping them out?

ABRAMS: No. Not at all.

LEMON: Why do you think that is?

ABRAMS: Well, I hate to speculate about what their motivations were, but it seemed pretty clear that they're not really interested in input from the people that live here, which is a real shame because we're the ones with, you know, with our stakes on the table. We're going to have to live with this for decades.

And we know the water, we know the area and we live here. The booms are across the street from our homes. We can see them from our front porches, we see them when we drive home.

LEMON: So, are you saying you don't think that they're interested in the people there helping them? I mean, are you the only example of their other people who are trying help them as you are and they are refusing?

ABRAMS: It's widespread frustration. And we have 10,000 of people here that have registered volunteer sites. My neighbor and I set one up on the 29th of April, and in eight days, we had 8,000 people that registered that wanted to get involved somehow.

And in addition, we had people with offshore oil field experience. We had off duty firemen. We had people that had a couple of decades of teaching, the haz walker (ph) courses that anyone who handles oil is required to have. We've been unable to get BP to respond to any of those offers. LEMON: I'm going to read this to you, Mr. Abrams and then you can respond to that. BP says, spokesman says we really appreciate the effort people are going through to help with the response. The direct links of a unified command should be more effective and at Deepwater Horizon respondent.com, there is a toll number to call if you want to report a boom problem.

So what do you say to that? You can understand this is a big undertaking by, you know, by BP, by the government, by everyone down there. Maybe, I don't know, do you think - should you give them a little bit more time to get their acts together, or do you feel they've had enough?

ABRAMS: A little more time. We're pushing two months on this situation. We're at day 62 now. And until fairly recently if you went to the Deepwater Horizon response site and the BP site and did a search for boom, and report a problem, or any to those terms, you came up with nothing. There is an 866 number on the banner of the main page of the Deepwater Horizon response site now. But it took I'm guessing about five or six weeks for that to get there. And it's outrageous.

LEMON: Yes. Do you feel like - I would imagine it's frustrating. Do you feel like you're just kind of sitting there and watching the storm come ashore and there's nothing you can do about it?

ABRAMS: It's like a slow motion hurricane. I mean, we all lived through Hurricane Katrina here. And as soon as the wind dropped to 60 knots people went out their doors, and started cleared debris, and helping their neighbors and getting tarps on roofs that were damaged. We could pitch in and do something.

Here we're just having to watch. And I do understand there are OSHA regulations that come into play with anyone who wants to - who might be handling oil. And certainly more regulations that apply to people doing rehab work with oiled wildlife.

But there's no reason in the world that a boat crew coming in here from Texas couldn't have a local person on board just to point out how to get to places, how to avoid that mud bank that we know about here that I've seen the contractors coming in from out of town trying to plow through.

LEMON: Yes. So Don Abrams, thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us here. Best of luck to you, OK.

ABRAMS: Thank you very much.

LEMON: All right. I want to say, we did reach out to the Coast Guard. We did not get a response from them on this story.

Michael Jackson's death. One year later. Still many questions remain unanswered. This week CNN takes a look back at the pop star's tragic death. We'll get a preview straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This Friday is the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death. CNN will feature a special report that will reveal details of the events leading up Jackson's tragic demise.

I talked with close associates of the entertainer who described his state of mind, hours before the world lost the king of pop.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: (voice-over): As the sun rose above the exclusive Los Angeles hills, inside Michael Jackson's mansion, the entertainer began the morning of June 24th, 2009, doing what he loved. Preparing for a show.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now do it slow.

TRAVIS PAYNE, CHOREOGRAPHER: He and I would start about noon, 1:00 at his home. We'd dance a few hours and stretch.

You have to have a full attitude. You have a half attitude. Do the full one.

LEMON: Travis Payne was Michael Jackson's long-time choreographer.

PAYNE: We were on a journey with Michael, that was going to return him to the stage, you know, that he loved so much. And I know that we were eight days away from leaving for London.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LEMON: The stage is where Michael was most at ease. On stage, there was no one better.

Since age five, he'd electrified audiences around the world with hit songs like "I Want you Back." And the world appeared ready to welcome him back. It had been 12 years since Jackson's last major performance. The king of pop was poised to regain his throne.

MICHAEL JACKSON, POP STAR: This is it. I mean, this is really it. This is the final - this is the final curtain call.

LEMON: On the afternoon of June 24th, Jackson arrived at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Rehearsals for "This Is It" often ran late into the night. On the surface, the man many say was born to perform never looked better.

(on camera): Was his voice getting stronger over a period?

PAYNE: Absolutely.

LEMON: Was his dancing getting stronger? PAYNE: Absolutely.

LEMON: His body, everything?

PAYNE: Absolutely.

LEMON (voice-over): Michael Bearden, the musical director for "This Is It" was on stage that last night.

MICHAEL BEARDEN, "THIS IS IT" MUSIC DIRECTOR: He looked back at me after we did one number. He looked back at me as if to say, yes, I'm Michael Jackson. I got this. You know, he looked really good and I tease some of the dancers when I see them because M.J. was 50 years old. And they're lie half his age. And he's still wearing them out.

LEMON (on camera): Was anything out of the ordinary that night.

BEARDEN: The only thing that might have been out of the ordinary was that Michael had a serious glow about him that night.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BEARDEN: You could see his confidence growing, and you could see physically he was able to do the things that he wanted to do, that was just coming out naturally. The stage is where he grew up. I think he was feeling more comfortable every day.

LEMON (voice-over): Jackson left the Staples Center around midnight and headed to his rented mansion in the posh L.A. neighborhood of Holmby Hills. Just 12 hours later, however, nothing would ever be the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard mom say, get down here. I looked. Oh, my gosh. What's going on?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And we also talked to Michael's brothers, Jermaine and Tito, about their unanswered questions about how he died and who they think is responsible. Make sure you watch my special report. "Michael Jackson: The Final Days." It's this Friday, June 25th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. And coming up tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, the sudden death of NBA superstar Manute Bol has shocked many including his friend Charles Barkley. We'll talk to him at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

In the meantime, I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Thanks for joining us. Dr. Sanjay Gupta special "Dads for my Daughters" is next.