Happening Today: Russia Probe, Turpins, E-Cigarettes, ‘Strong Island'

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“People Just Ran”: Students Fled for Lives in Deadly School Shooting

They ran silently, too stunned to shout. Some of the children ran into classrooms to hide from the boy with the gun. Some ran out of the building, into the fields, across the streets, through the doors of nearby businesses. Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both 15, were killed and another 17 people injured when a classmate opened fire in the Kentucky school's busy atrium, a common area in the center of Marshall County High School, where several hallways meet and children gather before classes. The trauma consumed the rural town of about 4,300 people, where nearly everyone has a connection to the school. Parents left cars on both sides of an adjacent road, desperately trying to find their teenagers; business owners pulled fleeing children to safety; a state trooper rushed to the school, terrified he would find his own daughter among the dead. The shooter is in custody, officials said.

DA Seeks to Bar Parents From Contacting 13 Kids Kept Captive

The parents accused of torturing their children and keeping them chained to beds for months and so malnourished their growth was stunted will appear in court as prosecutors ask a judge to bar them from contacting their kids. The court proceeding is the latest step as authorities seek to sever ties between David and Louise Turpin and their 13 children — between 2 and 29 years old — who were rescued from their home in Perris, California, on Jan. 14. They have pleaded not guilty to torture, abuse and other charges. Riverside County prosecutors are seeking a protective order that would prohibit the Turpins from having any contact with their children, a district attorney's office spokesman said. The case has attention from around the world and about 20 people from across the U.S., including nurses and psychologists, have offered to take the seven adult children and six minors and keep them together. The Riverside University Health System Foundation, which is collecting money for the siblings, so far has received 1,500 donations totaling $120,000, a spokeswoman said.

Will Trump Meet With Special Counsel in Russia Probe?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was interviewed for hours in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the Justice Department confirmed, as prosecutors moved closer to a possible interview with President Trump about whether he took steps to obstruct an FBI probe into contacts between Russia and his 2016 campaign. The interview with Sessions makes him the highest-ranking Trump administration official, and first Cabinet member, known to have submitted to questioning. It came as special counsel Robert Mueller investigates whether Trump's actions in office, including the firing of FBI Director James Comey, constitute improper efforts to stymie the FBI investigation. With many of Trump's closest aides having now been questioned, the president and his lawyers are preparing for the prospect of an interview that would likely focus on some of the same obstruction questions. Expected topics for any sit-down with Mueller, who has expressed interest in speaking with Trump, would include not only Comey's firing but also interactions the fired FBI director has said unnerved him, including a request from the president that he end an investigation into a top White House official. In the Oval Office, Trump said he was "not at all concerned" about what Sessions may have told the Mueller team.

Do E-Cigarettes Help or Harm?

Electronic cigarettes could be a boon to public health or a major liability, depending on whether they help Americans quit smoking or encourage more young people to try traditional cigarettes, a new report concludes. The report wrestles with the potential benefits and harms of the vapor-emitting devices which have been sold in the U.S. for more than a decade. But those effects may not be known for decades, in part, because of how slowly illnesses caused by smoking emerge. There are no long-term studies on the health consequences of e-cigarettes and little consensus on whether they are effective in helping smokers quit, according to the report requested by the Food and Drug Administration. The experts found "substantial" evidence that young people who use e-cigarettes are more likely to try cigarettes. On the other hand, experts found only "limited evidence" that cigarettes are effective tools to help adult smokers quit.

“Strong Island” Director Becomes First Trans Filmmaker Nominated for Oscar

A documentary director from Long Island made Oscars history by becoming the first openly transgender filmmaker nominated for an Academy Award. Yance Ford's "Strong Island" was nominated for Best Documentary Feature. In his directorial debut, Ford focuses on the death of his brother, William Ford, who was shot and killed in 1992. Speaking to News 4, Ford said he and his partner were elated when they saw the logo for the film, released on Netflix, during the nominations. Just 24 years old at the time, William Ford, who is black, was shot and killed by a white 19-year-old auto body shop employee who claimed it was self-defense. An all-white grand jury did not bring any charges against the defendant. Twenty-five years later, Ford thinks it is still important to address systematic failures in the justice system.

Ursula K. Le Guin, Acclaimed Science Fiction Author, Dies

Ursula K. Le Guin, the award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who explored feminist themes and was best known for her Earthsea books, has died at 88. Le Guin died peacefully in Portland, Oregon, according to a brief family statement posted to her verified Twitter account. Le Guin won an honorary National Book Award in 2014 and warned in her acceptance speech against letting profit define what is considered good literature. Despite being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 — a rare achievement for a science fiction-fantasy writer — she often criticized the "commercial machinery of bestsellerdom and prizedom."