Teachers at a high school in Maryland were required to attend a lockdown training presentation where they were shown a graphic video of what they said appeared to be students being shot in the Columbine High School massacre.

The principal of Laurel High School showed raw security video and played frantic 911 calls during a mandatory teacher training on Friday, upset teachers said and the school district confirmed.

A number of teachers told News4 they felt blindsided by the screening of the horrific video.

"There were faculty members that got up and left in the middle of the video showing because they were crying. It was so, so upsetting," one teacher, who asked to speak on condition on anonymity, said.

Teachers said the surveillance video showed part of the 1999 high school shooting in Colorado, in which two students killed 12 fellow students and one teacher before turning their guns on themselves and dying by suicide. 

"The assailants were taunting the kids to get the kids to get up and run, and when the kids ran away, the assailants were shooting them," the teacher said the video showed.

The teachers said they did not know they would be shown the video, which the school's security team created. 

"If you're going to do this and you want to do this properly, you say, 'We are going to show you this. If you do not feel comfortable with this, you are welcome to leave,'" a teacher said.

The teachers spoke on condition of anonymity in order to protect their jobs.

The principal sent a letter apologizing if he offended anyone but said he felt it was important to make the realities of school shootings clear.

"The goal was to hopefully get everyone in the mindset that situations like Columbine and other school shootings are prevalent and relevant in our society today and that the safety of all should be the number one goal for all of us," he wrote.

The teachers were shown the video less than a month after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and amid a highly charged national conversation about arming teachers.

Prince George's County Public Schools spokesman John White said reactions to the presentation were mixed and the district was considering showing it to staff at other schools.

"Some people were upset. Some people said, 'Wow. This could really happen, and we need to be prepared,'" White said.

"Our instructional director did think that it might be good to show in all of our schools, because it is a real scenario that happens," White continued. "Fortunately not in our school district, but it happened in this nation, and we need to be prepared for it."

One teacher who was shown the video agreed it's important for teachers to be ready for shootings, but said that wasn't the right way to go about it.

"In a situation that we are called to defend our students from a shooter, we absolutely will, and we have training on how to do this," the teacher said. "But showing us the nightmare is not an effective method."

Here's the letter school Principal Dwayne Jones sent teachers:

Good Morning Laurel Family,

I just wanted to again apologize to anyone who felt unnerved, distraught, disturbed or bothered by some of the Lock Down presentation held on Friday, [March] 9. It was not our aim to upset or intimidate anyone, especially with the graphic video from the Columbine High School mass shooting. However, the goal was to hopefully get everyone in the mindset that situations like Columbine and other school shootings are prevalent and relevant in our society today and that the safety of all should be the number one goal for all of us.

It is my expectation that we talk with our students in each and every class about safety and for us all to take each and every drill as if it is the real thing. No one can tell me how they are going to react under an extreme emergency/situation, but I believe that by talking about safety and following policy and procedures we will be in a better position to deal with such events if forbid they ever occur at Laurel High School.

Thanks to Sgt. Toppiins for her work in putting together the presentation and Officer Demin for his contributions to our discussion.

If you have questions, concerns or suggestions regarding safety in our building please see Sgt. Toppins or myself.

Dwayne Jones
Principal Laurel High School
"Where Student Excellence is our Expectation and Standard"

Thousands of children's shoes were on display outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday as a temporary memorial to children killed by gun violence.

The Monument for Our Kids, made up for 7,000 pairs of shoes, represents every a child killed with a gun since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, organizers said. 

The silent protest is intended to put pressure on lawmakers, Oscar Soria, spokesman for the online activist network Avaaz, told News4 last week. The group coordinated the display. 

"Before so many of us march in our capital and across the nation, we want to call attention to all those who can't and remind Congress that part of why we march is because [gun violence victims] can't," he said.

Gun violence survivors attended the memorial dedication. The shoes will be on display until 2 p.m. Tuesday on the southeast lawn of the Capitol. 

"We want to represent everyone who's been lost," said activist Andrew Nazdin. "We want to bring the tragedy that's been felt in communities across the country right to Congress' doorstep."

Shoes were collected at several locations around the D.C. area, and the donation response was overwhelming. Several bags and boxes of shoes were collected in just one day at Barstons Child's Play in Northwest D.C.

"I think people are really moved by trying to do something to prevent gun violence and see this as something they can do," Child's Play owner Simmie Kerman said.

Organizers said last month's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, served as a catalyst for creating the memorial and sending a message to lawmakers.

Nearly 1,300 children die every year after being shot, according to data published in June 2017 in the medical journal Pediatrics. Another 5,790 children are hurt, the researchers said. 

Avaaz multiplied the fatality rate by the 5 years and three months that have passed since the Sandy Hook massacre and reached the approximate death toll figure of nearly 7,000 children's lives lost.

Avaaz orchestrated a similar display of 11,000 shoes in Paris, in November 2015, to represent activists' opposition to climate change. Authorities cancelled planned marches after the terror attacks in the city that month. Pope Francis and United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon were among those who donated shoes.

Two days after the Parkland shooting, Avaaz parked three vehicles with billboards outside of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s office in Doral, Florida. The senator opposed a ban on the rifle used in the shooting that left 17 people dead. 

The billboards read "Slaughtered in school," "And still no gun control" and "How come, Marco Rubio?"

The shoes are set to be donated to local homeless shelters and other charities.

A school resource officer accidentally fired his gun inside a middle school in Alexandria, Virginia, Tuesday morning, police say. No one was hurt. 

The officer was inside his office at George Washington Middle School in the Del Ray neighborhood when he accidentally discharged his service weapon about 9:10 a.m., according to Alexandria police.

The officer, a five-year veteran of the Alexandria Police Department, checked the area for any potential injuries and found that everyone was OK. He notified his supervisor and school staff, and classes continued as normal, police say.

It wasn't immediately clear if any students or teachers were nearby. 

The police department is investigating the incident. The officer has been placed on routine administrative leave.

The incident occurs amid a highly charged national conversation about arming teachers. 

A close associate of an outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been found dead in his London home, NBC News reported.

Nikolai Glushkov also once testified against billionaire Roman Abramovich, a Putin ally who is also the owner of the Chelsea Football Club, in a court case

Glushkov, 69, previously worked for a company owned by Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. In the 1990s, he held a senior position with Russian airline Aeroflot.

Glushkov's cause of death was not immediately known. London's Metropolitan Police said the death was "currently being treated as an unexplained." 

However, counterterrorism officers were leading the investigation "as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had."

As President Donald Trump steps up efforts to engage North Korea in nuclear disarmament talks, the State Department is in the most turmoil since the president's inauguration, CNBC reported.

The latest upheaval came Tuesday with the sudden firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was dismissed with few details provided by the White House. Trump picked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of state.

The moves followed Trump's abrupt announcement last week of a yet-to-be-arranged meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

But the prospects for any diplomatic breakthrough are clouded by senior State Department vacancies, including a permanent U.S. ambassador to South Korea. The Trump administration has also yet to fill other positions critical to any talks with North Korea, including a permanent undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs. 

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, bringing Tillerson's rocky tenure to an abrupt end after months of disagreements. Trump tapped CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson and is elevating Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel to become the first woman to lead the spy agency. 

Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was not consulted about the president's decision, according to an undersecretary of state. His relationship with Trump had soured over a period of months, and he learned he had been fired from a tweet, senior State Department officials told NBC News. 

"Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump said in the tweet announcing the decision.

Tillerson told reporters he spoke to Trump while the president was aboard Air Force One after noon, hours after Trump's announcement. He said he would delegate the responsibilities of his office to Undersecretary of State John Sullivan at the end of the day Tuesday and would complete his commission as secretary at the end of the month, after dealing with some administrative issues. He encouraged department officials to stay on to help transition to Pompeo, who will need to be confirmed by the Senate, as will Haspel.

In his remarks, Tillerson reflected on his achievements and ended without taking any questions, saying, "I'll now return to private life as a private citizen. As a proud American, I'm proud of the opportunity I've had to serve my country."

It's the latest upheaval in the Trump administration, following the resignation of Gary Cohn as Trump's top economic adviser and Hope Hicks as communications director. A senior White House official told NBC News that Trump removed Tillerson now because he wanted to have a new team in place ahead of talks with North Korea and amid trade negotiations.

The Washington Post first reported the news of his ouster.

Trump told reporters Tuesday morning, before boarding Air Force One for San Diego, that he and Tillerson "have been talking about this for a long time." He added that he made the decision on his own.

He said that he and Tillerson had had a number of disagreements, among them whether to end the Iran deal as Trump wants to do. He and Pompeo reportedly have a much closer relationship and, Trump said, "have a very similar thought process" about the Iran agreement.

"I look forward to guiding the world’s finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the President’s foreign policy," Pompeo said in a release from the White House that also included statements from Trump and Haspel.

Trump thanked Tillerson, saying "a great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months." The release did not include a statement from Tillerson, who had been returning from a trip to Africa.

Haspel, a longtime employee at the CIA, was previously appointed by Trump as deputy director. She once ran a secret prison in Thailand where waterboarding took place.

“After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its deputy director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year,” she said in a statement. “I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Trump told reporters Tuesday that he and Tillerson got along well, despite their disagreements, but that he thought Tillerson would be happier now that he had been let go. Trump added that he has had "very good chemistry" with Pompeo since the beginning of the administration.

In November, when White House officials formulated a plan to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, The Associated Press reported that Pompeo visited the White House frequently to give Trump his daily intelligence briefing, something more junior CIA officials have done in past administrations, and would stay for other meetings.

"I'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the Cabinet, and other things, that I want," Trump said.

Tillerson was sometimes left out of the loop on White House decisions, and his statements did not always align with the president's. Trump decided to negotiate with North Korea by himself, he said Tuesday. Hours before Tillerson was fired, he said that the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain "came from Russia," establishing a link before the White House did. (Trump later told reporters that it appeared that Russia was behind the attack and that the U.S. would concur with whatever Britain finds.)

Tillerson was told by chief of staff John Kelly Friday that Trump intended to ask him to "step aside," but didn't give an exact date or time, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News.

Shortly after that, Tillerson's office said the secretary of state was canceling events for the day because he wasn't feeling well.

Tillerson "had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security," Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said in a statement released shortly after Tillerson was fired Tuesday. "The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling."

Goldstein was fired later Tuesday, a senior State Department official told NBC News.

Tillerson's time in office featured sometimes public clashes with the White House. NBC News reported in October that Tillerson called Trump a "moron" after a meeting at the Pentagon on July 20. Tillerson afterward deflected questions about the insult at a press conference, saying, "I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that."

His refusal to deny the charge was said to have infuriated Trump. Tillerson's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, later said Tillerson had not made the comment.

Tillerson also had threatened to resign in late July about the time Trump made a politicized speech to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization that Tillerson once headed. He was talked into remaining by other administration officials, according to NBC. Pence counseled Tillerson on how he could ease tensions with Trump, NBC News reported.

"The vice president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state because I have never considered leaving this post," he said at the press conference.

But despite Tillerson’s effort to quash the October report, it continued to vie for headlines with Trump’s visit to Las Vegas to pay respects after a gunman killed 58 in the largest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. During the visit, Trump maintained he had "total confidence" in Tillerson, dismissing NBC News report as "fake news."

Tillerson was a surprise choice as secretary of state because of his lack of experience as a diplomat, though he had traveled widely and had negotiated gas and oil agreements in troubled parts of the world.

He was immediately criticized for a close relationship with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who awarded him Russia’s Order of Friendship in 2013, and for his public skepticism of sanctions against Russia, which thwarted some of Exxon Mobil’s biggest projects in Russia.

Tillerson, who had never served in government before accepting the job of secretary of state at his wife’s urging, had a precarious position in the Trump administration. He expressed more traditional Republican views on many foreign policy topics than did Trump, sometimes earning the president's mockery. Trump publicly undermined him over North Korea in October, calling him out on Twitter over his attempts to open a line of communication on nuclear tensions.

"I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," Trump tweeted, referring to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un. "Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!"

Trump similarly undercut Tillerson earlier in the summer over a regional crisis involving Qatar. Trump accused Qatar of being a “high level” sponsor of terrorism as the State Department was trying to ease a blockade of the Gulf state.

Tillerson's diminished role in the Trump administration resulted in fears that the State Department was adrift, NBC News reported in September. During the United Nations General Assembly that month, Vice President Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, the U.N. ambassador, had to step in at meetings Tillerson either ignored or refused to attend. His department was hobbled by budget cuts and unfilled staff positions, both of which he defended as part of an effort to make it more efficient.

And in August, Tillerson distanced himself from Trump's handling of the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying the president "speaks for himself."

Trump was said to be "livid" about Tillerson's comment, The New York Times' Maggie Haberman tweeted.

While in office, Tillerson navigated the imposition of sanctions on North Korea by the United Nations Security Council for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. North Korea continued to fire missiles.

In an article in Foreign Policy magazine, defense policy expert Max Boot called Tillerson "quite possibly the most ineffectual secretary of state since America's rise to global prominence in 1898."

State employees who work the second shift should report to work on their normal schedule Tuesday, according to Gov. Dannel Malloy.

On Tuesday morning, he called for nonessential, first-shift state employees not to report to work on Tuesday because of the nor’easter.

The governor is asking commuters to go slow on the roads and leave plenty of time for travel, especially in eastern Connecticut, which has gotten heavy snow.

All Connecticut judicial branch offices have been closed for the day.

Mike Pompeo, the current CIA director who President Donald Trump has picked to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, is known for both his close ties with the president and his prior career as a hard-charging partisan in Congress, NBC News reported.

“Tremendous energy, tremendous intellect, we’re always on the same wavelength,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “The relationship has been very good, and that’s what I need as secretary of state.”

As secretary of state, Pompeo will face the singularly difficult task of maintaining his relationship with Trump without alienating Democrats and allies elsewhere, reviving a State Department demoralized by a year of upheaval, and managing tense standoffs with North Korea, Iran and Russia.

Pompeo was elected to Congress from Kansas as part of the tea party wave in 2010 after a career in the Army, where he graduated from West Point and became a cavalry officer, and as a businessman. In Congress, he developed a rapport with Republicans working on intelligence and played a prominent role in the Select Committee on Benghazi, which investigated the terrorist attack there in 2012, giving him a base of support on Capitol Hill.

Police have arrested a man after seizing more than 1,500 packages of edible marijuana gummies during a drug investigation that led to South Windsor.

Manchester police said 32-year-old Jeremy Freeman faces drug charges after an investigation that began in February.

According to police, the Eastern Central Narcotics task force, which focuses efforts on the Manchester, South Windsor, Vernon and Glastonbury communities, was looking into reports of a large marijuana operation and learned marijuana was being shipped from California to an address in South Windsor.

With a search warrant, police intercepted one of the packages and found 339 marijuana gummy packets from “Infused Creations.”

Upon further search, police seized another four packages, all containing more marijuana packets. In total, police found 1,588 individual gummy packets, each containing different styles of the edibles. Police said these packages usually sell for around $25 in California and $50 in Connecticut.

Freeman, who police said took the packages and leased the space where they were being delivered, was arrested. He was charged with possession of more than one kilogram of marijuana with intent to sell, operating a drug factory, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Anyone with information on illegal drug activity in the area can contact the East Central Narcotics Task Force at 860-645-5548.

Chicago-based United Airlines is accepting responsibility for a dog's in-flight death after a flight attendant ordered its owner to put the pet in the overhead compartment.

A passenger boarded United flight 1284 from Houston to New York’s LaGuardia airport, with the dog inside a TSA-approved carrier, the aviation website "The Points Guy" reported Tuesday.

United Airlines told NBC 5 it was a "tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin." 

"We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them," the airline said in a statement to NBC 5. "We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again."

The passengers heard barking for part of the flight, The Points Guy reported. But by the end of the trip, the dog had died.

Passenger Maggie Gremminger told aviation website One Mile at a Time that the dog owner "adamantly pushed back" on the flight attendant's demand for the dog to go in the overhead compartment before complying.

"By the end of the flight, the dog was dead. The woman was crying in the airplane aisle on the floor," Gremminger told One Mile at a Time. "A fellow passenger offered to hold the newborn while the mother was crying on the floor aisle with the dog. It was this out of body experience of grief."

According to the airline's website, pets are allowed on most flights within the U.S. In-cabin pets must travel in approved kennels that can fit completely under the seat, where the kennel must remain at all times. 

Two producers of Netflix's royal family drama "The Crown" admitted on Tuesday that Matt Smith, the actor who plays Prince Philip, was paid more than Claire Foy, the actress who plays the lead character: Queen Elizabeth II.

Suzanne Mackie, the creative director of the production company behind "The Crown," said that Smith received a larger paycheck due to his fame as former lead of the long-running sci-fi series "Doctor Who."

But "going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen," Mackie said at a panel discussion at the INTV Conference in Jerusalem, according to Variety.

The revelation comes as Hollywood faces fierce criticism over pay inequities and struggles to find its footing in treating women fairly.

The third nor'easter to hit Connecticut in 11 days moved through Tuesday, dropping nearly two feet of snow in parts of the state. With cleanup efforts underway, some school districts have already announced delays for Wednesday morning.

While Tuesday's storm didn't bring the damage and power outages the heavy wet snow of the storm preceding it did, some parts of the state saw nearly two feet of snow. The storm caused hundreds of school and business closures and travel issues across the northeast region.

SNOW TOTALS

Towns in eastern Connecticut saw the most snow, with totals creeping above 20 inches in some areas. Hover over the spots on the map below for specifics.

POWER OUTAGES:

Eversource was reporting 4,149 outages as of 10:30 p.m., mostly in eastern Connecticut.  This storm was less impactful than the last, where tens of thousands lost power and some remained in the dark for days as power crews struggled to fix hundreds of broken utility poles and restring miles of wire.

TRAFFIC IMPACT:

Interstate 95 North was closed at Interstate 395 North in East Lyme after several crashes, but the highway has reopened. Minor injuries were reported.

As of 4 p.m., state police had responded to 810 calls for service, 170 driver assists, 75 crashes with no injuries and two crashes with injuries.

Neighboring Rhode Island declared a truck ban, but there was no such ban in Connecticut.

TRANSPORTATION:

Amtrak service between Boston and New York City was temporarily suspended for part of the day. The rail line will restore service Wednesday.

Bradley Airport was open Tuesday, but around 75 percent of flights were canceled. Airport officials expected to see significant cancellations Wednesday morning as well. Check the Bradley Airport website for flight information. Anyone traveling is urged to call the airline before heading to the airport to see if the flight is canceled. Travelers should arrive early and expect the airport to be busier than usual due to storm-related rebookings.

When an attendant on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York City told Catelina Robledo and her daughter to put their dog in an overhead compartment because its carrier was partially blocking an aisle, they knew something was off. 

"My mom was like, 'It's a dog, it's a dog,'" said Sophia Ceballos, Robledo's 11-year-old daughter. "And (the flight attendant) said, 'You have to put it up there."

Then, before Robledo -- who was also traveling with a newborn baby on the Monday flight and had paid a $200 fee to bring the French bulldog, Kokito, aboard --  could protest further, the overhead compartment was closed. It ended up being the last time they saw the dog, who Ceballos affectionately called "Little Pig," alive. 

Ceballos was justifiably worried about putting the pup overhead, and other passengers voiced concern over what they had seen. Witness Maggie Gremminger told NBC News she remembered it as a "triggering moment where it didn't feel right."

"(Another passenger and I) looked at each other and said, 'Did they just put the dog up there?'"

Then, Robledo, Ceballos, Gremminger and others sat nervously over the 4-hour, 25-minute flight. Gremminger said she Googled whether dogs were safe in overhead compartments. Ceballos, 11, said she she heard the puppy she got for her birthday let out a few barks. 

"We were really worried," Ceballos said. "He barked in the middle of the flight, and there was a lot of turbulence, so we couldn't get him."

When they landed, Robledo opened the overhead compartment and realized the dog wasn't moving. Kokito had perished in the flight; the cause of death isn't quite clear.

"She was saying, 'Kokito, Kokito wake up!'" Ceballos recalled her mother saying. 

Gremminger said she saw Robledo on the floor, rocking and crying. A stranger offered to take the baby and passengers normally hurrying to grab bags and get off the plane were frozen in shock. 

"You could see that she was holding her dog and it was not moving," Gremminger said. 

She added, "She was just crying and, I'm sure, in disbelief and overwhelmed with guilt and confused....everything felt drained."

Gremminger stayed with the family to help, noting that everyone in the flight crew was "incredibly shocked" that a flight attendant would tell a passenger to put a dog in an overhead compartment. 

"It's just so sad, that dog was so sweet," she said.

United said in a statement afterward that it was taking responsibility for Kokito's death, calling it a "tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin." 

The airline added that it is investigating the flight and talking to the flight attendant. The airline has refunded the tickets for Robledo and her children and refunded the $200 fee they paid to bring Kokito on board. 

But Ceballos said they're not after money as she recalled how her dog enjoyed running around and doing flips in the park.

"We don't want the same thing to happen (to other pet owners)," she said. "If flight attendants tell you to put your pet (in an overhead compartment), don't do it."

Nearly every student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who has become a familiar face by advocating for gun reform has come from Jeff Foster's AP U.S. Government and Politics class, NBC News reported.

He's had students go on to become elected officials, but he said watching kids from his class in a nationally televised debate with National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch — he was offstage, huddling with Emma González and others during commercials — was a much different experience.

"To see that happen and realize that's someone that's in your class, it's pretty crazy," Foster said in an interview. "It's almost like an out-of-body experience."

The fast-talking 46-year-old whose students sing his praises acknowledges his role in getting a new Florida gun control measure passed but deflects the credit, calling his students' advocacy "the ultimate grass-roots movement."

The parents of a slain Democratic National Committee staffer are suing Fox News, claiming writers and editors knowingly and maliciously spread false information about their son's death.

Police believe Seth Rich was killed during a botched robbery in July 2016, but conspiracy theorists seized on the incident as something more sinister.

On May 16, 2017, Fox News published a story that claimed Rich was in contact with Wikileaks and leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee to the website.

In their lawsuit, Rich's parents say their son never leaked documents to Wikileaks. Fox News later retracted the story, saying it did not reach the outlet's ethical standards.

Mary and Joel Rich are suing Fox News for inflicting emotional distress, interference with a contract and negligence. They are seeking $75,000 before costs, punitive damages other fees, according to a lawsuit filed in New York.

Mary Rich can no longer work because of the emotional stress from her son's murder and the false story, the lawsuit says.

Mary and Joel Rich wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post after the story was published, calling the death of their son a "nightmare" and asking people to "stop politicizing" their son's death. Fox retracted the article on the same day, the lawsuit says.

They wrote that instead of having time to mourn their son's death, they are responding to some reporters' questions about whether or not his death was part of a conspiracy theory related to him allegedly handing DNC emails over to Wikileaks.

They called the theories "baseless" and asked people to stop causing them "unbearable" pain.

"Seth’s death has been turned into a political football. Every day we wake up to new headlines, new lies, new factual errors, new people approaching us to take advantage of us and Seth’s legacy. It just won’t stop," they wrote. "The amount of pain and anguish this has caused us is unbearable. With every conspiratorial flare-up, we are forced to relive Seth’s murder and a small piece of us dies as more of Seth’s memory is torn away from us."

A Fox News spokesperson said they could not comment on pending litigation.

The Riches also named Fox reporter Malia Zimmerman and Fox News "contributor" Ed Butowsky in their suit. However, Fox News denied that Butowsky was ever a contributor, stating he was only a guest. 

The claim that Butowsky was a Fox News contributor was "wrong" throughout the lawsuit and in a press release from a PR firm on behalf of the Rich family's lawyers, the Fox News spokesperson said Wednesday.

Butowsky told NBC Washington on Wednesday morning that he didn't do anything wrong, and that while he offered to pay for a private detective for the Riches, he did not participate in writing the article. 

What happened to Seth Rich was terrible, he said, but added that because he didn't write the article, the claim that he inflicted emotional distress was "preposterous."

Butowsky said he gave the private detective "some money up front."

"I don't make any comments into Seth's murder," he said. "Mr. and Mrs. Rich should find a way through their grieving to be honest with people in this country... I hope they do. They're very nice people and they're in a terrible situation."

A national model for victory in the midterms for Democrats looks and sounds a lot more like Conor Lamb than the lions of the left, NBC News says in an analysis of Wednesday's apparent upset win by Lamb in Pennsylvania.

If the special election squeaker holds up — Lamb led by 641 votes with absentee ballots still being counted and Rick Saccone unwilling to concede — it will be a Trump-country coup for Democrats.

They won't need to capture districts as once solidly Republican as Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District to take control of the House. But they will need to field an army of candidates who run disciplined, well-funded campaigns and figure out how to harness Democrats' energy without inflaming Republicans.

"We can win even the reddest districts if we recruit candidates who fit them," said Democratic strategist Lis Smith. "We cannot and should not expect Democrats who run in Western Pennsylvania to espouse West Village political views."

Police said they made a drug factory arrest in Milford and said they found nearly 40 pounds of marijuana.

Narcotics units from Milford and Stamford, along with the Bridgeport office of the Drug Enforcement

Agency raided Bulldog Cartel Wholesalers on Quarry Road in Milford around 1 p.m. Tuesday while investigating 45-year-old Pasquale Cestaro, of East Haven.

Police said they found d 1.24 ounces of cocaine, 38.8 pounds of marijuana, 261 vails of liquid TCH -- or marijuana--, a scale, packing materials, two firearms and cash from various locations inside the business.

Cestaro was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, operation of a drug factory and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Cestaro was released on a $50,000 bond and is due to appear in Milford Court on April 10.

Toys R Us is drafting a court motion containing its liquidation plan, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC on Tuesday, and the iconic U.S. retailer could file it as as soon as the end of Wednesday.

Sources have also told CNBC that Toys R Us missed a payment to some vendors and didn't respond to calls.

If Toys R Us did liquidate, it would most likely result in all 800 of its U.S. stores closing.

Toys R Us declined to comment on the story. The sources requested anonymity about the information because it is confidential.

A person dressed as "Elsa," the character from "Frozen,"  showed up in Boston during Tuesday's blizzard to help push a police truck out of the snow. "Let it go," somone could be heard saying as the scene unfolded. 

Fire broke out at Tan Wong Restaurant in Simsbury Tuesday night and an investigation is underway into what caused it. 

Officials from the Simsbury Fire Department said fire was reported at 10:45 p.m. and heavy fire was coming from the back of the building and kitchen area of 135 West St. 

It took about half an hour to extinguish. No one was injured during the fire.