The Seattle Seahawks will be sending six players to this year's Pro Bowl. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, tackle Walter Jones, defensive end Patrick Kerney, linebackers Julian Peterson and Lofa Tatupu and cornerback Marcus Trufant were selected Tuesday to represent the club in the 2008 Pro Bowl. All but Hasselbeck were named starters.
For Jones, this will mark his seventh consecutive trip to the NFL's annual all-star game, tying a club record with his eighth overall (1999, 2001-07). Cortez Kennedy also made the trip to Honolulu eight times during his 11-year playing career.
Hasselbeck will make his third trip to the Pro Bowl and has already set the club's single-season record for completions (319) and is on pace to set the mark for attempts and yards. ...

By adopting 12 minority ownership proposals and putting 13 more proposals out for comment, the FCC marked December 18, 2007 – coincidentally MMTC's 21st birthday -- as one of the best days in the history of minority media ownership. 
The day was marred only by the FCC's use of a poorly defined "small business" eligibility criterion for three of the proposals it adopted.  Apparently only about 8.5% of small business-owned commercial radio stations are minority owned – barely more than the 7.8% of all commercial radio stations that are minority owned.  MMTC will act promptly to secure a correction of the FCC's unfortunate mistake. 
The FCC's minority ownership decision was taken separately from its decision to relax its broadcast-newspaper crossownership rule, and is not contingent on the crossownership decision. ...

The Cities of Bellevue, Bothell, Issaquah, Kenmore, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Sammamish, Shoreline,…

Throughout last year we measured how many hits you give us on the stories we put upon this website, and here are the stories you rated top of the month in 2007. Thanks you readers!

Ray Ballentine was waiting for a sign to throw his support to Barack Obama. And when Obama coasted to victory in Iowa's caucuses, there it was -- evidence that the senator had the broad racial appeal to get to the White House.
"I did have some reservations before, but he certainly got my vote now," Ballentine said, eating a brisket and roast turkey salad with hush puppies at The Q Shack, a barbecue joint in Raleigh, N.C. "I was sort of undecided, but I feel like he can win the presidency."
Obama's convincing win in Thursday's caucuses in Iowa -- a state with just a smattering of minority voters -- demonstrated the Illinois senator's support crosses racial lines and bolstered the notion that America is receptive to electing its first black president.

DES MOINES IOWA -- Oregon state Senator Margaret Carter, standing on a snowy doorstep, chatted with a voter inside, doing what she does best: talking politics. But this time it's not for her own race, but for Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards. And this time the door step is not in Northeast Portland, but in a subdivision in Altoona, Iowa.    
Carter joined her co-chair of the Oregon/John Edwards for President campaign, Portland Attorney Robert Stoll and a half dozen other Oregonians last weekend to help with down-to-the-wire campaign efforts. Fanning out from their hotel in downtown Des Moines, they've phone-banked from the Steelworkers Union Hall and braved 9 degree temperatures and slippery sidewalks in order to tell as many Iowans as possible why John Edwards is the most elect-able candidate among the field of seven Democratic hopefuls. 

Hundreds of children turned up at Legacy Emannuel's Atrium last weekend for the Community Cycling Center's annual bike giveaway, which offers low-income children the opportunity to enjoy the fun and freedom of cycling. Volunteers for the center repair bikes year round for the giveaway. Pictured here, from left, are: Aaliyah ScottMorton, 6;  Aneesha Scott-Morton 8; and Johnathan Scott-Morton, 10,; with their uncle, Thomas Golden. Every kid also gets fitted for and receives a helmet, and then heads outside to pass a mini-safety course before heading off to his own neighborhood to take his wheels for a spin.

Look out mainstream Portland. A new group has come together that aims to boost the political influence of minority voters statewide. So if you believe that issues that matter to people of color oftentimes are sidelined in policy discussions, you might want to take a look at the Oregon League of Minority Voters.
The group has just formed and has plans to launch its first campaign early next year. With an office based on N. Lombard, and two employees, the league hopes to launch its first political initiatives in early 2008.
"A vast majority of people feel disconnected with proposed public policies," said board member Jennifer Harry, a business lending officer with Pacific West bank. "Our goal is — through education and debates — we want Americans to feel ownership of the policies, through understanding, increased votership and participation in the political process."
As well as ensuring people of color have a say in policy formation, the group hopes to offer help to nonprofits, organizations and potential candidates.
"In addition to policy education, our mission is to provide grants research, policy advice to state and local organizations and provide communication counseling for anyone who wishes to be a more viable political candidate, ...

If any of the accounts of police misconduct at a recent meeting are to be believed, the Independent Police Review Committee isn't doing such a hot job.
"I didn't hear anyone in this room say, 'I had a great experience with the Citizens Review Board' tonight,'" said Eileea Luna-Firebaugh, an attorney and University of Arizona professor, who has been hired by the city to conduct an external review of the IPR and Citizen Review Committee. ...

Donn Spight could have said he just doesn't have the time. The unmarried African American laparoscopic surgeon says he sometimes works 80 hours a week. He could have been the poster child for men who claim to have no time to spare.
But Spight admits that he also wastes a lot of the free time he does have. So instead of hiding behind his busy schedule, he made a yearlong commitment to mentor an African American boy who needs a solid male in his life.
"A lot of people feel they don't have enough time," Spight said. "But to see the impact you can have on someone's life (is very rewarding)."
Spight was one of about 50 mentors who gathered for the Big Brothers Big Sisters' kickoff of the new African American Mentoring Program ...