Navy: 8 injured, 1 seriously, in explosion at N.J. base's boathouse

(CNN) -- Eight people were injured -- one seriously -- in an explosion at a naval weapons station's boathouse in New Jersey on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Navy said.

The blast at Naval Weapons Station Earle happened about 9 a.m. while workers were performing maintenance on a vessel, the Navy said in a news release.

"The situation is stabilized. We are investigating the accident," Navy spokesman Mike Brady said.

Information on what exploded and what caused the blast wasn't immediately available.

The eight were taken to hospitals. Seven workers suffered minor injuries, mostly from smoke inhalation, the Navy said.

The workers' names were not immediately released.

"The damage from the explosion was contained within the boathouse area," the Navy's release said.

Naval Weapons Station Earle, which supplies ordnance to the Navy's Atlantic fleet carrier and other groups, is south of Middletown, New Jersey.

This article is taken from CNN.com

U.S. officials differ on status of military aid to Egypt

Washington (CNN) -- The Obama administration is withholding some military aid to Egypt as it reviews how it wants to proceed, a U.S. official told CNN, but a Pentagon spokesman said he knew of no action to stop aid to Egypt.

The U.S. official said Monday the move is being described as a "reprogramming" of some funds to Egypt, but in effect, Washington is temporarily holding up some military aid to that country as it prepares for the possibility that future aid could be cut.

However, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Tuesday that no decisions had been made regarding military aid to Egypt.

"I'm not aware of any de facto suspension. I don't know where that came from," Little said, adding that "all aspects (of the aid) are under review."

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But beyond the delay in shipping four F-16s, which had already been announced, Little said he knows of no other actions taken to stop aid to Egypt.

A spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, David Carle, confirmed to CNN Monday that his office has been told the aid has been halted. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, is chairman of the Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee.

"As we noted yesterday, the State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee was told that the transfer of military aid was stopped, that this is current practice, not necessarily official policy, and there is no indication of how long it will last," an aide to Leahy reiterated in a statement Tuesday.

The United States gives about $1.23 billion in military aid to Egypt.

But the U.S. official emphasized no decision has been made to permanently halt the aid. These steps ultimately allow the administration to move forward on either scenario: pressing ahead with the aid or cutting it off.

Aid is not a continuous flow of funds, but a series of periodic bursts: a delivery of fighter jets; a military exercise. Both of those recent aid items for Egypt have already been halted.

The official said the latest moves to "reprogram" aid mean the United States has taken steps to get the remaining aid in U.S. accounts in line with legal requirements so the administration is positioned to cut off the aid, if it decides to do so, or continue it.

The official says once the review is complete, administration officials will go to Congress to decide how to move forward.

Reporter Josh Rogin with the Daily Beast first reported the United States has quietly suspended the aid.

What it means

The move provides the administration with a quick "on/off" switch.

Under the law, if the United States were to designate the situation in Egypt a "coup," the United States couldn't restore aid until a democratic government is established. A coup determination would not be temporary.

But if Washington "reprograms" funds, it can withhold the aid as long as it thinks doing so would be in its best interest. The United States could restore the aid without needing a legal determination that a democratic government has returned to Egypt. If, for example, Egypt stops the bloodshed, the aid could quickly resume.

"That's the purpose of these reviews: to determine what impact it would have on our national security, whether it's in compliance with the law, and is it going to get us closer to seeing the kind of outcome in Egypt that we would like to see, which is the prompt return to a democratically elected, civilian government in Egypt," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a briefing Monday.

Earnest said the U.S. involvement with Egypt extends beyond the military relationship and includes influence at the International Monetary Fund as well as on tourism, "which has a significant impact on the Egyptian economy."

Billions in aid on the line: What will the U.S. do?

'Damned if you do...'

More than half of Americans in a new poll believe the United States should halt military aid. But the situation is complex.

"The United States is kind of in a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation," said Tarek Radwan, associate director for research at the Atlantic Council.

Analyst Jon Alterman said the issue centers on what Washington wants to accomplish.

"If you are trying to change the decision-making process of the Egyptian military -- that is very hard to do right now because they believe they are locked in an existential struggle," said Alterman, Middle East program director at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

"If what you are trying to do is demonstrate our resolve to the rest of the world and people looking on, that is another issue."

But the aid isn't one-sided. The United States has been granted preferential use of the Suez Canal -- an economic hub that connects the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

It also has overflight rights, which gives the U.S. military the ability to fly over Egypt on the way to bases in the region.

Will cutting aid do anything?

Cutting aid will probably not accomplish much, some experts say -- particularly because Saudi Arabia has said it would consider matching the U.S. assistance if the Obama administration decides to cut it.

"Our Congress is not about to compete with that amount of money in Egypt," said Isobel Coleman, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "(The Saudis) have deep pockets, and they are ready to put them in Egypt's disposal."

But Radwan said there could be a net effect. If the United States diversifies its engagement with Egypt, "not only the Obama administration, but any administration after would have for more policy flexibility," he said.

More turmoil

As U.S. officials mull the next steps, Egyptian security forces may have upped the ante in their ongoing conflict with supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On Tuesday, security forces arrested Mohamed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, at an apartment in Cairo, state-run Nile TV reported. Badie is accused of inciting violence.

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Clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy have been deadly. Over the past week, about 900 people -- citizens and security personnel -- have been killed.

This article is taken from CNN.com

Kentucky hospital settles lawsuit over pediatric program

(CNN) -- The University of Kentucky has settled its case with the state over the release of safety data for its embattled pediatric heart surgery program, which was closed last year following patient deaths.

The dispute stems from a request last year by a local radio reporter for information about the program. The university declined to give that information, citing patient privacy laws, but then released it August 9 when a CNN investigation caused an uproar among parents of children with congenital heart disease.

"We are pleased that the litigation has been resolved," said university spokesman Jay Blanton. "The university was not put in the position of having to disclose patient and family information that would violate either peer review or privacy laws -- both of which are protected by federal laws."

The Kentucky attorney general got involved in December when the university declined to provide the safety data requested by Brenna Angel, then a radio reporter for WUKY. The attorney general asked the university to make the information public, but the university declined, and sued Angel in order to keep it private.

After the CNN report, the university revealed that the pediatric heart program had a higher mortality rate than the national average.

The university still hasn't released all the information Angel had asked for under the state's open records law, but she issued a statement last week saying she had agreed to a dismissal of the case.

"UK's release of its mortality rates in the pediatric cardiothoracic surgery program has achieved in large part my purpose for filing the open records request," wrote Angel, who now works in the Lexington mayor's office. "Families who are entrusting their children to UK Healthcare now have access to this type of information."

Among the pieces of information Angel asked for that still have not been released are documents relating to the evaluation and accreditation of the pediatric heart program and the date of the last surgery completed by the university's chief heart surgeon, who has since resigned.

"The University is not required to disclose any documents, remaining mortality statistics (which are protected by federal law), or any dates," William Thro, University of Kentucky general counsel, wrote to the board of trustees on August 16, adding, "We could see further litigation involving other media outlets."

The university is planning to reopen its pediatric heart surgery program after conducting a review, which it anticipates will be completed in the next few weeks, according to Blanton, the UK spokesman.

"When the review is completed, we will release as much of the final report as federal and state law allow," he said, adding that the report will be "focused most intently on how best to move forward than as a retrospective examination."

Tabitha Rainey, whose infant son, Waylon, went into heart failure after having surgery at UK, said she's concerned the university will keep crucial parts of the review a secret.

"They've used federal and state laws before when they didn't want to give statistics, so what's to say they won't do that again?" she said.

This article is taken from CNN.com

3-year-old Michigan boy kills self with gun he finds in bedroom closet

(CNN) -- A 3-year-old boy in a small Michigan town was killed over the weekend when he accidentally shot himself in the head with a gun he found on the closet floor of his home.

The shooting death will undoubtedly renew the debate about gun safety, particularly after the boy's father took to Facebook calling for it.

The incident took place Sunday at a home in Dundee, near the Ohio border.

Police said Damon Holbrook discovered the gun, which belonged to a family friend who was living in the house.

Authorities told CNN affiliate WXYZ that the family friend, Joshua Greenhill, had a concealed pistol license and he put the .40 caliber handgun in the closet. It was loaded, with a bullet in the chamber -- but was not locked.

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Three other children were in the house at the time.

Kids and guns: Not isolated tragedies

Greenhill, was charged with careless discharge of a firearm -- a misdemeanor which carries a sentence of up to 2 years in prison or a fine of $2,000. He didn't speak to reporters after his court appearance Monday.

"We are working on a more serious charge at this time. We have not completed our investigation," Dundee police Chief David Uhl told reporters. "You have got to get more diligent with the guns. Be a lot safer with them."

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'My boy would still be here'

After the shooting, Damon's father, Brian Holbrook, posted this message on Facebook: "I have nothing wrong with guns it's with this country was built on. I will still support the Second Amendment.

"All I ask is that everyone please, please safety first lock it up and put it out of reach of anyone that has no business being around a gun especially kids.

"Gun safety people! My boy would still be here if it was put away like it should have been."

In May, a southern Kentucky mother stepped outside her home just for a few minutes, but it was long enough for her 5-year-old son to accidentally shoot and kill his 2-year-old sister with the .22-caliber rifle he got for his birthday.

In early April, a 4-year-old boy in Tennessee shot and killed a 48-year-old woman, and just days later, a 6-year-old boy was killed in New Jersey after being shot in the head by his 4-year-old playmate.

Firearm deaths of kids rare

But despite the recent incidents, accidental firearms deaths are rare among children.

According to the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 703 children under the age of 15 died in accidental firearms deaths between 2001 and 2010, the latest year for which the agency's statistics on fatalities are available.

During the same period, 7,766 children under the age of 14 suffered accidental firearms injuries -- about one injury for every million children.

When and how do parents educate children about guns?

But statistics don't matter much if it's your child that's shot, said Missy Carson Smith, founder of Gun Safe Mom, a campaign to make the gun question as common as asking about food allergies, swimming pools and video game limits.

"It just shreds your family," said Smith, whose own teenage brother died in a shooting. She started the campaign in 2009, after learning during a carpool trip that unsecured guns were in the home of a family where her daughter had played.

"The kids knew where they were, they could get to it," she said. "That's when my heart just dropped in my stomach."

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This article is taken from CNN.com

New York City's biggest gun bust ever yields 254 weapons, 19 arrests

New York (CNN) -- More than 250 illegal guns have been seized by the New York City Police Department in the largest gun bust in the city's history, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday.

The guns were smuggled into New York City from North Carolina and South Carolina between September 2012 and July 2013 through two separate trafficking operations, according to a news release from the city's special narcotics prosecutor.

Walter Walker, 29, of Sanford, North Carolina, and Earl Campbell, 24, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, are accused of hiding the firearms in luggage carried on buses that offer cheap fares and operate near Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood, authorities said. They sometimes transported as many as 14 firearms at a time, and the guns were usually sold within hours of arriving in the city, authorities said. It is not clear which bus companies they used to travel to and from New York.

An undercover police officer met with Walker and Campbell separately more than 45 times and bought 254 guns, whose sales totaled nearly $160,000. Wiretaps of cell phone conversations and text messages revealed co-conspirators who assisted them in obtaining the weapons for sale, authorities said in a statement.

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"Year after year, guns flow into our city from states that don't have commonsense gun laws that keep guns out of the hands of criminals. North and South Carolina, for instance, still have weak laws that allow criminals and traffickers to easily buy guns," Bloomberg said.

The 254 guns sold included high-capacity assault weapons, a fully automatic machine gun, and guns that are commonly used in violent crimes. Those included pistols and guns that can hold magazines with 30 or more rounds, according to Bloomberg.

Walker and Campbell are among 19 people arrested in association with the case. All face numerous counts of conspiracy, criminal sale of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and other crimes. It was not clear who their defense attorneys were as of Monday evening.

Walter and Campbell worked separately but used similar methods in their operations. Both employed a network of individuals in their respective hometowns who had access to black market guns and who were aware that the guns would be illegally resold in New York City. They also recruited associates in New York, who assisted them in conducting sales. The weapons sold fetched at least three times their original price, according to the police department.

Bloomberg said Monday that the percentage of guns used in crimes that are brought in from out of state had increased from 85 to 90%. Two of the top sources for gun crimes in New York are North and South Carolina, he said.

"It is impossible to know exactly how many victims might have suffered had officers not identified and investigated these gun traffickers," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "But thanks to the undercover officer in this case and the efforts of the NYPD Firearms Investigations Unit and prosecutors, instead of being used in crimes these guns are now out of commission."

Of the 19 people charged, seven have been arraigned in Manhattan Superior Court. Another nine are currently in custody in North Carolina. Three were already in prison on unrelated charges.

New York authorities worked with police departments in Sanford, North Carolina, and Rock Hill, South Carolina.

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This article is taken from CNN.com

Trying to get first woman director her due

(CNN) -- Her name was Alice Guy-Blache, and you've probably never heard of her.

That's understandable. Her heyday was a century ago. She was French and spent only a few years in the United States. Her work -- what little of it has survived -- generally lives on in museum collections.

But perhaps you should find out who she is. For Guy-Blache, who died in 1968, was a pioneer in the film industry. She was the first female director. She was perhaps the first to create a narrative film. She was an innovator in storytelling and in business.

Pamela Green is trying to raise her profile.

Green and Jarik van Sluijs, her colleague at the Los Angeles design firm PIC, have created a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for a documentary on Guy-Blache. The work-in-progress, called "Be Natural" -- after a common Guy-Blache acting instruction -- is attempting to raise $200,000.

Green was inspired by a special about female pioneers in cinema, which also included Mary Pickford and Lois Weber.

"Alice stuck with me," says Green. "And when it was over, I was surprised that I didn't hear (more) about her."

Given her contributions to motion pictures, you'd think Guy-Blache would have attracted more notice.

She was present practically at the creation of the industry, joining French businessman Leon Gaumont -- whose company was one of the first movie producers -- as a secretary in 1894. Two years later, when she was just 23, she helmed a one-reel short, "La Fee aux Choux" ("The Cabbage Fairy").

She started her own company, Solax Films, in 1910, and set up a state-of-the-art studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, two years later -- the first woman to own a studio. She oversaw more than 1,000 films, many noted for their pioneering use of light, composition and even synchronized sound.

"She had a very important place in film history," says Thomas J. Slater, a film scholar at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who specializes in the silent era. "She was more than just a filmmaker -- she also knew how to organize a production company and get her work out there."

Slater suspects that a combination of factors caused Guy-Blache to fall into anonymity. The business moved to Hollywood; Guy-Blache never really made the move. At the same time, her husband, Herbert Blache, took control of Solax, and she eventually returned to France and divorced him.

And there was also the matter of her sex. Even 100 years later, women struggle for positions of power in Hollywood -- particularly behind the camera. It was big news three years ago when Kathryn Bigelow won best director for "The Hurt Locker," only the fourth woman to even be nominated in that category.

It was a different atmosphere in the teens and early '20s, says Slater. At the time a number of women were screenwriters and directors. But once the business started consolidating, women's creative positions "dropped off drastically," he says. Even Weber, one of the most accomplished directors of the teens, was largely forgotten.

Indeed, from the beginning of the sound era in 1927 until the 1970s, about the only female directors of note in Hollywood were Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino.

In the case of Guy-Blache, says Green, "maybe her experience and her accomplishments were something that worked a little bit against her. They didn't want people who knew too much. She kind of encompassed that."

Though the film will make use of old stills and Guy-Blache's work, Green and van Sluijs want it to have a modern look, where -- thanks to computer effects -- the viewer will practically feel inside the frame. The two have the experience: as established creative directors, they've produced sequences for such films as "The Cabin in the Woods," "42" and "The Muppets." The trailer for "Be Natural" invites you into another time.

A number of film luminaries have gotten behind "Be Natural's" Kickstarter campaign, including Robert Redford and Jodie Foster, but the campaign is still well short of its financial goal. (An FAQ explains that despite some stars' participation, "this is not the type of project that gets traditional Hollywood funding, nor is it the type of film that qualifies for educational grants.")

Green is hopeful they'll make it across the finish line. After all, just because she's little known doesn't mean that Alice Guy-Blache is any less inspirational, says Green.

"There's an Alice in all of us," she says. "This is a piece of history, but that's not the story. The story is about a woman who saw the opportunity in a time where she had nothing but obstacles, and she went and did it. The message is, if you have a dream, and you visualize it, you can do it."

This article is taken from CNN.com

Elmore Leonard, writer of sharp, colorful crime stories, dead at 87

(CNN) -- Elmore Leonard -- the award-winning mystery writer whose snappy dialogue, misfit characters and laconic sense of humor produced such popular works as "Get Shorty," "Hombre," "Fifty-Two Pickup" and "Out of Sight" -- has died, according to his literary agent, Jeffrey Posternak. He was 87.

The cause of death was not given, but Leonard had suffered a stroke two weeks ago. According to his website, the author died at his home in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.

Leonard's succinct writing style -- he favored brief exchanges of dialogue leavened with wit and a keen sense of person and place -- made him a favorite of Hollywood, which turned several Leonard novels and stories into films and TV programs. (The newest Leonard adaptation, the film "Life of Crime," based on his novel "The Switch," will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival next month.)

He was also incredibly prolific. At the time of his death, he was at work on his 46th novel.

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His style went down easy but could be hard to imitate. The writers on the TV show "Justified," based on a Leonard character, wore wristbands with the initials "WWED" stamped on them, for "What Would Elmore Do?"

Informed of this, he described it as "flattering."

"I have a picture of all them and they're at their desk and they all have a different book of mine and each one is reading to get my sound," he told CNN last year. "That's very flattering, I'll tell you."

Leonard was born in New Orleans but raised in Michigan, where his father worked for General Motors. After college, Leonard went to work for a local advertising agency, where he spent his days writing copy about cars and trucks. His nights, however, were devoted to his own work: mainly westerns in the 1950s. Two of his stories, "Three-Ten to Yuma" and "The Captives," were turned into movies.

But Leonard kept his advertising job until 1961, rising at 5 a.m. to write before heading off to work. Despite his output -- and more movies, including "Hombre" with Paul Newman -- he said he didn't find his style until reading George V. Higgins' classic 1970 crime novel, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle." Higgins' book, which was turned into a 1973 movie, was almost all dialogue, much of it profane.

"I read it and I changed my style somewhat," he told CNN. "Just somewhat. I started to use expletives where they belonged. I started to open my scenes with dialogue. Higgins set me free."

He also spent time with Detroit homicide detectives, where he continued to hone his ear.

Leonard made his mark on film

All this came just in time. He'd written one crime novel, "The Big Bounce," in 1966. Despite Leonard's bona fides, it was rejected 84 times and didn't see the light of day until being made into a 1969 movie.

The new style gave his books new life -- and new fans. When the movies wanted crime stories with offbeat characters and settings, they knew to turn to Leonard. "Get Shorty" was made into a 1995 film starring John Travolta and Gene Hackman; "Rum Punch," a 1992 novel, was turned into Quentin Tarantino's 1997 film "Jackie Brown." "Out of Sight," which was made into a 1999 Steven Soderbergh film, helped rejuvenate George Clooney's movie career.

In Leonard's stories, characters move from scene to scene, cracking wise while they do stupid, violent things. He thinks most crooks are dumb, and that dumb is funny. He likes a good caper and the violence seems to be almost incidental, more like an occupational hazard.

The plots feature clever twists; the narrative style is so spare it reads like haiku. The simple beauty of it all can put a bullet through your heart.

He created some of popular fiction's most memorable tough guys: trigger-happy federal marshal Raylan Givens, streetwise Hollywood wannabe Chili Palmer and smooth talking bank robber Jack Foley.

A look inside Leonard's 45th novel, 'Raylan'

In recent years, literary types took notice. Last year, the National Book Foundation awarded Leonard the 2012 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in recognition of his fiction.

"For over five decades, Leonard's westerns, crime novels, serialized novels, and stories have enthralled generations of readers," the foundation said in a statement.

Leonard also received an Edgar Grand Master honor from the Mystery Writers of America and a Peabody Award, among other distinctions.

But to Leonard, writing was just what he did.

"I don't have a trade," he told CNN. "I don't teach or anything. I just love to make up characters and gradually build up a story around them." For example, he said, the "Out of Sight" character Karen Sisco, later the lead of a TV series, was inspired by a newspaper photograph of a shotgun-toting Miami marshal.

He also worked hard. Writing is rewriting, the old saying goes, and Leonard -- who wrote first drafts by hand -- would do three pages to get "one clean, typed page with every word in place."

The key, he said, was to know when to stop. Wise advice from the man who wrote a book called "10 Rules of Writing."

"I don't want it to sound like writing," he said. "Leave out the parts people tend to skip."

People we've lost in 2013

This article is taken from CNN.com