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G-20 Protests & Power Meetings; Kagan's Confirmation Hearings; Tropical Storm Alex

Aired June 27, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Protesters face off with police at the G-20 summit. While inside world leaders try to tackle the global financial crisis. A live report just moments away.

And New York's gay pride parade, some Catholics who march every year get a new directive from their archbishop, leave your church banners behind. Details straight ahead.

And at 5:00 Eastern, health care reform kicks in for a group of Americans who desperately need it. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live on this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. The weekend has been full of high-level meetings, our chief business correspondent, Ali Velshi, is following major developments coming out of the G-20 summit. What has been accomplished there in Toronto, your hometown?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, it is my hometown. In fact, in a few minutes you'll hear from Jeanne Meserve who is out there in the streets where protests are continuing and hundreds of arrests have taken place. All the way down.

You might be able to see the CN tower by Lake Ontario. That's where the 20 world leaders and their finance ministers and their central bankers are all meeting right now. They're going to wrap this up in a few hours. And really this is what it comes down, the G-8 and the G-20 were back-to-back meetings. They went into the G-8, the U.S. went in saying "look, we are not done with this financial crisis around the world as we've seen in Europe. It's not time to pull back on the stimulus. It's not time not time to worry about deficits just yet. It's certainly not time to be worrying about raising taxes."

But over in Europe, Fredricka, they've got different concerns. Their deficits are higher as a percentage of their entire economies. And some of them like Great Britain and Germany are making the case that it is time. They've got to start worrying about their federal coffers. They got to start cutting back on spending and they've got to start raising taxes and that's where the disagreements have come in.

As a result of that, there's been a compromise and the agreement brokered by Canada, is very much like what the U.S. wanted. And here's what it says, by 2013, the member countries have got to cut their deficits, that's their shortfall between what they take in and what they pay out by half. And by 2016, they should be taking their debts down.

This is not binding, Fredricka. These are countries that are coming together and coordinating. Meanwhile, that's what's going on inside. Outside protesters are still saying this wasn't worth it, $1 billion in security and what does it actually mean for people on the ground. That's the story here in Toronto on the G-20. Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ali Velshi, thanks so much.

All right. Let's find out if those protesters feel like they are being heard. Our Jeanne Meserve is on the streets there in downtown Toronto. Where the protesters have certainly made themselves very present in a very obvious way, what kind of impact are they making at all?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I tell you today it's the police who has been having an impact. We're told there have been 224 arrests since 6:00 a.m. this morning. That means there have been 562 arrests since June 18th. That's when the protest movement first got under way.

Some of the arrests were made here at the University of Toronto. Police told us they found here a cache of street weapons, things like bricks and sticks that had been horded. Some of them taking place over at Ryerson University. We saw many cases this morning of groups of police stopping young people on the street going through their knapsacks. Sometimes they were let go. Sometimes they were detained.

A lot of them were taken on a processing center here in town that has been set up specifically for this g-20 meeting. And there were protests there today. People upset at the police tactics, feeling they had overstepped their bounds, going there to express their point of view and the police were there to meet them. And there were some muzzle discharges of tear gas, tear gas directed at individuals rather than the large group.

I can tell you that civil rights activists and also protest leaders are upset about the conditions under which people are being held. They're saying they're not being given access to lawyers. That in some cases they're not getting water. That in other cases they are being held too many people to a cell. We are efforting police reaction to those charges at this point in time. Don't have one for you yet.

The police, of course, believe that they do have the powers to detain these people because they're trying to keep the city safe after all the activity yesterday that resulted in broken windows, graffiti, burned-out cop cars. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much.

OK. All of this because the meetings involving G-20 and President Obama, he actually plans to hold a news conference to talk about what is or is not being accomplished from these meetings. That's scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Eastern time, 3:00 p.m. on the West Coast. CNN, of course, will bring that to you live. All right. Meantime we're still tracking the remnants of what was tropical storm Alex. The storm has been downgraded do a tropical depression, as it crosses the Yucatan Peninsula. Forecasters say it should steer clear of the gulf oil spill.

BP says the storm has not forced any evacuations at the spill site. Although BP and Shell are evacuating nonessential personnel from oil platforms in the southern gulf.

Let's check in with Jacqui Jeras in the weather center. What is this thing doing now? Since it doesn't have a name, I'll call it a thing.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's a tropical depression. You can still call it Alex.

WHITFIELD: We can call it Alex.

JERAS: Yes. (INAUDIBLE)

WHITFIELD: OK. Alex. What's Alex doing?

JERAS: It's weakened quite a bit, Fredricka. So it is a tropical depression, which means the winds are much calmer. Maximum sustained 35 miles per hour and so that's kind of the minimum criteria there with that organization. It's weakened a lot because it's been moving over land. But take a look at the center of circulation, this thing is going to be moving back over open water later on, even this evening possibly.

And that means it's going to move over that heat source, which is the ocean temperatures. The warm water there. And it's likely going to intensify once again as we do that. So here you can see the forecast track now on Alex. It's very likely to become that tropical storm again. And intensify as it gets closer toward the coast.

Now where is it going to go is the big question. It's going to slow down and forward speed. So the track could be changing pretty significantly over the next couple of days. The longer it stays over water, the more intense it will likely get as the winds here are very, very calm. So we could be talking about hurricane Alex before all is said and done.

At this point, we think earliest landfall could be on Thursday. The farther north of the track. The later that landfall would be. And some of the models now are taking a little bit more of a northerly turn. Let me show you the latest forecast models. I don't want you to get freaked out about this just yet. But we're starting to see a little bit more of trending towards maybe the border here of Mexico and Texas or possibly a little further on up to the north.

So we don't want to rule out a U.S. landfall just yet. And as this thing gets back out over the open water, once it stops interacting with land and we start get a better, stronger circulation, we'll have a much better idea where that goes. Because sometimes storms when they get back over water they'll reform their center of circulation.

So if it happens farther north. We'll see more of this trending. Happens farther south, we'll be watching more Mexico. Right now, our best estimate that it stays away from the oil spill but something to thing about is if heads up here towards Texas, Fredricka, that's going to bring in those strong east to southeasterly winds and it could start pushing some of this oil a little bit further and off to the west.

WHITFIELD: OK. We'll let you watch and you tell us.

JERAS: I don't know what to look out for.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui.

In the meantime, Chris Lawrence, well, he too, is in the gulf where the storm has been a worry. Chris, the on again, off again, deepwater drilling moratorium has also been a great worry for a lot of people there, particularly as they look at their jobs. What's the latest with that?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the latest that we have found out now is there may be some relief in sight for a lot of those workers. Remember, first the oil spill took out the fishermen, you know, the restaurant owners, their supply was knocked off. So BP set up that $20 billion fund to pay those kind of damages.

President Obama imposed a six-month moratorium on drilling. While BP set up $100 million just to pay the oil rig workers on those rigs. People who are left out were perhaps possibly the biggest group of all, the truckers, the loaders, the caterers, the cleaners, all the support jobs that go into getting those rigs running and they have been greatly impacted. Listen to one man who told me about how this moratorium has affected his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY THIBODEAX, LOADS TRUCKS: I know I'm just waiting for the axe to fall. Because it's got to. That company cannot survive holding on to guys like me. They can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Well, we talked to Kenneth Feinberg, the man that President Obama appointed to run and take charge of that $20 billion. We told him, what about these guys? And he said now the Obama administration and BP have come to an agreement and he will be in charge of that $20 billion and it will also include all those people affected by the moratorium. BP was somewhat hesitant to cover them at first since the government was the one who imposed the moratorium.

But now the big difference is you don't just have to be a fisherman who can't fish. You could be the guy who loads the trucks that run the supplies out to the rigs, now you, too, can be covered under that $20 billion and file a claim. WHITFIELD: All right. Maybe that's offering some comfort to some people who have been really worried about the next day, what comes next.

Chris Lawrence, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

All right. Some political news, and health news, Senator Robert Byrd is seriously ill and he's in a Washington-area hospital. The 92- year-old West Virginia Democrat was admitted to the hospital last week after he was thought to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration.

Well, a statement today from Byrd's office said after he was examined by doctors, other conditions developed. Byrd is the longest- serving member of Congress in history.

Preparing for a Capitol Hill showdown now. U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan starts confirmation hearings tomorrow. Coming up, we'll take a look at some of the key issues on the table.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, will be on the hot seat starting tomorrow for the first day of her confirmation hearing. Republican judiciary committee member John Cornyn talked about some of the issues with our Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, HOST "STATE OF THE UNION": You don't think at this point, you don't see any signs of a Republican filibuster?

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I would say it's premature. We know she has expressed hostility to second-amendment rights, saying she wasn't sympathetic to the arguments of gun owners when she clerked for chief justice or justice Thurgood Marshall. We know that on a number of areas, the hot-button issues of the day she's been very much involved in refusing to allow military recruiters to come to Harvard, notwithstanding the fact that they receive federal dollars and it violated the Congressionally-passed Solomon Amendment.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: Could the president have nominated anybody that you would have liked, you think?

CORNYN: Absolutely.

CROWLEY: Knowing his, you know, the sorts of people that he was looking at?

CORNYN: Well, this says something about the president as well as the nominee. And clearly this president is trying to get somebody through who has a very sparse record and who he believes will be a reliable vote on the left wing of the United States Supreme Court. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: CNN congressional correspondent, Kate Bolduan, has more on some of the tougher questions facing Kagan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENA KAGAN, U.S. SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: I look forward to working with the Senate and in the next stage of this process.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elena Kagan has been quietly working with White House lawyers to prepare for her big moment in the political spotlight. Every aspect of her academic career and government service scrutinized for clues about the kind of justice she would become. The president who nominated her last month thinks he knows.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That understanding of law, not as intellectual exercise or words on a page, but as it affects the lives of ordinary people, has animated every step of Elena's career.

BOLDUAN: Republican senators, for their part, promised a fair but tough examination of her record in two Democratic administrations past and present. Possible areas of concern? Her resistance to allowing military recruiters on campus when she was dean of Harvard's Law School.

This, because of the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, on gays in the military. Kagan called the policy, a "profound wrong." Also, her often-politically-focused views as a top aide in the Clinton White House, on a range of hot-button issues like abortion, gun rights and executive power. Then there's Kagan's lack of judicial experience, which worries both liberals and conservatives.

CARRIE SEVERINO, JUDICIAL CORPS NETWORK: The only thing she's ever done is politics and so the concern is she'll just continue that on the bench and continue to be a rubber stamp of the agenda of the administration she works for now.

BOLDUAN: The White House publicly insists Kagan will be a fair and impartial judge and has quietly assured liberals she will be a reliable vote on the left. Bipartisan praise as well for her consensus-building skills with those of differing viewpoints, an asset some analysts think will benefit her on a divided high court.

THOMAS GOLDSTEIN, FOUNDER, SCOTUSBLOG.COM: President Obama couldn't really hope to appoint somebody who is really going to change the views of the conservatives on the Supreme Court. They have very strongly-held opinions on lots of important legal questions. What he could hope for and what he may well have gotten is a nominee who has the skill set to find accommodations between the left and the right. To find the common ground for them. And in that way, maybe pull the court a little bit to the left.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right. Kate Bolduan reporting. Now a bare bones battle in Times Square, the naked cowboy trying to lasso the naked cowgirl. Why? We'll tell you in the chat room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Our look at the top stories right now.

Former vice president, Dick Cheney, should be getting out of the hospital tomorrow. He is suffering from an irregular heartbeat related to fluid around his heart. Cheney has a history of heart problems. He had a mild heart attack just this past February.

And this just in to CNN -- U.S. Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg's husband died today at the couple's home in Washington. Martin David Ginsberg suffered from cancer. He was 78. Justice Ginsberg also has battled pancreatic and colon cancer.

And senators are promising some tough questions for U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan. Her confirmation hearing gets under way tomorrow. And in just a few minutes we'll take a closer look at some of the issues the senators will be focusing on.

All right. Meantime, let's take a little break from the news room and now enter the chat room. This is when Jacqui Jeras and I get the chance to talk about all of the things that should be on radar and are not because there are so many other things going on.

So let's talk about one interesting item. Spirit Airlines kind of taking a little stab at BP directly and kind of indirectly, right?

JERAS: Yes. This one has a lot of people talking. I don't know if you've seen the ads, you almost have to Google it now because they've taken off of their web site. But there's a bunch of pictures of women in bikinis basically with oil, suntan oil all over them and then a little green and yellow bottle, you know, that says - BP, as in best protection.

WHITFIELD: Right. 50 SPF.

JERAS: You know, there have been a lot of comments about this. Some people a little upset. They say it's way too soon to start making jokes about the oil. But apparently Spirit Airlines says what they're saying is their beaches are oil-free, and trying to get people to go to those promotions.

WHITFIELD: This is part of the promotion to say $50 discount on travel to coastal destinations. So there in lies kind of double (INAUDIBLE) there.

JERAS: interesting what you think. About that.

WHITFIELD: Right.

JERAS: But they're no stranger to controversy, either. By the way. If you've ever seen any of Spirit Airlines other ads there. They're kind of pushing the boundary.

WHITFIELD: They do. Well, let's talk about bikinis in another way. We're talking about the naked cowgirl now in New York. You probably are very familiar with the naked cowboy, who spends a lot of time in Times Square, wearing a little something. And his guitar in hand.

(CROSSTALK)

JERAS: With his guitar in hand.

WHITFIELD: Well, he's got a little competition now. Someone else who's wearing cowboy boots and a bikini, a woman by the name of Sandy Cane (ph).

JERAS: She calls herself the naked cowgirl.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

JERAS: The naked cowboy feels that it's trademark infringement. He's actually going to trademark.

WHITFIELD: Saying it's my thing, my block.

JERAS: Now she's make money off of her shtick here and the naked cowboy says he wants to get in on that action.

WHITFIELD: And in fact, this is exactly what he told HLN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT BURCK, THE NAKED COWBOY: Naked Cowboy Oyster and at this point, you know, two years ago when or several years ago when these people showed up on the scene, it was just me. Now we have a multitude of products that are represented by Naked Cowboy. So when you have this going on. It's not fair to even them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Huh. So he's looking out for them as much as he's looking out for himself.

JERAS: So he says, right? And they can each have their own little corner. I was just in Times Square, by the way two weeks ago. I didn't see either of them. Where were you guys?

WHITFIELD: Were you looking?

JERAS: I was looking. I sent this to my mother, I said, you could see the naked cowboy.

WHITFIELD: He's become as much of a fixture of Times Square as the TKTS booths, right?

JERAS: Oh, yes. Absolutely. WHITFIELD: Funny. All right. Let's talk about another fixture, I mean something that's part of just about everybody's childhood except for mine, I didn't do Walt Disney when I was little. But anyway, there's a dress code, it's pretty harsh as it pertains to girls in particular who have to wear pantyhose in the summer.

(CROSSTALK)

JERAS: They're very strict with dress codes there.

WHITFIELD: When it comes down to skirts but now they're changing that, they're lifting that, right?

JERAS: They're saying you don't have to wear the pantyhose any more. Well, I think it's really important too because we were just talking about this. It was like probably three weeks ago, heat advisories in Orlando. The heat index was like 103 degrees. Can you imagine?

WHITFIELD: No.

JERAS: It's like 90 in Atlanta an here and I'm wearing no pantyhose.

(CROSSTALK)

JERAS: they're not comfortable, it makes you hot.

WHITFIELD: I know.

JERAS: Good for you, Disney.

WHITFIELD: I'm sure the ladies and - guys and gals alike are very happy now. But - they've given them a break at Disney.

JERAS: A more comfortable, I'm sure.

WHITFIELD: I know. All right. Very good. Thanks, Jacqui. Thanks for being in the chat room. It's always fun to talk about other things out there.

JERAS: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: All right. Much later. We're going to talk more about Alex as well.

JERAS: OK. Well many gay rights parades are taking place today, if you didn't know. We'll tell you why a Catholic group in New York is marching behind an empty banner now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Gulf Coast residents are keeping an eye on the remnants of what was tropical storm Alex. Depending on its path, the system could affect oil spill recovery efforts and that worry comes as a former New Orleans mayor gets an up-close look at disaster with our T.J. Holmes.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Fredricka, can you imagine a New Orleans native doesn't live here any more but has to watch on TV, watch their city go through what it's been going through with this oil disaster? Well, one of those folks happens to also be a former mayor who came back this weekend, to take a look at the devastation. And invited here because they say he needs to help give a voice to some communities that aren't being heard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice-over): Former New Orleans Mayor, Marc Morial, said he had to see it for himself. He got his own up-close and personal tour of the waters off the coast of Louisiana this weekend. He called it a fact-finding mission.

MARC MORIAL, NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: Sometimes I think as this, this tragedy is unfolded here in southeastern Louisiana, not enough emphasis has been placed on why this region is important to the nation.

HOLMES: Morial was invited by local oystermen and Plaquemines parish president Billy Nungesser.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?

MORIAL: How are you doing, buddy?

HOLMES: They want him here to, as they put it, elevate the awareness of some of their concerns.

MORIAL: Mr. Nungesser, we heard some concerns about fellow black and Vietnamese fishermen that they have not been listened to and that they did not have the opportunities to participate in the clean-up activity.

HOLMES: Morial calls the gulf a multiethnic melting pot and he's here to remind people of what's at stake.

MORIAL: I want people across the nation to know how important this region is to the nation. It's 25 percent of our domestic production of oil and gas. It's 40 percent of the seafood we eat comes from the gulf and comes from Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Mississippi, this entire region.

And people who are sitting at home watching, who may be on the West Coast, the East Coast or the North Coast or somewhere in the Midlands of America need to understand that this affects them.

HOLMES (on camera): You're a New Orleans guy. Former mayor, since you were mayor, we've seen Katrina, now we've seen the oil disaster. What is it like is it like for you as a guy -

MORIAL: You know -

HOLMES: -- a New Orleans guy to see your city going through this? MORIAL: It's like - it's like successive kicks in the gut to see your city, your region go through this. But when I come down, what - what regenerates me is this incredible passion and spirit that the people of this region have. They're going to fight back. They're not going to give up and all they need is some help.

HOLMES: How much more can a city take?

MORIAL: You know what, this city has got great spirit, it's got incredible resilience. It's people have been knocked down before. The people of this region are going to get back up, they're not going to be stopped.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Fredricka, Morial said he was happy to report that in fact they have seen some movements - some improvements in that issue he was here to lend voice to. Many minorities are feeling like they were left out of some of the recovery efforts. He said they have been successful in getting them more involved. But still a lot more work needs to be done here in New Orleans - Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, T.J. Holmes there in New Orleans.

A battle of the titans at the World Cup, one team moving on, the other going home. We'll take you live to South Africa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. The world's most well-known movers and shakers are gathering in Cape Town, South Africa, attending the Fortune, Times, CNN Global Forum. Included on the guest list, Fortune 500 CEOs and Time Magazine's 100 of the world's most influential people. CNN's own Wolf Blitzer moderated a conference with Former President Clinton, and Mr. Clinton weighed in on a key economic issue facing the U.S. right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: In this last decade especially, so much of the world's cash has been concentrated in the export surplus countries like China, so that America now has to borrow from other countries one-half of all of its deficit financing. It's the reason I opposed President Bush's tax cuts.

I never had any money until I got out of the White House, you know, but I've done reasonably well since then. And I thought it was outrageous for us to be fighting two wars and giving me five tax cuts. I thought it was the dumbest thing I ever heard and borrowing money from China to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Catch more of Mr. Clinton's comments and additional highlights of this one-of-a-kind forum tomorrow on CNN's "Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer.

All right. Time for now for some football. The U.S. team may be out of the World Cup, but there are still plenty of reasons to pay attention. Take today's game for example. Germany versus England, a battle of football titans.

British soldiers in Afghanistan actually got the day off to watch their team try to get to the quarterfinals. And CNN's Pedro Pinto joins us now from Johannesburg, South Africa. So, Pedro, are the British troops in a good mood or not such a good mood right now?

PEDRO PINTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a tough day here for the English fans, no doubt about it. And I'm here at Soccer City where the Argentina-Mexico match just ended. That's why you see a train behind me. The fans are heading home. I'll talk about that game in just a minute.

I will first analyze the England defeat against Germany. A lot of people are talking about this game, Fredricka, not only because of the final score, which was a huge win by Germany, their biggest-ever win against England, ever.

However, there was a controversial moment and I believe we can roll the highlights. I can take you through the first couple of German goals, which were completely legal and Germany did come out on fire. They scored two very early goals through Miroslav Klose and Lucas Podolski, both of their strikers.

England was down, they weren't out, though. They got a goal back through Matthew Upson, one of the players that came into the lineup for England after an injury to Ledley King and suspension for Jamie Carragher in this tournament.

However, the moment that a lot of England fans will be talking about for the rest of the year maybe is this right here. Frank Lampard had a shot, comes off the underside of the cross bar, goes in, a good yard in perhaps. The referee doesn't see it. The assistant referee doesn't see it, so they don't count the goal. We'll get into that in just a moment. But it was hugely controversial.

Germany, meanwhile, weren't too bothered about that. They went forward, scored a couple of more goals. So I guess in the end it wasn't that crucial. But the fact that that goal was not put up on the board by the referee, changed the flow of the game.

And, Fredricka, for a lot of American fans, I think it doesn't make sense how this could happen, because in a lot of sports over there, you do have instant replay, and there's been a lot of debate here in South Africa and in Europe all the time as well about why football doesn't have instant replay. The governing body, FIFA, doesn't want it. But this isn't an episode that they will want to see too many times because the debate is going to start all over again, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, there are a lot of referee problems in this World Cup. A lot of games have been particularly memorable because of calls or lack thereof.

PINTO: Yes. And the United States were on the receiving end of a couple of bad calls, both against Slovenia and also against Algeria. A couple of legal goals that were disallowed because there was a wrong interpretation by the refereeing trio of those particular plays.

So what we need in football is one of two things. Either people are going to accept that there are going to be human errors and everyone is going to be happy about that, which I don't think that's ever going to happen. Or they're going to bring in some kind of instant replay or goal line technology so you can at least see with some sensors if the ball goes in or out.

I'll tell you something else. In the Mexico game that just ended a few minutes ago here, Argentina, who beat Mexico three-one, their first goal was illegal. It was offside. And the curious thing is they showed replay on the giant screens here. Everyone could see it was illegal, but the referee didn't see it. The goal counted. Argentina ended up winning three-one.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. Same kind of conversations that take place that pertains to certain calls in American baseball too. So we're going to -

PINTO: Yes.

WHITFIELD: -- see where this goals as well.

PINTO: You're right.

WHITFIELD: Pedro Pinto. All right. Thanks so much. Appreciate that.

All right. Let's take a look at our top stories right now.

Another day of tense protest in Toronto for the G-20 Summit. Mobs scuffled with police in multiple locations. Two hundred twenty- four people have been arrested since 6:00 this morning. That comes on top of some 300 arrests that took place yesterday.

And the head of the C.I.A. is talking about the challenges in Afghanistan. Leon Panetta tells ABC that up to 100 al Qaeda terrorists could still be there. He also says the war in Afghanistan has serious problems, but the U.S.-led mission is making some progress.

And overseas, the family of a captive Israeli soldier begins a 12-day march today pleading for his release. The parents of Gilad Shalit were joined by some 2,000 supporters on their journey to Jerusalem. Palestinian militants was captured Shalit four years ago this month. His family plans to camp outside the Israeli prime minister's office until he is freed.

And many gay rights parades are taking place today. We'll tell you why a catholic group in New York is marching behind an empty banner today. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Gay Pride parades are taking place in many cities around - around the U.S. today. In New York, a catholic church that has been marching in the parade for years now is doing things a little differently, and not by choice this year.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has the story from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stephanie Samoy is an enthusiastic parishioner of St. Francis Xavier Church.

STEPHANIE SAMOY, PARISHIONER, ST. FRANCIS XAVIER CATHOLIC CHURCH: It's the gospel in action. It's - that's what it is, we're living the gospel. People are living the truth of Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life.

CANDIOTTI: Founded in the late 1800's, St. Francis Parish was an early leader in fighting for black civil rights and nowadays welcoming gay Catholics.

REV. JOE CONSTANTINO, PASTOR, ST. FRANCIS XAVIER CATHOLIC CHURCH: Perhaps some people come to St. Francis Xavier because they don't feel judged.

CANDIOTTI: Stephanie Samoy gets the message.

SAMOY: I can be fully who I am there in relationship with my partner.

CANDIOTTI: Which is why for more than a decade, St. Francis parishioners have marched proudly with a church banner at New York's Colorful Gay Pride event.

SAMOY: It's important to reach out to all the people on the sidelines, watching and those in the - in the march, that there is a Roman Catholic Church that welcomes you.

CANDIOTTI: But this year, that welcome mat is at least partially rolled up. After a year on the job, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan said no more church banner.

Is it difficult for you to tell them that, because people like carrying the name of the parish?

CONSTANTINO: You're absolutely -- and I knew this would hurt them deeply.

SAMOY: What did I think? Well the hell, no.

CANDIOTTI: The archdiocese declined to explain, telling CNN it had no comment.

SAMOY: Your name is important. I'm called by my name. The church of St. Francis Xavier, when people - when we hand out those brochures to say you're welcome, they need to know who we are.

CANDIOTTI: Father Constantino says he thinks the archbishop is concerned about some marchers who promote -

CONSTANTINO: Promiscuity and that's the word I was - a lot of people are not supporting that at all.

CANDIOTTI: So parishioners decided to march with a banner, anyway, a blank banner.

SAMOY: For me, the blank banner stands for we've been silenced, you know, we're silenced. Because here, we're silenced.

CANDIOTTI: Instead, marchers are wearing t-shirts bearing the church's name. On the internet, one blogger said parishioners were, quote, "defying the archbishop". And other said the lifestyle championed by gay pride parades is not a Christian lifestyle.

PROFESSOR MICHELE DILLON, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: It is obviously an issue but church authorities -

CANDIOTTI: Sociologist Michele Dillon says the Vatican sends mixed messages, welcoming gay Catholics while calling homosexuality a, quote, "disordered condition".

DILLON: On the one hand, the bishops are asserting their authority. But even when they do assert their authorities, it's not clear that they're going to win. Sot it's a really a no-win situation all round.

CANDIOTTI: For Stephanie Samoy and her fellow parishioners who love their pastor and their church, they hope next year their banner wouldn't be banned.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was Susan Candiotti reporting out of New York.

All right. Meantime, advice from a master of reinvention, this guy right here. A marketing expert who shed 250 pounds shares his secrets to success.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Reinventing your personal brand, marketing guru Peter Arnell has been the creative force behind companies like Pepsi, Samsung and even Reebok. Well he used his unique skills to lose more than 250 pounds and he is sharing his techniques in a new book called "Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career and Your Personal Brand".

And in 2001, Peter weighed 407 pounds. Take a look at the picture. This is him then and this is Peter Arnell now. Thanks so much for joining us. Good to see you.

PETER ARNELL, AUTHOR, "SHIFT": Good to see you, Fredricka. How are you?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing good. You're giving away all your secrets of reinventing yourself, your business, all of that in this book "Shift." Was this a tough thing to do? A tough decision to make?

ARNELL: No, actually after living my whole life big, most of my adult life big, it seemed like it would be an enjoyable adventure to finally try something new. And it was complicated at first just to figure out how to do it in a healthy fashion. But once I got organized with my doctors and figured out what the diet is, it worked really well. It was 30 months and I went from 407 to 152 pounds.

WHITFIELD: Wow. In 30 months, so just - just barely over two years. I'm sure people were asking you all the time like how did you do it. And you said, you know what, I'm just going to write a book about it.

So for one, one of your principles said you've got to be a tiger when it comes down to reinventing yourself and even your business, what do you mean by that?

ARNELL: Well, you know, I - my - I remember the story, Chris Rock, one of his jokes about the tiger that went on the stage that day and did that horrible thing when he went - when he went loose. But that day, he decided, you know, he was going to get on the stage and be a tiger instead of the day before when he was, you know, on a little tricycle with a clown's hat. Everyone was applauding, but the day that he decided to be a tiger, himself, true to himself, you know, people had a reaction to that.

And I think that it's so important to be true to yourself and believe in yourself, and I think a core asset we have is our health. And I think our health gives us a lot of happiness and a lot of great feedback from a lot of people.

So I think it's a great thing to stare in the mirror and see who you are and be accountable for that and, really, you know, stay focused on probably one of the greatest things we've been given, which is an ability for us to have a long life and really enjoy our life, by being healthy.

WHITFIELD: Oh. And then you say go helium, you know, rise up and float freely, riding above your problems and concerns because so often we're all weighted down with, you know, just stuff, problems. But you say, go helium.

ARNELL: Well, I just think that there's an opportunity always to not only challenge yourself, but to actually go higher, go faster. And we see it every day when we watch athletes, we see it every day when we watch, you know, brilliant people accomplish incredible inventions. We see it with Steve Jobs when he continues to introduce amazing products.

People just constantly challenges themselves and they want to go higher and they want to be better, and I think the moment you turn that back on yourself, it works. I mean, it's really simple.

WHITFIELD: Oh. And then you say, you know, create a fan club. What do you mean by that? I mean, especially if, you know, you're not a big name like you, you know, how do you get people to take notice, to - to say, yes, rah, rah, we really want to see you succeed?

ARNELL: Well, I'll tell you something, the best thing in the world is for people to compliment you, to say nice things, to be positive. And with electronic media today, you can speak to thousands of people within minutes.

So what I did was I started every day putting pressure on myself by letting everybody know how I was doing on the scale and how I was doing with my diet. And I didn't realize at a certain point I had thousands --

WHITFIELD: Oh, like people can do with blogging and all that today? Like that?

ARNELL: Yes, yes. Yes, yes, and Tweeter and everything else. And all my friends and all of a sudden everyone was coming back with words like proud and happy and congratulations and on and on and on.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's nice.

Shock and awe - what do you mean? Be a showman?

ARNELL: Well, it was really funny, a friend of mine said don't change your clothes until you lose all the weight. So I kept on tailoring my clothes slowly, slowly. I - it was funny because I ended up with a uni-pocket in the back of my pants.

But the - the fact is the day that I took it off, it was such a shock to everybody, it was - it was quite amazing. And - and people really saw the difference of the weight.

So I - I held on to my clothes for over 200 pounds.

WHITFIELD: Wow. That's extraordinary.

And so, every now and then, do you kind of - do look at those articles and say, man, I can't believe, you know, I'm a whole new person, or I can't believe my own journey?

ARNELL: Yes. You know, I keep my - my suit in my closet in my office when I was that big. And I do take it out quite a lot. And, you know, I - I tell people I'm still on the diet -

WHITFIELD: And why do you take it out quite a lot? How come? Why do you take it out quite a lot? How come? ARNELL: Well I think it's just really good to reflect on the - the situation that was in order to make sure you maintain carefully, you know, your steady track of what's that important to keep your priorities straight.

WHITFIELD: Kind of keeping you grounded, huh?

ARNELL: Yes, yes.

WHITFIELD: I like it.

Peter Arnell, thanks so much. The book is "Shift". Thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it. You're a true inspiration in so many ways.

ARNELL: Thank you, Fredricka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: OK, well they are some of the most fragile victims of the oil disaster in the gulf, and compassion for them is helping others as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So we've all seen the heartbreaking pictures of animals affected by the disaster in the gulf. One silver lining -- it's raising people's awareness of those who care for injured animals, regardless of where they're located.

We explain in today's "Building Up America".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As we've traveled the Gulf Coast all week long, we've run into lots of people who are terribly frustrated that they can't do anything to help all of the wildlife that's certainly being hurt by this catastrophic spill. But, in some places, they have redirected their efforts to helping wildlife, in general with great results.

FOREMAN (voice-over): For every living creature at the Florida Wild Mammal Association, the oil catastrophe has changed the world. And the woman in charge, Chris Beatty, says, oddly, it's for the better.

CHRIS BEATTY, FLORIDA WILD MAMMAL ASSOCIATION: We've received over 1,000 e-mails in the last four weeks and the phone just rings off the hook with all sorts of questions from volunteers.

FOREMAN (on camera): Because they want to help the wildlife of the state?

BEATTY: Yes, they do. And this is their - their home, their community, their environment. FOREMAN (voice-over): The center takes in 1,000 animals a year, mostly injured or orphaned, most to be treated and released. Seagulls, possums, raccoons.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here we go. Oh, good girl. It's baby season, if you couldn't tell.

FOREMAN: Dozens of deer, like this fawn, whose mother was hit by a car, and flocks of little birds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And every 15 minutes we feed them through a syringe.

FOREMAN (on camera): Every 15 minutes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every 15 minutes. Unless they're really little, and then, like, every 10 minutes.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But lately they've also been taking in lots of donations, from people intent on building this place up in case the oil keeps coming.

One recent Saturday, the center was given almost $19,000 in cash, supplies and free labor from 80 volunteers, including Clutch Simms (ph).

CLUTCH SIMMS (ph), VOLUNTEER: We can't depend a whole lot on our government, so we got to do it ourselves, take care of our own business.

FOREMAN: So they are rebuilding pelican pens, hawk and owl enclosures, fox habitats. They don't know if they'll get any oiled animals, but -

BEATTY: We feel it's better to be prepared than to wait till it actually happens.

FOREMAN: Close by, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing, too, surveying the eastern Gulf Coast ahead of the advancing oil.

JAMES BURNETT, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE: Actually, we're trying to get some real specific information on wildlife. We're comparing the situation now with what might occur.

FOREMAN (on camera): So at least you'll know what you're up against if that happens?

BURNETT: That's right. That's right.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Fishing, hunting, ecotourism.

(on camera): Wildlife of Florida really is an important part of what makes the state attractive to people.

CHRIS BEATTY, FLORIDA WILD MAMMAL ASSN.: I think it's beyond that. The whole panhandle is a rural area and that's what our livelihoods depend on. Without wildlife, we'd be very damaged.

FOREMAN (voice-over): As it is, the tragedy is bringing attention that could help Florida's wildlife for many years.

(on camera): Some of the support for this program came through a program called Volunteer Florida. It's an initiative by the governor's office here which is aimed at just this: getting people out to do what they can to improve their communities at all times and especially when faced with catastrophic problems like this one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)