Rashaad Dominic Powell (born June 14, 1981 in Renton, Washington) is an American professional basketball player.

Powell is the League Commissioner for the Seattle Basketball Pro-Am.
Scholastic

Powell attended Renton High School in Renton, graduating in 1999. As a senior, he average 20 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks per game en route to becoming the league]s most valuable player. He then attended Chemeketa Community College (Salem, Oregon) from September 1999 to June 2001. While at Chemeketa, Powell continued to hone his skills, playing multiple positions. By his sophomore year he was the team co-captain, and concluded the season averaging 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block per game. Upon graduating with a General Studies Associate Arts degree, he accepted an offer from the University of Idaho to join the team as a walk-on. By the third game he had become a starter. He would be sidelined shortly thereafter due to a dislocated right shoulder, and would medical redshirt the remainder of the 2001–2002 season. Powell returned for the next two seasons. Powell was also named the 2003–04 Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year, while graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication with a minor in Recreation.
Professional

He began his professional career in 2004–05 in the American Basketball Association (ABA) with the Bellevue Blackhawks, as he was the first player signed in franchise history. His career was yet again put on hold, as he suffered a broken right hand shortly after training camp. In the fall of 2005 he was invited to training camp with the Yakama Sun Kings of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), and was the last player released before the season began.

Powell returned to the ABA for the 2005–06 season signing with the Tacoma Navigators. At the conclusion of the ABA season, he signed with the Seattle Mountaineers of the International Basketball League (IBL)[1] and was named First Team All-IBL, IBL Western Conference All-Star (All-Star game Most Valuable Player), and number 16 in Pro Basketball News' Top 20 Minor League Players in America. In the fall of 2006 Powell was invited to mini-camp with the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) prior to the start of their training camp. He then signed with the Everett Explosion of the IBL for the 2006–07 season, in which he was named to the Western Conference All-Star team.

Following the 2007 IBL season, Powell signed with Club de Deportes Provincial Llanquihue de Puerto Varas in the División Mayor del Básquetbol de Chile. From August 2007 to November 2007 he averaged 29 points per game, 11 rebounds per game, five assists per game, two steals per game, and one block per game. He led the league in virtually every statistical category, and prior to his departure, was ranked the number one player in the league. In November 2007 he returned to the United States, was in invited to training camp again with the Yakama Sun Kings of the CBA, and again was the last player released prior to season. Shortly thereafter, he signed with the Albany Patroons of the CBA. Prior to the conclusion of the CBA season, Powell signed with the Sharjah Club in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. In 2011 he played for the West Coast Hotshots in the International Basketball League.[2]

Nick Ferguson (born November 27, 1974 in Miami, Florida) is a former American football safety in the National Football League. He was originally signed by the Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent in 1996. He played college football at Georgia Tech.

Ferguson has also been a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Rhein Fire, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Denver Broncos in his career.

Mack Strong is the Seattle Seahawks former fullback player and assistant running back coach; for more than 14 years Mack Strong has built an entire career full of Seahawk memories with just one fortunate NFL team. He recently retired after an unexpected career ending neck injury. Former Seahawk Coach Holmgren is quoted as saying, “Mack is one of the greatest men I’ve been around…great teammate, great leader”.

As a professional athlete, Mack was known to inspire people both in the stadium and in the community. Mack has received numerous awards from Seahawks staff and other NFL players, including the Unsung Hero award (2001, 2002) and the Ed Block courage award (2001). He is also the only multiple recipient of the Steve Largent Award, which he has won five times (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006). On the field, Mack is second in Seahawk history for games played at 201 and is behind only Joe Nash (218). Mack was voted twice to the Pro Bowl and once to the All Pro Team in 2005; as well, he had the incredible opportunity to be a major contributor to the Seahawks journey to Super Bowl XL. On August 30, 2008, Mack joined the Fox Sports Northwest network’s talent team. In addition to providing insight and commentary on FSN’s Seahawks coverage, he also was given his own show, titled “Mack Strong: Seahawks Insider. Plus he can be heard on KJR regularly, and continues to stay active in various media responsibilities.

Some of his greatest achievements, however, are off the field. Mack has served on the Washington board of HOPE worldwide – a non-profit organization, which develops programs around the world for the most underserved and in need. Mack is married to his wife Zoë and they have two boys, Isaiah and Evan. Together they founded Strong Alliance a company that focuses on corporate team building and the development of youth education and leadership programs.

Their outstanding commitment to enhancing the lives of children in our community has earned Mack and Zoë several awards including the 2009 Mark Matthews Service to Children Award, 2011 Washingtonian of the Year award from the Association of Washington Generals and the Seattle Indian Health Board’s Adeline Garcia Community Service Award.

Wendi Finn has always known something about balance. She proved that point when she won national awards as a gymnast while at the University of Illinois Chicago. But these days, she is dealing “balance” from a very different perspective. How do you balance your need to use the Internet for business, pleasure or any number of other reasons with the need to protect yourself?

Hoping to help people achieve that goal, she is currently the owner of IS Security Solutions, LLC. As a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Information Systems Auditor, she assists organizations in control consciousness, security awareness and process improvement.  She is also the author of One Fateful Night and A Beginner’s Guide to Online Security.

Jen Mueller, America’s Expert Talker is rarely at a loss for words.  She pursued a career in sports broadcasting after repeated comments of “talks too much” from teachers and family members. 

Jen launched Talk Sporty to Me in 2009 and teaches business professionals how to improve communication and leverage fandom in business.  Jen published her first book Game Time: Learn to Talk Sports in 5 Minutes a Day for Business in June.

In addition to her role with Talk Sporty to Me, Jen is a reporter and producer for ROOT Sports Northwest in Seattle.  She is also a member of the Seattle Seahawks radio broadcasting team, serving as their sideline reporter since 2009.

Jen graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2000 with degrees in Broadcasting Journalism and Public Policy.

James T. Tague spent 5 years in the Air Force, had a career in the automobile business rising to top management and is today recognized as a top researcher on the Kennedy assassination. It was an accident of timing that he was in Dealey Plaza that November day in 1963 and received a minor injury during the assassination of President Kennedy. But it was no accident that James Tague spoke up 6 months later when the Warren Commission was about to ignore the missed shot – his testimony changed history.

ABOUT LBJ AND THE KENNEDY KILLING...
This is unlike any other book about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The author, James Tague, was there and he was wounded by the debris from a missed shot on that fateful day. He stood up to our Government when the Warren Commission was about to ignore what really happened and spoke to the true facts. James Tague’s testimony changed history and the “magic bullet” was born in an effort by the Warren Commission to wrongly explain all the wounds to President Kennedy and Governor Connally, and to try and convince the public that Lee Harvey Oswald was the “lone nut assassin.” Tague, a long time Dallas area resident, initially believed the Warren Report, but time, diligent research and amazing revelations told to him by prominent Texans has given James Tague an inside look at what really happened. Be prepared to learn new facts, never before published, about one of our nation’s darkest moments.

 Born in Plainfield, Indiana Tague had been driving to downtown Dallas to have lunch with a friend when he came upon a traffic jam due to the presidential motorcade. He then stopped his car, got out of it, and stood by Dealy Plaza, at the south curb of Main Street, 520 feet (158 m) southwest of the Texas School Book Depository. He was a few feet east of the eastern edge of the triple underpass railroad bridge, when Tague saw the presidential limousine, and heard the first shot.

Like many other witnesses, Tague remembered hearing this first shot and likened it to a firecracker. Tague later testified that the first shot he recalled hearing occurred after the presidential limousine had already completed the 120-degree slow turn from Houston Street onto Elm Street and then straightened out. The motorcade then proceeded towards him.

Tague's position in Dealey PlazaSoon after the shots were fired, Tague was approached by Dallas sheriff detective Buddy Walthers. The detective asked Tague where he had been standing. The two men then examined the area and discovered — on the upper part of the Main Street south curb — a "very fresh scar" impact that, to each of them, looked like a bullet had struck there and taken a small chip out of the curb's concrete. They came to the conclusion that one bullet ricocheted off the curb and the debris hit Tague. The detective told Tague it looked like a bullet had been fired from one of the Houston and Elm Streets intersection buildings and had hit the curb.

Conjecture and conflicting theories have clouded the true events of what happened in Dealey Plaza that day. People theorize that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. Others claim there were more shooters and/or conspirators involved. Like the various conflicting assassination theories, there are several conflicting theories explaining how Tague was wounded in Dealey Plaza. An in-depth and unbiased analysis of all of the possible scenarios involving James Tague being wounded in Dealey Plaza is one of many requisites for reaching a conclusion about what actually happened during the assassination of John Kennedy.  
From James Tagues's new book LBJ and The Kennedy Killing:

“ I had not been called to testify before the Warren Commission and there was no mention of the missed shot. By accident I came into contact with a young Dallas Times Herald reporter that very morning. His name was Jim Lehrer, he came to my place of business. Before I told Jim Lehrer about the missed shot and my minor injury during the assassination, I asked Mr. Lehrer not to use my name. He agreed.

It had been over six months since the assassination of President Kennedy and there had been almost no mention in the media, newspaper or television, of a missed shot or my minor injury. By now if I told someone I had been there in Dealey Plaza when the assassination occurred, and that a bullet had hit the street in front of me throwing debris into my face during the shooting, they would look at me like I was the biggest liar in the world, and turn and walk away shaking their heads.

I told Jim Lehrer how I happened to be in Dealey Plaza by accident, getting stopped by traffic and then the gunshots. It was about 9:30 in the morning on June 5, 1964 when I met Mr. Lehrer. I had just returned from the Indianapolis 500-mile race and had some spectacular film developed the day before that I had taken at the race of the crash that killed Eddie Sachs and Steve McDonald.

I brought my 8mm movie projector to work to show my work buddies the film I had taken of the Indy crash and also the Dealey Plaza film I had taken in early May to show my parents, when I went to the Indy 500.

After the interview about my being in Dealey Plaza, the missed shot, and my minor injury during the Kennedy assassination, I showed Mr. Lehrer the Dealey Plaza film and then I showed the Indy crash. I remember asking Lehrer if there was any value to the Indy film and he told me no, a week had passed and it was now old news.

About an hour after Lehrer left my office, around 11 a.m., he called me all excited. The Dallas Times Herald was an evening newspaper and it had not come out yet, but he had put my story on the wire services. He stated he was getting calls “from all over,” including the Warren Commission, wanting to know who I was, and he had to tell them. He assured me he was not using my name in the story in the local paper. It was years before I was able to put the whole story together and realize what Jim Lehrer’s interview had triggered.

One thing I found out was that the FBI was at Lehrer’s Dallas Times Herald office at 4:30 that afternoon and their FBI report was not kind to me. I have a copy of that FBI report of their meeting with Lehrer that afternoon of June 5, 1964.

One of the things in that FBI report that aggravated me was that my asking Mr. Lehrer if the film about the Indy crash I had showed him had any value was now in the FBI report saying I was trying to make money off of the assassination of President Kennedy. There were other non-flattering things in the Lehrer-FBI report. People in the know have told me that is the way the FBI writes their reports when they want to discredit you.

The attempt to discredit me by the FBI was short-lived when two United State Assistant Attorney Generals assigned to the Dallas U. S. Attorney General’s office stepped forward with evidence of the missed shot and sent the evidence to J. Lee Rankin, Chief Counsel for the Warren Commission. I was then called to testify before the Warren Commission on July 23, 1964. ”

Miko Peled is a peace activist who dares to say in public what others still choose to deny. He has credibility, so when he debunks myths that Jews around the world hold with blind loyalty, people listen. Miko was born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well known Zionist family. His grandfather, Dr.  Avraham Katsnelson was a Zionist leader and signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

His father, Matti Peled was a young officer in the war of 1948 and a general in the war of 1967 when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and the Sinai.

Miko’s unlikely opinions reflect his father’s legacy. General Peled was a war hero turned peacemaker. The general clearly stated that contrary to claims made later, the 1967 war was one of choice, and not because there was no existential threat to the state of Israel. He then dedicated his life to the achievement of Israeli Palestinian peace.

The political becomes personal with Miko’s stories. He might have learned compassion from his mother who, in 1948, refused the offer of an Arab home in West Jerusalem with the understanding that the family who lived there were now forced to live in a refugee camp. As the daughter of one of the signers of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Miko’s mother could have used her position of entitlement to get a lovely home for herself and her family. But she said, “No.”

Miko grew up in Jerusalem, a multi-ethnic city, part of a system that conspired to keep Palestinians and Israelis separate. The Arabs of Israel, as the Palestinians are called– the laborers, janitors, cooks, etc. are indistinguishable from Arabs across the Middle East and as such had no special connection to Jaffa, Lod, Ramle, Lydda, Haifa, Jerusalem or any other part of the land of Israel. Miko had to leave Israel before he made his first Palestinian friend, the result of his participation in a dialogue group in California. He was 39.

Peled insists that Israel/Palestine is one state. Facts on the ground are undeniable and irreversible– massive investment in infrastructure, cities,schools and malls for Jews only, Jewish only highways bisect and connect ever expanding settlements on the West Bank, the separation wall and the checkpoints have destroyed the possibility of a contiguous, viable Palestinian state. The question for Israelis, worldwide Jewry and the international community is: What kind of a state do we really want to see? An apartheid state with half the population confined to intolerable bantustans, without access to proper nutrition, medical care or clean water, condemned to humiliating long lines at checkpoints?

Or, will Israel/Palestine transform itself into a secular democracy for the five and a half million Israelis and almost five million Palestinians who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. To become such a sanctuary, Israel must give up the idea of Jewish dominion over all the land and resources.

Before Miko came to hold such a vision, he had to face his fears. Driving alone in the to Palestinian towns in the Galilee or the West Bank in a car with license plates that identified him as Israeli, Miko imagined a terrorist lurking behind every curve of the winding road following the rolling hills. Heading towards the village of Bil’in for the first time, he silently questioned if he was crazy to trust “these people”? Peled was afraid but kept on driving until he found the village and was greeted by friends.

The solution might be obvious but the problem remains, how to change the existing paradigm– from fear and loathing to co-existence? At the heart of Peled’s solution lies the realization that Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in peace as equals in their shared homeland. At the a gathering in Taos, New Mexico, an Israeli woman who heard Miko speak told Miko that his father was the hero of her childhood, and in fact, a photograph of the general hung in their home. “It is an honor to meet the son of Matti Peled,” she said, “I had given up hope for any kind of just solution and try to stay removed from events there but I see how much you care and meeting you gives me hope.”

Those who cling to fear, mistrust or greed are under the false assumption that Palestinians and Israelis have a choice other than to live as equals. But it’s inevitable – the wall must come down, and the two people must be allowed to live as equal citizens in their shared homeland. Refusing this means condemning future generations of Israelis and Palestinians to ongoing mayhem and violence.

And Miko Peled’s family knows about that too. On September 4, 1997 they have lost their beloved Smadar, 13, the daughter of Miko’s sister Nurit and her husband Rami Elhanan to violence.

The bible tells us a great story of the patriarch Abraham willing to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac to prove his faith. At the moment of truth, when Abraham was about to kill his son an angel appeared telling Abraham not to harm the boy. In the Koran, Abraham is about to sacrifice Ishmael to the same God and the angel of God appears telling him not to harm his beloved son, Ishmael. The moral of the story is quite clear: Neither Israelis or Palestinians are called to sacrifice their sons and daughters to war, in fact, whether we are believers or not we are all called by our God or our conscience to care for our children so that they may live in peace and grow up as the equals that they are.    

ABOUT THE GENERAL'S SON by Miko Peled
In 1997, a tragedy struck the family of Israeli-American Miko Peled: His beloved niece Smadar was killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. That tragedy propelled Peled onto a journey of discovery. It pushed him to re-examine many of the beliefs he had grown up with, as the son and grandson of leading figures in Israel's political-military elite, and transformed him into a courageous and visionary activist in the struggle for human rights and a hopeful, lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Esteemed African-American author Alice Walker has contributed a very moving and thoughtful Foreword to The General's Son.

The journey that Peled traces in this groundbreaking memoir echoed the trajectory taken 40 years earlier by his father, renowned Israeli general Matti Peled. In The General's Son, Miko Peled tells us about growing up in Jerusalem in the heart of the group that ruled the then-young country, Israel. He takes us with him through his service in the country's military and his subsequent global travels... and then, after his niece's killing, back into the heart of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. The book provides a compelling and intimate window into the fears that haunt both peoples-- but also into the real courage of all those who, like Miko Peled, have been pursuing a steadfast grassroots struggle for equality for all the residents of the Holy Land.

Guest for tonight:  BEV MARTIN, Spiritual Coach