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High School Graduate to Talk to Obama; Wildfire Rages On in Arizona; Mortgage Help Available for Some Families Affected By Gulf Disaster; 66-Year-Old New Mother in India a Maternal Feat; Police vs. Emergency

Aired June 22, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, taking a look at some of the day's top stories. Take a look at these pictures. This is flooding in northeastern Brazil. Latest number we have 32 people confirmed dead. The death toll is expected to rise, we're told. Amazing. Look at the people getting washed away. We're hearing 1,000 people simply missing.

Here's a case of voters taking it upon themselves to deal with illegal immigration. Fremont, Nebraska, it is near Omaha, take a look at the map with me. Late, late last night the people there voted to ban businesses from hiring or landlords renting to illegal immigrants.

Not quite half of the registered voters turned out for that referendum but the measure did indeed pass with 3,906 votes in favor, 2,908 votes against. Opponents, by the way, say this new law will definitely mean discrimination in Fremont, high court costs and will open up the town to those lawsuits.

And also one of the most visible members of President Obama's economic team calling it quits. Here he is. Peter Orszag, the White House budget director will be stepping down, we're hearing sometime in July. Orszag was key in shaping the economic stimulus and health care reform bill. Peter Orszag is the first official to leave the Obama cabinet. No word yet as to what he will be doing next.

Right now, let's get straight to those developments to tell you about since the bombshell article -- this eight page article that's coming out Friday in "Rolling Stone" magazine, profiling our top commander in Afghanistan. Now, overnight, General Stanley McChrystal did indeed issue an apology for these controversial comments he made in "Rolling Stone" magazine.

That's a picture of the cover of the article, it's called "The Run-away General," and just a short time ago, the White House ordered the general to appear at the White House. And that is not all, but first, I want to start with the fallout at the Pentagon.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining me live. And Barbara, I thought you put it so well last hour when you were explaining the atmosphere at the Pentagon and people just kind of walking around saying, "what the heck." BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: What the heck indeed, that's the polite way of describing what the sentiment is about all of this this morning. General McChrystal were called to Washington by the president. He will appear at the White House tomorrow morning.

We believe he is on his way back now from Afghanistan to explain himself both to the president and other senior members of the administration who in this article were spoken about in a disparaging fashion. You know, there's a very interesting twist here.

In the article, it's essentially General McChrystal's senior staff that makes the comments about the president. General McChrystal taking responsibility. However, let's read a -- show you a couple of bits of what was said in the article.

First, a direct quote, "the general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, and McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated by the roomful of military brass," a senior aide saying that. The article goes on quote "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was," McChrystal.

"Here's the guy who's going to run his war," expletive deleted, "but he didn't seem engaged." "The boss, again, McChrystal was pretty disappointed." Those are senior aides to General McChrystal speaking about the president of the United States.

(INAUDIBLE) General McChrystal, of course, now issued this very abject apology which say "I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened. Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard."

What's on the table here, Brooke? There are two cases being made already as people lay out their positions. First, that General McChrystal is so important to the war in Afghanistan. He has to stay on the job. Nobody else can do it but him. That's one case that's being made.

There is another case out there that it is very serious, that General McChrystal taking responsibility for disparaging remarks about the commander in chief. That's a red line in the military. It's simply not done. Uniformed members of the United States military do not speak ill of the president of the United States. Brooke?

BALDWIN: What about, Barbara, we already heard a moment ago from Senator John Kerry reacting to these comments. What else are you hearing, reaction from Capitol Hill?

STARR: Well, you know, Senator Kerry making the case that people need to take a deep breath, that General McChrystal is absolutely essential to the war. Let's listen to that bite just one more time, that statement from Senator Kerry, Brooke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Those are comments that he's going to have to deal with with respect to the commander in chief, vice president and his national security staff.

I have enormous respect for General McChrystal. I think he's a terrific soldier and this is a critical moment in Afghanistan. As far as I am concerned personally, the top priority is our mission in Afghanistan and our ability to proceed forward competently.

It will be up to the president of the United States as commander in chief, to make the decision as to whether or not he and his national security staff feel that they can do that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: What is the real bottom line, then, Senator Kerry making the same case that we're already hearing here in the Pentagon that McChrystal is essential to the war. I have to tell you, I heard the most interesting comment so far this morning from an Army sergeant who I know quite well in the Pentagon here, who said to me, "look, the president needs to make a decision. He needs to make it fast. The troops are at stake here. That if there is any softness shown here to the Taliban, to the insurgent forces, it is U.S. troops that will suffer and the troops will be looking for a quick decision, whatever that decision may be." Brooke.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. Hey, Barbara, I'm going to be talking with the executive director of "Rolling Stone" here in about two seconds. I'm going to keep your microphone open, because look, you're sitting in the Pentagon, you're there, the front lines of this fallout. I want you to jump in. If you have any questions, I want to you jump in. You will do me that favor? And jump in if you can.

STARR: You bet.

BALDWIN: OK.

STARR: I'm not going anywhere.

BALDWIN: Great. OK. So let's move on, let's look through that interview. The "Rolling Stone" profile which is written by Michael Hastings, by the way, comes out this Friday. And here we go, let's talk to the magazine's executive editor, this is Eric Bates. Good enough to join me this morning from New York. Mr. Bates, good morning to you.

Wow. If anything, you will be getting a lot of people buying this magazine with all this talk this morning. But first, I want to begin with this writer, this writer of this eight-page article here, Michael Hastings. This is the first time he has written for your magazine. And I'm just curious. In looking at this article what kind of access did he had possibly to either General McChrystal's inner circle or is he simply quoting people secondhand?

ERIC BATES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "ROLLING STONE": No, no. This was a story done over the course of several months. We had unprecedented access really to the general and his top staff. You have to -- in reading the article, you realize that the general was in the room while a lot of these comments were being made.

These weren't off the cuff remarks by his staff that he didn't know about. In one case when they were talking about Joe Biden, the general himself said they were imagining responding to a press conference to questions about the vice president and he said, Vice president Biden, who is that? And one of his aides said, did you say Joe Biden, did you say bite me?

BALDWIN: Right.

BATES: The general was sitting right there.

BALDWIN: I read that line.

BATES: So in a way, we were really behind --

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

BATES: We were really behind the curtain and hearing how the general and his top staff talk among themselves in the midst of this war. They are a very close knit group. They have a lot of power over the direction of the war. They are in the war and this is how they talk behind the scenes I think when they are blowing off steam and when they are among themselves.

BALDWIN: Wow. I wasn't sure if he was actually in the room reading the article or hearing it secondhand. But that's fascinating.

Second question is, you mentioned this interview happened sort of over a course of a couple of months. When did it happen? Was it a month ago, a year ago? When was this?

BATES: Much of it was in April. One of the reasons we got so much access was Michael Hastings, our writer, was with the general and his staff for a speech in Paris, and they got stranded by the volcano in Iceland and couldn't fly to the next stop in Berlin and so they had to take a bus.

So our reporter was on the road with him for a number of days, went out drinking with them, saw them preparing for speeches, saw them going to meetings and then also went to Afghanistan, met with him in Afghanistan and traveled to the front in Kandahar and witnessed the general talking to troops who were also very disaffected with the course of the war and we're very critical of the general's strategy.

BALDWIN: It's clear that Michael Hastings had quite a rapport, and look as a reporter, I understand how invaluable it is to have important that it so get information, and I think transparency in the article in the report is evident in the first line where McChrystal is quoted "saying how did I get screwed into going to this dinner. How long had Michael Hastings known the general prior to this interview?

BATES: Michaels had been reporting both on the wars both in Iraq and Afghanistan for three or four years now. He was a correspondent in Baghdad for a number of years, so he's really very familiar with the leadership and with the issues on the ground as well.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you this, because we're reporting that McChrystal has fired his press aide because of this article in your magazine. Curious if that press aide of General McChrystal, if anyone in the administration has come to you ahead of time to pull the article.

BATES: No, not at all. They gave us a lot of access. We fact checked it thoroughly. We spent the last two weeks before the story went to press checking with them, checking all of our sources and making sure we had it right. So they knew what they were doing when they granted the access and the interview.

BALDWIN: Eric, I have Barbara Starr. Barbara, go ahead and jump in.

STARR: I'm sorry. Eric, I did want to jump in and ask you a question because as one of the regular Pentagon correspondents around here, we hear, this is off the record, that's off the background, this is on background. That's on background.

BATES: Sure.

STARR: Did you or Michael Hastings get any pushback from McChrystal's staff that some of this was supposed to be off the record, never to be reported, or was this really openly very much done in front of Michael Hastings? I'm thinking in particular of the evening where he draws such a picture of drinking at a bar in Paris and sort of, shall we say, a lot of drinking at a bar in Paris, of course, one's mind goes back to the troops in the field which don't have a night out in Paris.

BALDWIN: That's a great question. Eric.

BATES: No. All of this and everything we published was on the record. We were very clear about the boundaries, not retribution, or off the record. We got a lot of stuff off the record that we didn't use. And we respected all of those boundaries. So whenever we printed something or printed someone's name with it, because it was on the record.

BALDWIN: And I think it's interesting to note that look, to all of you all, it's not like the general is coming out and saying, no, I didn't say this, no, I didn't say that. He is coming out and simply apologizing. Eric, one more question. I want to talk about sort of the timing of this article as the casualties rise. Questions over the U.S. strategy there and the impact. What do you think your article -- what kind of impact will your article have?

BATES: Well, it's hard to say. But I mean, I can say that I think the important thing about these comments isn't just that he made them and the issues that raises about judgment but that these comments show a deep division, really a war within the administration over the war itself and over the strategy. That war has been going on since the beginning over the troop escalation and it continues very clearly between the military side and the diplomatic side, and it's very hard to see how we can win a war when we're divided ourselves.

BALDWIN: As if the war isn't already under the microscope, it is even more so now. Eric, thank you very much. Barbara Starr, thank you for jumping in. Thank you all. Again, that "Rolling Stone" article, here it is. The title is the "Runaway General." There's the front. That will be out in the "Rolling Stone" magazine, coming out Friday.

By the way, we will be hearing from this writer himself, Michael Hastings. He will be here on CNN NEWSROOM speaking about from Afghanistan on "Rick's List" today at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Yes, he will be joining us live from Kandahar. You won't want to miss that.

In other news here, Nikki Haley has faced allegations of adultery and ethnic smears in her campaign to be the next governor of South Carolina. But it seems so far those attacks have backfired. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here we go. Day 64 of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and here's the latest this Tuesday. There is a judge in New Orleans who may be ruling as early as today here on those efforts to lift President Obama's six-month ban on deepwater drilling there in the Gulf.

Now, oil industry opponents say, look, this is adding more hardship on top of an already difficult economic situation. So many people out of work. More of the Gulf is also being put off limits to fishing. About 90,000 square miles now officially closed, and we talked about this yesterday, that telethon on CNN's "Larry King Live" to help those Gulf coast residents. Get this, it raised $1.8 million last night. The money will go to three different charities we selected. That's the United Way, National Wildlife Federation and the Nature Conservancy. 1.8 million.

Well, Gulf coast jobs are most definitely in the balance as we wait on that New Orleans' judge's ruling regarding the moratorium. Now, the judge, we just said, could decide as soon as this afternoon whether to lift that six-month ban. CNN's Chris Lawrence has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All the anger that D.C. directed at BP is being deflected right back at Washington. Some businesses sued the Obama administration in a New Orleans federal court Monday asking a judge to issue an injunction and lift the six- month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

VELMA MOCK, OPPOSES DRILLING MORATORIUM: What are we going to do? You know, I mean, we've replaced our homes two, three times because of hurricanes. We're going to lose our homes again because of a moratorium that's not needed?

LAWRENCE: Velma Mock's company runs the boats that supplies the rigs. Other supporting companies like hers argue the government had no good basis to shut down rigs with no safety violations. Unlike supporting businesses, the rig workers are getting paid from a $100 million fund BP set up specifically for them.

MOCK: Their companies will try to place them with smaller rigs wherever -- overseas, wherever they can put them. We will quit working before they will.

REP. GENE GREEN (D), TEXAS: Time after time it's been shown that BP chooses expediency over safety.

LAWRENCE: Some in the Gulf are getting tired of politicians piling on BP and its CEO, Tony Hayward.

REP. BART STUPAK (D), MICHIGAN: You have 26 people dead, more than 170 injured, you had the largest spill ever in Alaska, you now have the largest environmental disaster to hit the United States.

SHANE GUIDRY, SUPPLIES OIL RIGS: They're just, I mean, badgering in some instances this guy. I mean, we need this guy.

LAWRENCE: Shane Guidry says the politicians' anger is designed to make voters so upset with BP they'll forget how mad they were at Washington.

GUIDRY: The American public needs to understand that this is going on, I mean, BP's being scalped in more ways than one. As mad as we are at them, we need them to survive.

LAWRENCE: Even a fishermen who's been haggling with BP over his damage claims says outsiders are trying to pit one industry against another.

(on camera): Are you mad at BP?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've co-existed with the oil companies down here my entire life, and they've created some of the greatest fishing habitat in the world. A lot of the environmentalists don't want to hear that but it's true. I mean, the rigs are like a food chain and housing and cover for the fish and it's created a great fishing area.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Chris Lawrence joining me live this morning now from New Orleans. And Chris, look, I know a lot of people are concerned about that, too. They're concerned about the fishing. They're concerned about jobs but I know some people have to be also worried that stripping this moratorium could lead to another accident.

LAWRENCE: Yes. That's what the government is arguing that you know, it's already been proven that none of these companies had a good containment plan by the fact that it's still going to be a couple of months before BP get those relief wells dug to totally cap this thing.

The government is saying, you know, yes, a lot of the rigs have passed their safety inspections, but so did the Deepwater Horizon before it exploded, which proves to them that the current regulations are too soft. Now, some of the workers we spoke to have said, "look, these rigs, these oil companies, not all of them are going to wait around, and the first ones to leave are going to be the most talented workers, the newest rigs."

So then eventually when you get the moratorium lifted and things come back on line, you're doing it with older rigs, with less experienced workers which they say will ultimately make things even less safe.

BALDWIN: Tough situation. I mean, you can understand what people are saying on both sides of the moratorium issue. Chris Lawrence, appreciate it.

LAWRENCE: Both sides have good points.

BALDWIN: Yes, they absolutely do. Absolutely. Chris, Thank you.

Let's go to South Carolina now. Nikki Haley facing allegations or she has at least, of adultery, and ethnic smears in her campaign to be South Carolina governor. But it seems so far those attacks have backfired.

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BALDWIN: Voters headed to the polls in four separate states today. The one primary is for Utah's GOP nominee, and that is for Senate and then there are three runoffs. Here they are. For the GOP nomination in Mississippi, second congressional district for a Democratic Senate nomination in North Carolina and a GOP nomination for a House seat in South Carolina, but, perhaps the biggest race on the political radar today is for the GOP nominee for governor in South Carolina.

There is a woman there, candidate, who has definitely faced both allegations of infidelity and ethnic smears. CNN's Jim Acosta joins me this morning from Columbia, South Carolina. And Jim, would it be possible talking about Nikki Haley, that some of these attacks backfired?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they have, Brooke. You know, this is really a story of political survival. Nikki Haley, the frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination to become the governor of South Carolina down here, she has withstood an enormous barrage of attacks on her personal character, you mentioned the allegations of infidelity. Those allegations she denied.

There have been ethnic smears. Haley is the descendant of two Indian parents, two Indian immigrant parents. She's Indian American. There have even been questions about her religion, but she's managed to survive all of that, and a lot of political experts down here in South Carolina believe those attacks backfired which is very surprising because this is a state that is well known for its very nasty political climate. And we caught up with Nikki Haley as she was campaigning across the state yesterday to talk to her about this and whether or not these attacks actually helped her campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA (on camera): There's a political narrative out there that some of these allegations against you actually helped your campaign. What do you think of that?

NIKKI HALEY (R), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE, SOUTH CAROLINA: I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. You know, what I can tell you is that while the negative campaigners tried to distract us, it only made me more focused and more confident and more determined to make sure we got out message out to the people of this state, and what it showed was that the people rose above it and said we're not going to allow the negative campaigning and they turned around and make decisions based on that.

ACOSTA: Do you think the public deserves to get answers when it comes to those types of issues when they come up especially in a state like South Carolina, considering what the current governor went through.

HALEY: Yes, I think public officials have to answer to the voters. What's sad is when public officials have to answer to negative false accusations. That's where all this went wrong. There was no proof. There was nothing to validate it and yet all of a sudden it became a story.

ACOSTA: And you say those allegations are false?

HALEY: That's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And the current governor we were just talking about there in that question-and-answer session with Nikki Haley, of course, is Mark Sanford, the current governor of South Carolina, who was nearly brought down by his own embarrassing sex scandal and one interesting note we should note the former first lady, Jenny Sanford, the ex-wife of Mark Sanford is very much supporting Nikki Haley in this race. State lawmaker Haley, she already voted earlier this morning. She is expected to win this runoff against her Republican challenger, a sitting congressman no less, named Gresham Barrett. Brooke.

BALDWIN: Could possibly go on to be the state's first female governor. Jim Acosta for us in Columbia. Jim, thanks.

ACOSTA: Could be.

BALDWIN: A Missouri teen says she just wanted to bring her date to her senior prom, but that date was another young woman and the fallout was huge. You probably remember the story. Now she is heading to the White House to meet the president, and you will meet her first, coming up, here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Schoolwork, prom, graduation. You know, it's the stuff most high school seniors think about, but 18-year-old Constance McMillan will be talking about it with, oh, the president of the United States. Why? Well, she sparked that national firestorm when she tried to take her girlfriend to prom, prompting her school to cancel the dance.

She's joining us live this morning from Washington. Constance, good morning to you. Listen, I appreciate you taking a little time to talk to me before you big night with the president. Good morning.

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN, TRIED TO TAKE GIRLFRIEND TO PROM: Good morning.

BALDWIN: Let me first ask you, when you look at everything that's happened since the story broke nationwide -- you are meeting with the president, going to be a Grand Martial of the New York gay pride parade coming up. But would you trade that all in if you could have gone to the regular prom with your classmates?

MCMILLEN: No, because if I had gone to the regular prom with the rest of my classmates, I wouldn't have been able to bring my girlfriend, and I wouldn't have been able to be myself. That was the whole point. Like, I wasn't going to be able to go if I wasn't going to be able to be myself.

BALDWIN: Now, we know that the court eventually ruled -- they said, absolutely that the school violated your constitutional rights. I want to you explain, though, what happened. Because you transferred schools, right, late in your senior year, right? Why did do you that?

MCMILLEN: Well, I started, like, doing my work from home because it was like really hard for me to go to that school because of how the people were treating me. It was just really hard for me to finish school there --

BALDWIN: What were they doing? What were they saying to you?

MCMILLEN: I mean, it was, like, it was hostile all the time. There were rumors flying around about me. Every single day, I heard a new rumor. It was just really, really hard to concentrate in an environment where everybody is, like, being really mean.

So, I decided to do my work from home but it got really hard because some of the work that I had to do, I couldn't do if I wasn't in the class.

BALDWIN: Right.

MCMILLEN: So that's why I transferred schools.

BALDWIN: So you transferred schools, and I can only imagine -- it's the end of your senior year where you couldn't walk with your classmates, right? Maybe you wouldn't have wanted to. But I understand that that graduation day, normally a happy day for a lot of us, was pretty tearful for you. Why was that?

MCMILLEN: It was like -- I didn't want to walk, but I did for my parents. But it was really hard because after everything I've been through, like, it was just reminding me really that a lot of the people that I used to have that were good friends, I don't have those friends anymore. I mean, I didn't know most -- the classmates -- the school was wonderful. But I didn't know a lot of the people there, so I was just kind of standing there. It was really hard because it wasn't --

BALDWIN: Go ahead. Finish your thought.

MCMILLEN: It wasn't how I pictured graduation, so it was just, like, a little hard.

BALDWIN: I understand you're going on to college. Before I let you go, for people who were watching and watched your story over the past few months, what have you taken away from this? And what message might you have for other teens who are suffering in silence?

MCMILLEN: I've learned through all of this how important it is to be an activist and how important it is to, like, stand up for yourself. Because that was never my intention to start with, but now that I've been around and met all these people, I've learned how important it is. I've heard so many horror stories, so people go through so many things just because they're gay.

And if you're going through something like that, I think you should stand up for yourself. Like, it was hard for me. I'm not going to say it wasn't hard because it was. But I went through it so that nobody else would have to go through it. I think if you can do something like that and change it for a lot of other people, even though it's hard on you, I think you should do that.

BALDWIN: Constance McMillen, thank you, ma'am, for sharing your story this morning. Hey, good luck with the president tonight. It's a pretty nice house he's got.

MCMILLEN: Yes.

BALDWIN: And thanks for sharing your story with us. Good luck with college.

MCMILLEN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: The concept of family can mean one thing to you and quite another to someone else. Soledad O'Brien follows a same-sex couple in their struggle against their legal and personal obstacles to become parents. Can these men achieve a life as mainstream as their parents? Watch our special. It's called "GARY AND TONY HAVE A BABY," Thursday 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

And on that note, we'll be right back.

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BALDWIN: More than 800 firefighters trying to knock down this tough wildlife. Look at it, just raging there in Arizona. We heard it burned about 10,000 acres. The fire, north of Flagstaff forced the people living in two different subdivisions forced to totally leave their home. More than 750 properties have been evacuated.

And Stacy Delikate from our affiliate KTVK is covering the story for us. And Stacy, I don't know how close you can actually get to this thing raging? Are the firefighters gaining any ground to try to contain the fires?

STACY DELIKATE, KTVK-TV CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, we are about a mile from the fire line right now, but the good news is there has been a little bit of containment. Ten percent, but keep in mind, there are still nine miles of unsecured fire line burning up on the mountain right now.

I'm going to let you take a look at the smoke behind me. It appears to be lifting and even thinning, but firefighters say looks can be deceiving. It's still early up here in Flagstaff. So, the sun is not up at its highest. Overnight humidity is still in the air. Winds could be kicking up, so we could see a lot of the same we have been seeing in the first two days of the fire.

I think we have video of the smoke at its peak. As you said, some 800 firefighters expected to be on the ground and up in the air today battling the blaze.

Now, investigators have determined the cause of the fire, and it was determined to be an abandoned campfire. That's frustrating a lot of people, both those who are up there fighting the blaze and those who have been forced out of their homes, some 1,000 homes, which remain evacuated. Investigators here are now looking for tips from the public, people who may have been camping up in the area where this fire started so they can find the person or persons who left that campfire burning and thus sparked this massive wildfire.

BALDWIN: All right, Stacy. Eight hundred firefighters, quite an effort. I imagine it's pretty hot there in Arizona as it is, right, Stacy?

DELIKATE: Yes. We are about two-and-a-half hours north of Phoenix. So, Phoenix is the real hotstop, which is up in the triple digits. Here in Flagstaff, we're expecting temperatures in the 80s today. But the sun gets really hot.

And the real issue is the wind. Yesterday, we saw wind gusts about 20 to 30 miles per hour , which blows this thing all over the place. Blow embers, which spark smaller spot fires. Winds are expected to be a little bit lighter today but no doubt is still a big fight ahead for these fire crews, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Stacy Delikate, appreciate you out of Arizona. Thank you.. Holding onto their homes. It is just one more worry for people living near that Gulf oil disaster. With disrupted income, making mortgage payments, not exactly easy.

Patricia Wu joins us now from New York. Patricia, good morning to you. Let's talk about the help that might be available for the people along the Gulf.

PATRICIA WU, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, several lenders are offering home owners in the Gulf some much-needed temporary relief. First, Citigroup's mortgage unit is stopping all foreclosure sales and filings through September 17. It only applies to first mortgages on homes within 25 miles of the coast. Citi says this will help about 1,200 people in more than 500 zip codes.

Also, if your income was cut by the oil disaster and your mortgage is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, there is help available. The two government-supported mortgage giants will suspend payments up to 90 days, and say they're willing to offer even more of a break on a case-by-case basis.

But this is the key, Brooke. It is not a free lunch. Interest is still adding up during this grace period. So, it just delays the payment. You eventually have to pay the money back if you want to keep your home. Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, Patricia, is there anything in this situation that people need to look out for?

WU: Well, absolutely. Keep in mind that you're going to have a bigger monthly bill, at least temporarily, when it's time to start making those payments again. Here's an example we got from bankrate.com. Let's say you have a mortgage of $1,000 a month, and you get a six-month grace period. Six months later, you owe $6,000. If that's spread over the next 18 months, that's an extra $333 tacked onto your monthly bill. But as you can see, the total amount owed after two years in the same.

So, this is what you need to know. You can negotiate with your loan servicer. Ask for a longer payback period. That will mean a more manageable monthly bill. You can also ask if refinancing is an option.

But just make sure you work all of this out. Check out what Tammy posted on CNNmoney.com. Tammy writes, "My son did this after Hurricane Rita flooded his house, and the bank gave him three months. But at the end of the three months, he had to have all three months paid in full." Ouch.

So, this is why you have to have your payment schedule worked out clearly before you sign on that dotted line. Brooke.

BALDWIN: Read everything very carefully, meet your deadlines. All right. Patricia Wu for us in New York. Patricia, thank you.

They needed heirs. They needed that next generation to take over their land. And they definitely got them, three times over. I'm talking about triplets. Look at these little ones. We will introduce to you a 66-year-old new mom.

(COMMERCIALBREAK)

BALDWIN: Okay. Listen to this. This has all of us talking. We have a woman. She had triplets, that's pretty cool, right? Well, a woman who has triplets when she's 66 years old. Well, that is a real maternal feat.

Yes. It happened in India. CNN's Sara Sidner met with the new mom.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bhateri Devi is sleep deprived and sore, and for good reason. She's just given birth to triplets at age 66.

(on camera): Why did you decide to have babies now at 66 years old?

BHATERI DEVI, NEW 66-YEAR-OLD MOM (via translator): Obviously it was very difficult to carry these babies but we have to grow our family. That's why I had kids.

SIDNER: Her 70 year old husband said they need heirs to take over their land someday. The couple was unable to conceive until eight months ago, when they found this fertility clinic.

DR. ANURAG BISHNOI, FERTILITY SPECIALIST: I was confident she would carry on with the pregnancy.

SIDNER: Dr. Anurag Bishnoi implanted embryos in Devi's uterus, using a young woman's egg fertilized by her Devi's husband's sperm. The procedure failed twice but finally worked when Dr. Bishnoi implanted three embryos at once.

(on camera): You said yourself this could be pretty dangerous for somebody this age. Why are you doing this? Some people might criticize you for doing this for someone this old.

BISHNOI: Yes. It is very dangerous to go on a airplane. It can crash. (INAUDIBLE) It is dangerous to ride a bike (INAUDIBLE). but people do it. Why? Because they want to reach their destinations. Same as these cases.

SIDNER: Dr. Bishnoi says he's perfectly comfortable impregnating a 66-year-old woman or older. But there are critics.

SIDNER: Would you be okay with that?

DR. SOHANI VERMA, FERTILITY SPECIALIST: Definitely not. No, I wouldn't.

SIDNER: Dr. Sohani Verma runs the fertility unit at a (INAUDIBLE) hospital in Delhi. She says beyond a long list of potential physical complications, she worries about how long the parents will live to raise their children.

VERMA: The life expectancy in India is only 60-something. I feel that once we are involved in bringing a human being in the world, there has to be concern about the unborn baby.

SIDNER: Dr. Bishnoi is undeterred.

BISNOI: As a doctor, I cannot say no if the patient is medically fit.

SIDNER: He boasts he's helped over 100 women over the age of 50 conceive and proudly displays articles written about his eldest patients.

(on camera): Some might say, this is insane, that you are just doing this for publicity. Are you doing this for publicity and taking a risk with the family?

BISHNOI: I would say it's not for publicity, but -- on what basis can I say no to these patients when they come to me?

SIDNER: In India, there is it a rule against using fertility methods on a patient under 21, but there is no upper-age limit. But Devi and her husband are glad and are already dreaming of their children's future.

DEVA SINGH, FATHER OF TRIPLETS (via translator): One will be a doctor and the other an engineer, he says.

SIDNER (voice-over): But for now, they have one hope for their fragile babies born three months premature.

(on camera): She's saying that she wants to make her child big like me. She wants her kids to be healthy like me.

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BALDWIN: Wow. Sara Sidner, there she is in New Delhi for us.

Sara, let's start with the people sitting in the U.S. here wondering might there be any laws to stop a woman here in the States from using these fertility treatments to conceive at any age. Do they exist?

SIDNER: The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says actually no, there's no age limit to how old you can be to have a baby.

And speaking of the babies, Brooke, these tiny little babies, the pediatrician is worried about these children. He's crossing his fingers and doing all he can. There really isn't the kind of technology that you have there in the developed world, in the United States. So, he is extremely concerned about the babies' survival at this point in time. Brooke. BALDWIN: What a story. Sara Sidner, thank you for bringing it to us. Good to see you.

How about this story? We were talking about this last hour. You think your wife is having a stroke, and you're rushing her to the ER. Do you stop at the red lights near the hospital or do you just fly on through? One man went through those red lights and is facing jail time. The story and your comments a couple of minutes away.

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BALDWIN: Every day around this time, we honor a fallen service member, a man or woman from either Iraq or Afghanistan. We're calling this "Home and Away." It's a project we're doing with CNN.com.

Today, we salute Specialist Joseph Ford who died in Iraq back in May of 2008. His mom is calling him a gentle soul. She said he loved history, his cats and was friends with everyone. She also says people need to remember the fallen because behind each one, there are many people who love them.

We always want to remind you if there is someone you loved who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, we want to hear from you. Go to our Web site, CNN.com/homeandaway. You will see a map of the U.S. That's on the left side of your screen. And there are tabs to take you either to Iraq or Afghanistan, to take you to those different maps. You can click on the tab where your hero died, type in his or her name in the upper right-hand corner and pull up the profile page. You can post not only pictures and memories, you can post videos, and we will keep them up just for you.

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BALDWIN: All right. I want you to pay attention to this story and think about what would do you? A driver had to run a couple of red lights, through a couple of intersections, and a police officer went after him. Now, yes, that should routinely be a traffic stop 99 percent of the time. But what if the driver is actually rushing his sick wife to the hospital? Should the police officer just let him go? We'll get to your thoughts in a moment. But first, here's the piece from John Pless (ph) of our affiliate WTVC out of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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AILEEN WRIGHT, PATIENT: I would like an apology from this officer because he indeed delayed my care.

JOHN PLESS (ph), WTVC-TV CORRESPONDENT: Alieen Wright became a registered nurse after she lost her leg to cancer a few years ago. Her chemotherapy caused a heart condition that could created a blood clot and trigger a stroke.

So, Wednesday night, she and her husband, Eric, thought the worst had happened. She couldn't talk. Her face drooped. And Aileen showed all of the signs of a stroke, so Eric carried her in his car and drove straight to where they both work, (INAUDIBLE) Medical Center. The trouble began at the corner of Holtzcalw and McConnell (ph).

ERIC WRIGHT, HUSBAND: I proceed cautiously through the red light, and at that point, a police officer in a cruiser pulled from Holtzclaw onto McConnell (ph) behind me and followed me from that point.

PLESS: Wright says he continued to Erlinger (ph), blowing his horn with his emergency flashes on and went through another red light.

A. WRIGHT: Before we reached the front door of the emergency room, the sliding automatic door, the policeman got between us and the door. And was starting to say to my husband, "I'm guying to arrest you."

PLESS: He wouldn't let you guys in?

A. WRIGHT: No.

PLESS: Wright says as he carried his wife Officer Jim Daves, his colleagues in the ER helped them in a room to begin evaluation and treatment.

WRIGHT: Officer Daves and I never made physical contact.

PLESS: But Wright was charged with assaulting a police officer, reckless endangerment, and other charges. He and his wife say Officer Daves never once asked about the medical emergency, but was more concerned about the red light violation.

A. WRIGHT, PATIENT: Instead of us uniting and being a family and him being here for me, he had to deal with being charged for trying to save his wife.

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BALDWIN: Now, we did reach out to Chattanooga Police, and they tell us the officer, Officer Daves is on paid leave right now while they look into the case. Mr. Wright, meantime, goes before a judge on July 9th.

And that brings us to today's blog question. We've been asking you this morning, who is getting the raw deal here? Is it the police officer or the husband who rushed his wife to the ER? Let me read a couple of responses. By the way, thank you for writing.

This one from Gregory. Gregory says, "I'm a retired police officer from the Metropolitan Police Department." That's D.C. "I think the officer should have known once arriving at the hospital, okay, they must have a problem. That happened to me several times before. I would have said, no problem, go take care of your wife. But some people don't have compassion." Ouch. Got something from Sherry. She writes, "Police officers are supposed to protect and serve. This is one of the reasons why so many people are leery of local police forces."

And Al says there is a reason why emergency vehicles are emergency vehicles. When we turn family vehicles into emergency vehicles, all good intentions not withstanding, we are heading down a slippery slope and jeopardizing the safety of others."

All good points. Thanks for writing in. We always like to hear from you here on CNN. Just go to our blog. That's CNN.com/kyra to share your comments.

Tony Harris. I'm going to pass it over to you.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, Brooke, you have a great day.