By Frank Nunns OConnell, CNN

(CNN) — The Seattle Seahawks came back from a 16-point, fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Rams 38-37 in an overtime thriller on Thursday night to officially clinch a playoff spot for the first time since the Pete Carroll era.

With both teams coming into the matchup at 11-3 – tied for the top spot in the NFC – neither disappointed at Lumen Field in one of the most highly anticipated games of Week 16.

Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold – who threw four picks against the Rams in the Seahawks’ Week 11 loss to their division rivals – tossed two interceptions, but the 28-year-old made up for it with 270 yards through the air and two clutch scores in the fourth quarter and OT.

Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III rushed for 100 yards and a score, fellow RB Zach Charbonnet added another touchdown on the ground while Rashid Shaheed scored on a sensational 58-yard punt return to kick start the comeback with just over eight minutes left in the game.

Rams quarterback and MVP frontrunner Matthew Stafford threw 29-of-49 for 457 yards and three touchdowns on the night while LA’s star wideout Puka Nacua – who came into the game under fire and having apologized for an antisemitic gesture he made on an internet livestream – racked up a career-high 225 receiving yards on 12 receptions, including two touchdowns.

An intense contest

It was the Rams who had the advantage going into halftime as they took a 13-7 lead courtesy of back-to-back field goals and a Stafford touchdown pass to tight end Terrance Ferguson after Charbonnet had given the Seahawks the lead after just under eight minutes into the game.

Seattle opened the second half with a scoring drive of its own as Walker evaded Rams defenders for a 55-yard rush to the house, giving his team a slim 14-13 lead early in the third.

But Los Angeles quickly hit back, scoring 17 unanswered points.

First, the Rams marched downfield to set up a Harrison Mevis 41-yard field goal. Then cornerback Josh Wallace picked off Darnold and ran it back to the Seattle one-yard line, allowing rookie running back Blake Corum to punch it in for the touchdown on the next play.

LA capped off the flurry at the top of the fourth when Stafford led a nine-play, 85-yard drive that ended in a Nacua touchdown, giving the Rams a 30-14 lead with 13:36 left.

It looked as if the Rams had sealed the game when Darnold was picked off by defensive tackle Kobie Turner at LA’s one-yard line.

But Seattle’s defense stood firm and forced LA to punt in the next drive – then came Shaheed. The speedster returned the punt for a touchdown and Darnold connected with Cooper Kupp on the two-point conversion to cut the Rams lead in half and set up a dramatic final eight minutes of regulation.

After another Rams three-and-out, Shaheed ran 31 yards before Darnold found AJ Barner, who reeled in a 26-yard reception for the touchdown.

Then came arguably one of the most bizarre two-point conversions in recent league history to further add drama and intrigue to the contest. Darnold’s deflected pass intended for Charbonnet was initially ruled incomplete, but after a replay review, the play was determined to be a backward pass.

Charbonnet, who had casually picked up the loose ball in the end zone, was thus credited with a successful conversion, tying the game 30-30 with 6:30 left in regulation.

“I’ve never quite seen anything like what happened on the two-point conversion,” said R

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

(CNN) — There is a saying among people who forage in the wild for food: “There are old mushroom hunters, there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters.”

Edible mushrooms can look—and taste—a lot like lethal ones, a fact exploited by murderers from ancient times to 2023’s notorious triple killing by death cap mushroom in Australia. But plenty of people simply seeking to gather a delicious meal from nature have suffered the painful or deadly consequences of confusing a toxic variety of fungus or plant for one that is tasty and nutritious.

Foraging has grown in popularity since the pandemic as a way to connect more with nature, said Dr. Matthew Nelsen, senior research scientist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. That means more and more people need to learn about how to manage the risks of harvesting food from the wild.

Wild carrots and poison hemlock, for example, are often considered lookalikes. So are wild garlic and death camas, a plant that can cause vomiting, convulsions, coma and death.

Mushrooms can be particularly hard to tell apart, which is why they are the cause of so much concern (and so many hospital visits). Dr. Greg Mueller, chief scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, said that a white mushroom growing in your yard could be the wild version of ones you would buy in the store, or a variety that can cause stomach problems, or the infamous death cap.

Yet Mueller and other proponents of foraging say that if you’re armed with the right knowledge and preparation, you can stay out of trouble while expanding your diet to take advantage of nature’s offerings.

The appeal of eating from the wild

Why bother foraging? Especially for mushrooms?

Well, Dr. Shan Yin, medical director of the drug and poison information center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, wouldn’t. With the risk of improperly identifying and suffering health consequences, he is only eating mushrooms he’s bought at a store.

But foragers say they find real benefits.

“One of the beauties of foraging is it’s really an amazing way for people to experience nature and have … a really tactile relationship with nature,” said Mueller.

A fresh mushroom also can have incredible flavor, Mueller added. It is like the difference between a tomato wrapped in cellophane from the grocery store in January and those picked straight from a garden in July, he said.

“They may be round and red, but there’s not much other things that are similar to them,” he said.

Robin Greenfield, a sustainable living activist in Wisconsin, is currently undergoing a year of foraging all his food –– no shopping, not even gardening, just gathering what he can find in the natural environment. “Food and medicine really is growing freely and abundantly all around us,” he said.

Greenfield recalled eating handfuls of berries in Olympic National Forest.

“I felt this deep level of interconnectedness, that I was just a part of this land, not separate from this land, and that I belong there,” he said.

How to get started (safely)

Making that kind of connection begins with having the proper information. “The number one rule of foraging is you only eat any plant if you’re if you’re 100% sure that you’ve identified it correctly, and you know how to eat it,” Greenfield said. “If you do that, you’re not going to die.”

Your foraging adventure can start in your own backyard — or that of a loved one who gives you permission, Greenfield said.

You can begin with easy to identify edible plants that don’t have a scary lookalike, like dandelion, beebalms and fruits, he added.

While there are books and online r

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

(CNN) — Upon arriving at the James Madison University campus in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains in 1999, Jeff Bourne spied a 12,500-seat football stadium on a campus that only started playing the sport a little more than 25 years earlier.

He somehow saw a future.

He ignored the lackluster three-win season from the year previous, tut-tutted the notion that a school that only started to admit men in 1966 could be a pigskin player and dismissed the financial burden that launching an upper echelon football program would bring.

And then the athletic director did something even more audacious than daring to dream big: He waited. College athletics is not made for the patient; it is the ultimate grab and go, dominated by people who want success tomorrow and the financial fruits of their labor yesterday. Planning is for those who want to be left behind, the tortoise gets run roughshod by the hare.

Yet as the College Football Playoff launches this weekend, James Madison is not only part of the plan; the university’s impact is all over the sport.

The Dukes, who played their first football game in 1972 and joined the FBS a whopping three years ago, will play at Oregon, which has been funded largely by a Nike swoosh created a year before JMU football came into existence. When the Dukes’ season ends, their head coach will continue his equally improbable career trajectory. Two years ago, Bob Chesney was the head coach at Holy Cross. In 2026, he will take over at UCLA, continuing the rarely traveled road from Worcester, Massachusetts, to Westwood.

Meanwhile, Chesney’s predecessor, Curt Cignetti – who coached the very first FBS football game at JMU, a win against Middle Tennessee State – is waiting at Indiana, preparing for the Rose Bowl with the Heisman Trophy winner and the top-ranked team in the nation.

And it is all because the university did something no one wants to do anymore – it took its time.

“It really is pretty incredible, and it was not always easy,’’ Bourne, who retired in 2024, told CNN Sports. “Especially when your peers are moving. Your fans don’t want to hear ‘be patient.’ They tell you they’re tired of waiting. You have to ride against the tide a little bit. But I think it was worth it.’’

The slow build of a powerhouse

There was, in fact, always a plan. When Bourne arrived from Georgia Tech, he and then-university president Dr. Ronald Carrier – and, soon after, Linwood Rose – envisioned growing the football program, not just to be a money maker but as a way to make the campus even more inviting for its students.

Which is actually how the whole program started. Founded as an all-women teaching college in 1908, JMU first admitted men in 1966 and upon arriving five years later Carrier, the university president, thought adding football would help the school pivot its image.

Head coach Challace McMillin essentially recruited his roster out of class registration lines. The Dukes played their first game on October 7, 1972, losing 6-0 to the junior varsity from West Virginia’s Shepherd College.

Things were slightly better by the time Bourne got to campus. James Madison transitioned to I-AA (now FCS) in 1980 and even tasted a few NCAA berths through the late 1990s.

But the real catapult came with the arrival of Mickey Matthews. Hired at the same time as Bourne, Matthews led the Dukes all the way to the I-AA championship in 2004, giving both the administration and the fan base a taste of what could be.

The university invested in the infrastructure, building the Plecker Athletic Performance C

* WHAT…Visibility one quarter mile or less in dense fog.

* WHERE…San Luis Obispo County Beaches, San Luis Obispo County
Inland Central Coast, Santa Barbara County Central Coast Beaches,
Santa Barbara County Inland Central Coast, and Santa Ynez Valley.

* WHEN…Until 10 AM PST this morning.

* IMPACTS…Low visibility could make driving conditions hazardous.
If driving, slow down, use your headlights, and leave plenty of
distance ahead of you.

The post Dense Fog Advisory issued December 19 at 4:21AM PST until December 19 at 10:00AM PST by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por CNN

Claudio Neves Valente, sospechoso del tiroteo en la Universidad de Brown y de la muerte de un profesor del MIT, no tenía antecedentes penales conocidos en Estados Unidos, afirmaron este jueves las autoridades.

“No tenemos conocimiento de ningún antecedente penal en Estados Unidos”, declaró la fiscal federal para el distrito de Massachusetts, Leah Foley, en una conferencia de prensa.

Neves Valente usó una licencia de conducir de Florida para alquilar el Nissan Sentra en Boston, según la declaración jurada.

Neves Valente asistió a la Universidad Brown durante tres semestres como estudiante de posgrado y no tenía ninguna afiliación activa con la escuela en el momento del tiroteo del sábado, afirmó la presidenta Christina H. Paxson en un comunicado el jueves por la noche.

“Él no era un estudiante actual, no era un empleado y no recibió un título de la Universidad, asistió solo durante tres semestres”, apuntó.

“Neves Valente fue admitido en la Escuela de Posgrado de Brown para estudiar en el programa de Maestría en Ciencias y Doctorado en Física”, decía el comunicado, que indica que estuvo matriculado desde el otoño de 2000 hasta la primavera de 2001.

Posteriormente, se tomó una licencia y se retiró formalmente de la universidad el 31 de julio de 2003.

“Durante su tiempo en Brown, Neves Valente estuvo inscrito solo en clases de física, y es probable que haya tomado cursos y pasado tiempo en Barus & Holley”, agregó Paxson, refiriéndose al edificio donde ocurrió el tiroteo.

“Nada puede cerrar por completo las vidas destrozadas por la violencia armada del fin de semana pasado. Ahora, sin embargo, nuestra comunidad tiene la oportunidad de avanzar y comenzar un camino de reparación, recuperación y sanación”, manifesta el comunicado, emitido después de que la policía anunciara el hallazgo del sospechoso muerto.

Los investigadores creen que el sospechoso Claudio Neves Valente apuntó específicamente al profesor del MIT Nuno Loureiro, comnetó a CNN este jueves un funcionario de la ley.

Neves Valente fue responsable de la muerte de Loureiro en su domicilio de Brookline, Massachusetts, días después del ataque al campus, según la fiscalía.

El supuesto atacante asistió previamente al mismo programa académico que Loureiro en Portugal, entre 1995 y 2000.

Los investigadores no creen actualmente que las dos personas que murieron en Brown, donde el sospechoso estudiaba a principios de la década de 2000, fueran objetivos directos, declaró el agente del orden.

Las dos víctimas, de 18 y 19 años, eran estudiantes de la Universidad de Brown.

Los investigadores aún no tienen una idea clara de qué motivó el tiroteo en la Universidad de Brown, informó el jueves el jefe de policía de Providence, Oscar L. Pérez Jr.

“No tenemos un motivo. Como saben, esto se desarrolló con extrema rapidez. En este momento, vamos a investigarlo más a fondo, trabajando en estrecha colaboración con nuestros socios federales, para obtener más información. Pero