Three Topeka City Council members acknowledged Friday that Councilman Brett Blackburn asked them to co-sponsor a proposal to authorize the acquisition of a police helicopter in advance of Tuesday's meeting in which the purchase was approved.

Latest ULM blog: Outback Classic golf approaching fast

TIM HOLCOMB: The accolades for ULM's 2008 recruiting class continue. On Friday, Rivals.com's junior college recruiting service JCGridiron.com (http://jcgridiron.rivals.com/) published its rankings of the 2008 JUCO classes nationwide. ULM's 2008 junior college recruiting class finished ranked at No. 36 in the nation. According to JCGridiron.com, the top 10 junior college classes are (in order): No. 1 Florida State, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Oregon State, No. 5 Arizona, No. 6 Texas Tech, No. 7 Kansas, No. 8 Minnesota, No. 9 Oregon, and No. 10 West Virginia. Four Sun Belt schools (Middle Tenn, Troy, UNT, and ULM) were ranked in the top 40. ULM's 2008 signing class boasts seven junior college signees: two offensive linemen, three defensive linemen, and two defensive backs. Six players boast a three-star rating by national services like Rivals.com or Scout.com, including Thomas Robinson (6-1 280), Aaron Williams (6-0 300), Alex Ford (6-2 305), safety Troy Giddens (6-0 205 4.3), cornerback Otis Stamps (5-10 175 4.5), and Keating Helms (6-3 308).

Amy Winehouse 'Raring to Go' for Grammy Video Performance

Although Amy Winehouse won't be able to appear in person at this year's Grammy Awards, she says she can't wait to sing live from a London studio. "I'm raring to go and really excited to be performing at my first Grammy Awards," Winehouse said in a statement released Friday. It was announced on Thursday that U.S. officials in London would not issue her a work visa to enter the United States. "I'd like to thank everyone for their support over the last couple of weeks. I'm really sorry I can't be there but I appreciate that I'm being given a second chance via satellite," said Winehouse, who is nominated for six Grammys, including record of the year and best pop vocal album for Back to Black. In preparation for her performance, Winehouse will leave the rehab facility in central London where she has been recovering for the past two weeks, according to her rep.

Dietary exercises take students from brainstorms to brain freezes

There was a whole lot of slurping going on at Franklin School on Thursday. And there may have been a few children suffering from brain freeze.For the second time this year, lunchtime was turned into a lively nutrition lesson as kids participated in a "Mix It Up" activity focused on the benefits of eating fruit. Their reward for paying attention? A frozen 5-ounce serving of a "strawberry whirl" or "pomegranate paradise" smoothie from Jamba Juice."It doesn't just taste good, it tastes really good!" said first-grader Raghav Bangalore.During each lunch session, students were randomly assigned to one of six tables and asked to brainstorm different ways to eat a banana, apple, cantaloupe, strawberries, raspberries or pomegranate.Fifth-graders Kole Bartley and Kieley Trempy found themselves sitting at the "pomegranate table." They said they loved pomegranates and described the taste as between sweet and sour."You have to eat the seeds," said Kieley, to nods of agreement from Kole.

Bush, Dick and the Hummer

Look I'm not going to get in the way of today's planned protest, but I want to make this very, very clear: Stay the hell away from the 217 this year. I swear, if you hemp-wearing, yoga-loving, tofu-eating, weirdos place your unshowered bodies between me and my weekly trip to In-N-Out for animal style fries and a burger, I'll run over as many of you as the cops will allow before arresting me and secretly setting me free for doing society a favor. You let me get to my red meat, and I'll let you keep on pretending like President Bush actually gives a shit what a few thousand students 3,000 miles away think. Nobody needs to get hurt.