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Day 63: $2 Billion & Counting; BP Culture: Profit vs. Safety; Summer Solstice Celebration at Stonehenge

Aired June 21, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Richard Lui, in for Ali Velshi today. We've got all the top stories for you today, of course, and what's on our "Rundown" this hour for you.

First off, the oil disaster, day 63, heart-rendering stories of struggling fishermen and oystermen with nowhere to turn as the oil washes in. CNN will follow the BP paper trail. And this isn't the first time the company's had a PR nightmare on its hands, certainly.

Plus, Tony (ph) and Gary have a baby. Tony Brown (ph) joins us live to talk about the new joy in his life.

All right. Let's go over to the very latest on our top story, which of course his happening a mile underneath the Gulf Coast surface at the moment. And what we're talking about are the latest developments in terms of what is happening in these live pictures that we have been watching a mile underneath the sea.

You can still see, it's a little hazy right now. But there is still oil coming out, as many as 60,000 barrels per day by the latest estimate.

Let me get you up to date with what we understand in terms of the amount that has been siphoned with the cap, as well as what has been called the Q4000.

We're hearing 272,800 barrels to date, but that's only the oil. What about the cost of employing all these solutions? Well, we are getting the very latest numbers.

And as you can see on the screen right now, $2 billion is what BP is telling us at the moment. That is their cost. But then there are also the claims being made by residents of the Gulf Coast and beyond.

We understand 65,000 claims have been submitted so far, 32,000 claims have been paid. That's for a total of $105 million paid to date.

OK. In addition to that, we have to look also at who owns the well, because as this price tag gets larger and larger, there may be the contentious issue of who owns what is being called the Macondo well. We break it down for you right here.

Sixty-five percent of that ownership is BP, 25 percent for Anadarko Petroleum. And then at the bottom, 10 percent for Mitsui. But there is, when we take a look at the agreement, the concept of gross negligence or wrongdoing, and that has begun a brand-new round of finger-pointing, hoping to alleviate themselves of that percentage that I was point to earlier.

Now, let me get to some of that contentious rhetoric that's coming out right now.

First off, Anadarko saying, "BP's behavior and actions likely represent gross negligence or willful misconduct, and thus affect the obligations of the parties under the agreement."

OK. Well, BP also releasing this statement: "Other parties besides BP may be responsible for costs and liabilities arising from the spill, and we expect those parties to live up to their obligation."

OK. So, you can already tell by looking at these two statements that we shared with you that there will be more hand-wringing, as well as argument, when it comes to who will be representing gross negligence in this case. And this will most likely end up in court.

But the case in federal court is also happening in New Orleans. And today, the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling is being discussed.

Now, the judge at the moment saying he'll issue a ruling sometime between 1:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. Wednesday. That being tomorrow and Wednesday. So we'll be watching that.

Well, there's already been some reaction to this already. Let's go now to Velma Mock, Coastal Environmental Operations, a representative from that group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELMA MOCK, COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL OPERATIONS: If July, August, if drilling is not back into effect, these deepwater rigs aren't working, we're not working. Next week we won't be working if this stuff isn't busy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: OK. Now, there's also the side of the environmentalists. And also, there is Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network who will be looking at the nightmare itself. They responded, too.

Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON VILES, GULF RESTORATION NETWORK: How can you look at this ecological nightmare that's happening right now and say, let's keep going? We have got to get answers. There shouldn't be a gun to the head of the commission saying, look, every week you take means 25,000 more jobs or something like that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Jobs, residents, the entire Gulf Coast, there are families, there are groups. But when we look at the entire fabric of the area, there are sometimes some subgroups that we don't get to see the stories of.

We go to Louisiana, where Soledad O'Brien has been looking at the different groups down there. She's reporting from the area of Louisiana, and she'll be there during tonight's "LARRY KING LIVE" telethon, telling us the stories of the people that she has met.

And Soledad, what's very interesting are, as I was mentioning earlier, some of the subgroups that we're alluding to here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THA HUA, FISHERMAN: I have to be strong for my family. If I give in, then that's it. So, I have to be strong, I'm going to have to take it day by day, and try to figure something out.

I've got to make some income some way, somehow. Whether it's BP, fishing, deckhanding, it doesn't matter. I have to do what I have to do to support my family.

But fishing is what I do. And I can't do it. I could probably go get another job somewhere, but my income is going to drop from there to here, and there's no way I could survive getting a regular job. I can't make ends meet.

KEILLEN WILLIAMS, FISHERMAN: And we had our own economy. We didn't need the stimulus money.

You know Bobby Jindal turned down the stimulus money. You know why? Because we're self-sufficient.

Now we're BP-dependent. And we're not getting anything.

So, just hurry up and get nothing, hurry up and stress out. And I don't hear anyone talking about the pain and suffering paying for that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: OK. Those are some of the people that Soledad had the opportunity to speak with.

You can take a look at those boats that were lined up, row after row of boats that are now sitting absolutely idle because of the moratoriums, both federal and state moratoriums that are keeping many of the boaters and the captains out from doing what they normally do this part of the season, whether it be baiting or whether it be shrimping or also gathering oysters.

This is the center point for generations, of course, of black fishermen, this area that we're talking about. The predominantly black fishing community was wiped out after Katrina, and now is seeing their shrinking oyster fisheries destroyed because of the impact of the spill.

And there's also a community, the Vietnamese shrimpers. And Soledad and her crew met with some shrimpers who moved there as children after the war in the '79s, came over as boat people, and now don't know how they'll provide for their own children. A very interesting dynamic when you look at that area of Louisiana.

Soledad O'Brien will have more on that.

You've seen the devastation, you've heard the complaints. Now it's your chance to help out for folks like that and many, many more.

Tonight, join Larry King for an all-star relief effort benefiting the National Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy, and the United Way. This special two-hour "LARRY KING LIVE" event starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. Do not miss that.

OK. Today, a CNN exclusive investigation into another deadly BP disaster. Did BP really hope that this refinery blast that you see here would be ignored by the United States because of a holiday weekend and Terri Schiavo?

We've gotten a new look at stunning documents, hundreds of them, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: All right. Today, a Texas refinery tragedy is the focus of a CNN exclusive investigation.

You know, what we're finding out at the moment is that there's a disturbing paper trail that speaks to what some claim is the real culture at BP, putting profit above all else, including safety. That worries many.

Now, company documents show BP workers in fear before the disaster back in 2005, and the oil giant racing in to spin control mode almost immediately after that began. Now some victims are having an ominous sense of deja vu.

Abbie Boudreau has our special investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing one, two or three flames, and they are still being fueled by whatever is running through those lines.

ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are images from a different BP explosion from five years ago at a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas. Fifteen workers killed, 180 injured.

(on camera): This is something you are never going to get over. MIGUEL ARENAZAS, TEXAS CITY EXPLOSION SURVIVOR: Never. As long as I'm alive, as long as I have this back pain, as long as I have my neck pain, every time that I try to get out of bed or every time that I try to bend over, you know, thank you, BP. This is what you have done to me.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): Miguel Arenazas survived the Texas City explosion in 2005. He says he knows what Deepwater Horizon rig workers and their families are going through. It is going to be something that you are going to live with for the rest of your life.

Brent Coon was the lead plaintive attorney who represented many of the victims in negligence lawsuits after the Texas City explosion. All but one of his cases reached a settlement with BP.

Coon uncovered more than seven million internal BP documents during his investigation.

(on camera): Sometimes, people find one smoking gun document, but we have seen a lot of these documents. There is one after another after another.

BRENT COON, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: You look for that one smoking gun where somebody internally says, if we don't fix this, we are going to have a problem. And in this case, what was shocking was that we didn't just find that smoking gun. We found an entire arsenal.

BOUDREAU: BP would never have wanted these documents out?

COON: Oh, no. I don't think anybody that would have had documents like that would ever want them to see the light of day.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): He says these documents now have a whole new meaning and give a rare insight into the culture of BP.

(on camera): Do you remember this e-mail?

COON: I remember that. It made me sick to my stomach.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): This e-mail was written only hours after the Texas City explosion, BP's public relations machine hard at work. The subject line says, "Media coverage and loss of life." It goes on to say, "Expect a lot of follow-up coverage tomorrow. Then I believe it will essentially go away, due to the holiday weekend."

COON: This is a public relations director that is telling the president and the other people at that plant that we got good news. We just killed a bunch of people, but it is coming up on a weekend. That's the best time in the world to kill a bunch of people is just before a weekend, an Easter weekend, or long weekend, or a holiday, because everybody gets distracted and forgets about it.

BOUDREAU: And also distracted by another big story.

(voice-over): At that time, all eyes were on a 41-year-old brain-damaged Florida woman named Terri Schiavo. The debate whether her feeding tube would be removed had captivated the country. But, apparently, the timing of that story was a good thing for BP.

The last line of the e-mail says, "This is a very big story in the U.S. right now, but the Terri Schiavo story is huge as well."

(on camera): CNN has learned that many of the people on that e- mail are still working at BP. Coon says that makes sense, since the company seems to be handling today's crisis much like the one from years ago. This time, it's been accused of controlling the images of the spill and downplaying just how much oil is being leaked.

(voice-over): Coon also showed us a document he obtained from the 2005 case that he likes to call the dirty words document, a slide from a presentation created by lawyers hired by BP that spelled out language workers should avoid using in incident reports, like criminal, reckless, and dangerous. (on camera): What did you think when you read this?

COON: I said, I can't (EXPLETIVE DELETED) believe it. This is as good of a smoking gun as you can get. I could not believe that I would get a document that was generated by BP's attorneys that told BP employees how to sanitize their records.

BOUDREAU: And why would they want them to do that?

COON: Because they don't want to have anything in any of the reports or anything in writing that indicates that they did anything wrong.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): Coon says this internal BP internal document gives a cost/benefit analysis of the safety risks for the company employees by using the story the three little pigs. The pigs represented BP employees.

Court documents show BP says the chart was only a simple way of explaining a concept and that business decisions weren't made by following the chart.

COON: They actually looked at the numbers, what is it going to cost to fix the problem that we know is there, vs. how many people are going to die if we don't fix the problem, and which one is cheaper.

BOUDREAU: Arenazas has settled with BP. Five years later, he is still in pain and is still angry.

ARENAZAS: What really matters for BP? Their money is what really matters for them, their money. We can be replaced.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: All right. You're going to learn more on about why those BP workers genuinely worried for their lives before the deadly blast when we come back. You'll also see how the government responded and what BP is telling us right now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: All right. Well, before the current crisis in the Gulf, some BP employees were charging the oil giant that it fostered a culture that prized profits over their safety, leaving many BP field workers in fear for their own lives. The situation came into sharp focus during BP's handling of another deadly disaster five years ago, as we were talking about before the break, a refinery explosion in Texas that claimed 15 lives and left 180 injured.

Here's part two of Abbie Boudreau's exclusive investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOUDREAU (voice-over): Brent Coon represented many of the victims from the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion. He says BP has a history of covering up its problems.

He showed CNN employee surveys from the Texas City site from 2004 and 2005, complaints to management about corners being cut and dangerous conditions being ignored.

(on camera): What stood out to you?

COON: The rank-and-file, the people working these plants, had been begging for safety at so many different levels for so long. And it was all on deaf ears.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): In one survey, a worker said, "Quit waiting for a known possible unit disaster to happen before correcting the problem."

Another stated, "This company deliberately put my life in danger to try and save a buck."

A different employee said, "Pipe thinning worries me the most. Its failure could be catastrophic, with little warning."

And this worker said, "If this facility was an aircraft carrier, we would be at the bottom of the ocean."

COON: So many people were afraid of dying, not afraid of their jobs, not afraid of something that they didn't like, not afraid of not getting a pay raise or losing their medicals -- afraid of dying.

BOUDREAU: In fact, an independent survey of BP workers in Texas City backed his claim. It stated, "We have never seen a site where the notion 'I could die today' was so real for so many hourly people."

COON: I don't think there is a shred of evidence in BP's favor that shows they have done anything to change their corporate safety culture.

BOUDREAU (on camera): BP says it has changed, that the culture has changed.

COON: BP is a pathological liar.

BOUDREAU: After Texas City, OSHA, the federal agency in charge of enforcing safety regulations, fined BP $21 million and told the company it needed to fix the problems that led to the explosion. But that didn't happen. So, Just last October, OSHA fined BP yet again, this time, a proposed $87 million penalty, the largest penalty the agency's history. BP is contesting the citations and penalties.

(voice-over): In response to this story, BP turned down our request for an on-camera interview and provided a statement to CNN.

This is part of that response: "BP has worked diligently since the accident in March 2005 to address safety concerns at the Texas City site. BP has spent more than $1 billion at Texas City to address safety concerns since 2005. We continue to work cooperatively with OSHA to resolve these matters. We are determined to learn from this event and get better as a company."

Brent Coons says that's just not enough. He feels that the deepwater tragedy could have been prevented.

COON: We forewarned this. The Department of Justice was involved.

We did everything that we could to draw the attention to our legislators, both at a state and a federal level and to the media and everyone else that BP has a lot of systemic problems that they are never going to change unless somebody makes them change. And if they have don't make them change, something worse is going to happen. And it won't be that long. And it did happen.

BOUDREAU (on camera): You think someone should go to jail?

COON: I think a lot of people should go to jail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: All right. Well, Abbie Boudreau from our Special Investigations Unit joins us right now.

And he was mentioning here, Abbie, that the Justice Department was involved in the investigation.

What did they find?

BOUDREAU: Well, they never actually held anyone criminally accountable from BP. BP ended up paying a $50 million criminal fine. But a lot of people we talked to said people, top management, should have gone to jail for what happened here. And obviously that did not happen.

LUI: That did not happen.

And part of your piece here, which is an excellent piece, you met the survivor. And you were talking about this just before we went on air, that it was still welling up in him, that experience that happened so long ago.

Tell us about that.

BOUDREAU: Well, I mean, you would think five years ago may be enough time that might have passed that he would be able to talk about this with a little less emotion, but it was very, very difficult for him to talk about this. It was actually very difficult for us to find someone from that explosion, a survivor, or a victim from that family, or something like that who would actually talk to us about this.

But five years is barely enough time for people to really move forward past something like this because it was such a horrible, horrible incident for these people. And this person feels as though he knows exactly what the Horizon workers and their families are going through right now. He says this is not something they'll get over.

LUI: He can really understand what they're going through.

BOUDREAU: Absolutely. Absolutely.

LUI: Abbie Boudreau, thank you. Great stuff.

BOUDREAU: Thanks.

LUI: All right. Meanwhile, you know, BP's stock, it's definitely taken a hit over time because of the oil spill disaster.

And let's take a look at the markets right now. The markets are going to other way -- up almost 75 points.

Why? Well, China, over the weekend, saying it will let its currency appreciate. That means that exporters in the United States may have a better foothold in getting their products into China, which could be good news for everybody in the United States.

We're watching the markets for you.

Plus, 20,000 people descend on English's ancient Stonehenge monument today. Wait until you see what that's all about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: We want to remind you tonight we have got a special going on, a telethon with "LARRY KING LIVE." It's an all-star relief effort trying to help the people of the stories that we have been telling you, as well, of course, as the animals, the wildlife that have been affected. Now, it's going to be benefiting specifically the National Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy, and the United Way, all for relief of the people, the animals, and communities in the Gulf affected by the spill so far today.

We're at day 63, as you know. This special two-hour "LARRY KING LIVE" event, that starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. And it is star-studded. OK. We are taking a look at a lot of what's happening today.

You know, today, in the "Off the Radar" segment, you and I were talking about this earlier, and I find it really interesting. It's the first day of summer.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

LUI: A lot of things going on. For most of us, the summer solstice is basically recognized as just the longest day of the year.

Now, we take a look at the longest day of the year. Chad's going to look at more of what that means.

But for thousands of revelers in Salisbury Plain, England, it's something much more. It's today's "Off the Radar" moment.

And you're going to tell us more about that.

MYERS: You know, it's the reason my son doesn't go to sleep until 9:30, because he says, "Daddy, it's not dark yet. Why am I going to sleep?" Because it's the longest day/shortest night of the year.

And so, here. We want to take you to something that was built thousands of years ago. Here's Stonehenge.

This is from Bing Maps. You can go to Bing. This is the Microsoft version, Stonehenge.

Three parts of this built on all different times of old centuries passed. There you go.

The rings and then -- it's not so much the ring. It isn't the ring. You think, oh, look at all the circles that made all the rocks.

It's not so much the rocks in the middle. It's the rock that's called the Heel. The Heel is actually outside Stonehenge, very close to the road.

LUI: Oh, that right there.

MYERS: We are now standing at a picture here taken from the Altar rock, looking toward the Heel rock. And if you're standing right there today, like 20,000 people tried to have a mosh pit, right here in the middle, you would have seen the sun rise right over the top of the Heel rock, because they knew things back there, 6,000 years ago, that we don't know yet.

LUI: So, 1,000 years ago, they were standing here. They aligned this rock -- or whoever "they" might be.

MYERS: Correct.

LUI: And put this so you could see it on the longest day of the year. MYERS: Correct. And now people flock there.

LUI: And how many are there?

MYERS: And here are the pictures.

LUI: Here are the folks. Let's take a look right now.

MYERS: It does look a little bit like a mosh pit.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: To be very honest, these people were having a good time. No backpacks, no sleeping bags. But they did open it up a little bit earlier so they could walk in there and watch the sun rise.

Now, there are other places where you can do things like this with ancient stones, most of them on the equinoxes, which means they're the equal days of the year, not so much the longest days of the year. That would be the spring and also the fall.

But that's the rock they were looking at today.

LUI: Chad, that was sort of like "Burning Man," except that it was in the U.K., right? Any event to hang around --

MYERS: I was just wondering whether somebody was going to go out and just kind of call all the people to arms, and then start running across the plains.

LUI: All right. Great stuff, "Off the Radar."

Chad, thank you so much.

MYERS: You bet.

LUI: See, there's all these back-stories when we start talking about what's happening in weather, as well as today, the longest day of the year.

Thank you, Chad, again.

A Website claims it's close to releasing classified video of an air strike that killed Afghan civilians. Meanwhile that website's founder, gone underground. Folks can't find him. We're going to go "Globe Trekking" for you to London, to bring you this story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: If you're in the Gulf coast, there are ways that you can assist the residents there. But what if you are far away from the affected areas, the wildlife, the people that don't have jobs anymore?

Tonight on CNN at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, LARRY KING LIVE will be having a telethon to benefit the people and the animals of that area. Disaster in the Gulf, how you can help, that's a two-hour telethon tonight. It is star-studded. We will have all sorts of different people involved in this telethon. LARRY KIGN LIVE, two-hour special tonight. Don't miss that.

All right. Time now for "Globe Trekking". The founder of the website Wikileaks claims to have video of a U.S. NATO air strike from May 2009 and says it will soon be released. T

Now the air strike, it took place here in the Afghan village of Garani as you can see right here in Afghanistan. Our Atika Schubert is following this developing story form London for us. And Atika tell us more about the incident itself and why it is gathering so much interest at the moment.

ATIKA SCHUBERT CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well this has been one of the worst incidents so far in the war in Afghanistan. Basically there's a dispute about exactly how many civilians were killed in this attack.

It was an engagement between U.S. forces and Taliban insurgents. There were a number of air strikes that were called in, including one on a mosque. Now according to the Afghan human rights commission, up to 86 civilians were killed in that attack.

The Pentagon had their own investigation. They could not verify the number of civilian casualties. Now Wikileaks says, that it has obtained a video of some of those air strikes and that the number of civilian casualties is much higher.

Now we don't know when this video will be released, where it is coming from. But Wikileaks says it will be releasing it soon. Everybody's in hanging onto the words of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks who appeared in Brussels today after having apparently gone underground but no mention of when this video is going to come out Richard.

LUI: He apparently actually was seen because the last we'd spoken, the question was Pentagon was looking for him. Why were they looking for him prior to him coming up, as you have just mentioned?

SCHUBERT: Well, reportedly Pentagon officials are trying to convince him not to release more information. Remember that Wikileaks already released earlier this year video of an air attack in Iraq where a Reuters cameraman was killed.

Now they're saying they're going to release this other video and allegedly they may have more information to put out. So that's why apparently Pentagon officials are looking for him. And Julian Assange did not show up for a conference in Las Vegas because Wikileaks says he felt pressure by the Pentagon and felt he may be attacked, essentially, is how Wikileaks puts it.

They're a very elusive group. Julian Assange basically communicates by e-mail or tweeting. And so he pops up here and there. The latest sighting of course is today is in Brussels. But again, no word on when that video will come out we'll just have to wait and see where he pops up next.

LUI: OK. So then Atika new this afternoon is that there's a report that he has been seen, that's what we're learning right now. And the story of Wikileaks and the U.S. NATO video that is supposedly going to be coming out today. Atika Schubert in London following that story for us, thank you so much.

You know this coming Thursday, a special called Gary and Tony have a baby, it's about gay parents who have a surrogate baby. We'll talk with one of the fathers Tony Brown in today's "Mission Possible".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: All right In today's "Mission Possible" segment, we're going to talk about a controversial subject, gay parenting, President Obama is drawing fire from social conservatives for this year's Father's Day proclamation.

In it, it included this line. Take a look at this "Nurturing families come in many forms and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian" .

Now millions of U.S. children are being raised by gay or lesbian parents, in fact. This coming Thursday, CNN will be presenting a special called "Gary and Tony have a Baby" It's about Tony Brown, and Gary Spino., a gay couple who became parents through surrogacy. Now Tony brown joins us from that special he's live in New York right now. And thank you so much for being with us today.

I appreciate you stopping by Tony. And I want to start by asking you this. A lot of people will see your story and be very supportive of it. They'll be those will be very intrigued by it but then they'll also be those who question it. How do you respond to that?

TONY BROWN, HOMOSEXUAL PARENT: Well I think if people actually watch the documentary, they're going to find out they have far more in common with Gary and myself, than they have different from us.

As any expecting parent, I think we had the same joys, excitements, fears, concerns that every expecting parent has. And as my husband, Gary, says, the world is full of far more similarities than differences. I think if people watch, they're going to see that.

LUI: And you allow us into your lives, this is very interesting -- I was reading on some of your previous interviews, you said, part of your -- the difficulty, shall I say, over time was you accepting who you are as a person, yet you invite in cameras to watch you from day to night. What was that like?

BROWN: That was quite a journey. I don't think I would have been able to do that when I was coming to terms with who I was. And honestly, I think the key to that was finding the right person in my life. When I met Gary, I realized that I couldn't hide anymore from who I was from being a gay man, from sharing myself with my family. And I guess, in a sense, with the world, because that was the key for me, was finding love.

And that was also the key that allowed us -- because we were on this journey towards love, to having a family. That allowed us to invite a camera crew into our lives, which wasn't always easy. But hopefully it was fruitful.

LUI: And we thank you for doing that. Tony, when you and Gary are out, you talk about this love that you have found with your husband. Has that helped you as you've had to deal with some very difficult instances, no doubt, when you're in public with your family?

BROWN: You know, that is a really interesting question because what Gary and I have discovered is that we have to get over our own either fear or often prejudices of other people and give them permission to accept us because the truth of the matter is, everywhere that we have gone with our son, we have been welcomed.

We have been accepted. We have been treated with kindness and respect. But Gary and I had to kind of get over our fear of that at first. So we've been really feeling very blessed right now.

LUI: Why did the two of you have that fear?

BROWN: You know what? When you grow up your entire life either not accepting yourself or being taunted or teased when the cards are legally stacked against you in a gay relationship, you tend to develop a thick skin.

You tend to hear things with more cautious ears, I think, and see things with more cautious eyes. And this has been a real process for Gary and I to say, this is really the world we want to live in. Let's live in that world. Let's just be in that world and let other people accept us as they will. And like I said, we've been feeling very blessed.

LUI: So Tony you know I started by saying there will be those who support you, those who would be very intrigued and those who may be against the way you're living your life. What do you think that your In America special will help? How will they help these different groups?

BROWN: Well, hopefully maybe we will demystify the process a little bit of using reproductive technology because that's something that doesn't just affect gay people. That affects everybody who has a problem conceiving on their own and they really (INAUDBILE) track us through this whole process of our journey towards having a family.

And, again, those people who may not know a gay family or may not approve of gay people having children, I think what they're going to see are two parents who absolutely love their child more than anything in the world and put their child's needs before their own, which is, I think, kind of a universal trait of parenting. LUI: Yes. And a part of the parenting and you being a father here Tony, we're going to meet your son on Thursday right? And when we do do that-- how is your son doing, by the way?

BROWN: Oh, my gosh, he's the most amazing little man you've ever met in your life. We are so blessed. He is happy. He sleeps through the night. He eats well. He laughs. He engages. He's just perfect. As you will see.

LUI: You know, and my married friends who do have kids or my friends that have kids they'll say, if you can get up through 2:00 or 3:00 A.M. in the morning without being woken up, you're OK. And it sounds like you're doing OK right now Tony. So that's good to hear.

BROWN: We're doing great, thank you so much Richard.

LUI: All right congratulations my friend Tony Brown Gary Spino, in that In America special. Hey thanks for stopping by and giving us a preview of what to expect.

By the way be sure to watch Tony there, as well as Gary, they have a baby. And that's Thursday night at 8:00 eastern right here on CNN. To learn more about his life and what they're going through as a couple.

All right. Let's check our top stories for you. The federal judge hears arguments for and against a six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling. Says he'll issue a ruling tomorrow afternoon at the soonest. Wednesday afternoon at the latest,

The oil industry saying the ban causes needless economic harm. The White House environmental groups say deepwater drilling is too risky until the cause of the BP disaster is known.

Then, voters in three states go back to the polls tomorrow. Two South Carolina Republicans are in a runoff there for their party's nomination for governor. Then in North Carolina, a pair of Democrats there are fighting for their party's nomination for senator.

And then we go west to Utah. They will choose between two Republicans who want to run for the U.S. Senate seat being involuntarily vacated by republican Bob Bennett. Bennett was shown the door last month at the Utah GOP convention.

All right and Israel saying this will ease its blockade of Gaza civilian goods will now be allowed into that area says Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu . Items with military applications will not be allowed in. Palestinians saying that's not good enough as of yet.

And Florida's Gulf coast, that's where a lot of people usually head during the summer. Normally, but not so much this year with all the oil and reports of oil. So how are the small businesses coping? You'll find out.

(COMMERICAL BREAK) LUI: I Hope you slept well last night. It's going to be a long day, it's the first official day of summer, the longest day of the year. But across the Gulf coast, some beaches are plain empty. People not enjoying this long day.

In Florida, most of the state's beaches are still untouched by the oil and businesses are banding together to get the word out that hey business is open, we are okay.

Out Tom Foreman is in Pensacola beach, Florida, with today's "Building Up America" report.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Richard at this time of year, you should absolutely not be seeing what we're seeing here right now -- empty beaches, empty parking lots, empty restaurants. This is the high season for tourism here. But the crowds are very, very low.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice over) On Pensacola's still beautiful beach, locals are waiting and watching for the oil that largely has not arrived. That's the good news. The bad? they are waiting for visitors who are not here either. Chased away in the height of the tourist season by the mere fear of oil.

EILENE BEARD, STORE OWNER Typically on the weekend, I have a lot of rentals.

FOREMAN: At Eileen Beard's SCUBA shack, a day like this should see all of her wet suits, fins and air tanks should be in the water.

BEARD: On the weekend, it's not unusual for us to have a $5,000 day. And yesterday, I took in $150. So as you can see, it's dead.

FOREMAN : An analysis by the university of central Florida says the disaster may cost almost 200,000 jobs and $11 billion in business here. But on this part of the Gulf, folks are fighting back through an aggressive combination of local, state and national efforts to keep local businesses afloat.

The lines have been long at this mobile command post set up by the state's small business development center to offer bridge loans to businesses in trouble.

LEW ATTARDO, FLORIDA SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER: It's to help them make their payments, keep people on the payroll if they possibly can to do other things. So our initial reaction is look, let's get you some loan money so you can keep the lights on.

FOREMAN: Down at Mike Pinsone's fishing pier, other help is coming through, too. The local government has modified the due dates for his beachfront lease payments. BP has come through with a little money and most importantly, he says locals are coming out to help ease the 60 percent decline in his business. MIKE PINSONE, (ph) SHOP OWNER: Our state doesn't have the money to handle this. There's no way

FOREMAN (on camera): But it seems to me, that makes it all the more important that everybody here pull together and help each other as best they can?

PINSONE (ph) Absolutely. And I feel that they have and I feel that they are.

FOREMAN (voice over: Mike has had to cut hours for his workers and abandon plans for an expansion this year. But so far, he says he's not had to lay anyone off and he's praying week by week, he can keep that up until the fear of oil goes away and his customers come back.

(on camera) Everyone here knows that the oil may arrive, maybe next week, maybe the next week. But right now, the message they're trying to get out as far as they can is, the beaches are clean and the water is fine. Come on in. Richard?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: Tom foreman with the latest. Thank you so much. When you go to visitFlorida.com to learn more about how the beaches look right now live. They've got some webcams there if you're planning to go down and have a vacation in Florida.

All right join CNN's LARRY KING by the way for an all-star relief effort to help the Gulf coast. The details right here. Stars like Justin Bieber, Deepak Chopra, Faith hill, Lenny Kravitz and a whole bunch of others will be on set. They might even pick up the phones as you call in.

That special happens tonight at 8:00 eastern right here on CNN. That's the way you can plug in. Now if you'd like to help right now, go to CNN.com/impact. The website has more information on the telethon. Proceeds will go to the United Way, The National Wildlife Federation and the Nature Conservancy.

Some World Cup "Wordplay" for you coming up next. We'll check out a soccer term that's been ticking off a whole bunch of teams and confusing casual fans for a whole bunch of years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: All right. Come on around. We've got "Wordplay" right now. And this is a word that we've been talking about since Friday's game if you're watching World Cup play right now. It had to do with the USA/Slovenia match. The word that we're going to talk about right now is offside.

Now offside, if you're going to go by the book A.K.A the dictionary, you can take a look at it right here It's an adjective, beyond prescribed area, ahead of the ball. OK. That's what we find we look in the dictionary.

Also, illegally behind a prescribed line or area or an advance of the ball or puck at the beginning of or during play. This is some of the definitions out there. But you know that didn't help very much, despite that being out there. What did help was learning why this rule exists when we talk about offside.

Basically, it's to prevent unfair breakaway goals, to keep players from camping out in front of the net while the ball's at the other end waiting for a long pass and an easy goal. In basketball, they call it cherry-picking. You've heard of that. It's not illegal on the court but it's also not very sporting.

Anyway on Friday, if you were watching that around 10:00 or 11:00 eastern, team USA came from behind versus Slovenia, they were down by two, and then they came back I the last 30-40 minutes. They scored what would have been the game-winner. Then at the end, but one of the refs thought it was an offside situation, and that moment and allowed, or rather disallowed the goal and then the match ended tied at 2. Offside. There you go.

All right. Oil, it's front-page news, home page news, last-page news. Hard to miss it but oil is also buttons, bags, zippers, you name it, more on that in my "XYZ"

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI Time now for the "XYZ" of it with all the latest numbers coming out on oil, oil though., is just not oil. The zippers that keep your pants up, the frames that keep the glasses on your face all come from oil, by-products, just part of the oil discussion that we sometimes forget.

As the president now will be huddling with senators to try to cobble together an energy strategy, we may feel the effect of those decisions in more ways than we actually talk about day to day. Sure, gas we put in our tanks has been described as a driving factor for oil companies. But look around you. I had the opportunity to do that this weekend, you know I was looking at the buttons on my suit the threads in my tie. The bag that my sandwich is normally in, all made of oil.

So reducing oil dependence for national security and environmental reasons means the way I consume and the way I live will change in a big way perhaps. And I'm not so sure I'll be able to do that. So first I'm just going to start talking about it when I can. On how oil is not just oil. That's my "XYZ" now time for RICK's LIST with Don Lemon in for Rick today. Hey Don.