Domestic abuser threw girlfriend down stairs
Former Wolves player 'most wanted' by police
Fly-tippers cost West Midlands councils millions of pounds
Bow ban for Shiz Tzus at Crufts
Updates from Friday 10 March 2017
Allen Cook
BBC Local Live
Trading standards officers have seized 8,000 illegal cigarettes and 2kg of tobacco in a raid on a Tamworth shop.
Staffordshire County Council say they were found yesterday and included fake Richmond and Mayfair branded cigarettes
Image source, Staffordshire County Council
Mary Rhodes
Presenter, BBC Midlands Today
It's a blight on our landscape, a health hazard and it is costing us millions - fly-tipping. We investigate the cost to councils in the West Midlands of clearing it.
The chief constable of West Midlands Police has denied his force is engaged in "positive discrimination" in the recruitment of black and ethnic minority officers.
Two non-league sides, Bromsgrove Sporting and Coleshill Town, have made it to the semi-finals of the FA Vase, and are dreaming of meeting each other in the final in May.
More on these stories and others on the Midlands Today on BBC One from 18:30.
Never has the word "retweet" been more appropriate.
An appeal shared on social media has seen the owner of a bright green Parakeet which was left behind in Birmingham contact transport police.
It has not been confirmed if the owner is a pirate.
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"Do not resuscitate" forms are controversial. They are kept in a patients' medical notes and completed by the doctor, in consultation with the patient or their next of kin, if they are too unwell.
Why Do Not Resuscitate forms need to be changed
It means if the patients' heart stops, they don't want doctors to re-start it. What's not well known is that doctors and nurses can mistakenly think that other treatment should not be given. The patient is less likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
A trial to replace those forms, tested in Coventry and Birmingham, is be be rolled out across the country. Hear why one patient has chosen to not be resuscitated.
Rebecca Wood
BBC Midlands Today
Overnight it is going to remain mostly cloudy with some hill fog. However, there will also be a few cloud breaks around at times. Lows of 8C (46F).
Find out more about the weekend ahead .
Rebecca Wood has your forecast
BBC Sport
British Cycling has admitted it did not pay "sufficient care and attention" to the wellbeing of staff and athletes at the expense of winning medals.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe organisation was responding to a leaked draft report of an investigation into alleged failings in its culture.
Published in the Daily Mail,, external it claims British Cycling "sanitised" its own probe into claims Shane Sutton used sexist language towards Halesowen's Jess Varnish.
It also spoke of a "culture of fear", with some staff "bullied".
Allen Cook
BBC Local Live
It was invented by author JK Rowling for her Harry Potter books but the sport of Quidditch is heading for its fourth British Quidditch Cup., external
Quidditch players
Hosted at Rugeley Leisure Centre in Staffordshire, teams from across the country will be competing.
The first cup took place in 2013 and 32 teams are set to take part this year .
The motorcyclist who died after his bike hit a barrier on Aston Circus, near to Curzon Circus and Lawley Middleway, at around 04:10 this morning, has been named by police.
West Midlands Police say 38-year-old Ryan Dowling was treated by the ambulance service but despite their best efforts they could do nothing to save the him.
Image source, West Midlands PoliceHis family described him as "a fun, fearless, happy-go-lucky, Peter Pan".
Quote MessageWe continue to piece together the movements of the motorcyclist and the circumstances that led to the collision and we really need people to come forward."
Sgt Alan Wood, West Midlands Police
Crew members got into difficulties as they tried to put one fire out, prosecutors tell a court.
Read More
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
The cost of cleaning up fly-tipping across the West Midlands reached £3m last year.
Image source, North WarwickshireIn north Warwickshire the number of fly-tipping incidents rose from 422 in the year 2012 to 2013 to 788 in 2015 to 2016.
The problem has almost doubled in Stratford-upon-Avon, with 282 incidents last year and the number of incidents in Rugby Borough have risen by a third to 865 in the same period.
Emma Thomas
Political reporter, BBC Radio Stoke
The cost of cleaning up fly-tipping from the streets of the West Midlands reached £3m last year.
Image source, Birmingham City CouncilThe number of times councils were called out to illegal waste has risen by 13% over the last five years.
Campaigners want us to take more responsibility for where our rubbish goes,and say councils need to cut the costs of getting rid of waste to tackle the spread of illegal fly-tipping.
In some cases authorities have been dealing with examples of "industrial-scale" dumping, including 110 fridges which were left in Ithon Grove, Kings Norton last month.
New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme joins Birmingham Bears as one of their overseas players for the 2017 T20 Blast.
Read More
Adrian Goldberg
Presenter, BBC WM
West Midlands Police has been accused in a public meeting of "pushing the boundaries of positive action too far" to make the force more ethnically diverse.
The criticism came from South Yorkshire Police after it visited our region's force to find out about recruiting people from a BAME background - meaning black, Asian, and minority ethnic people.
More than 3,200 people recently applied, external to be a West Midlands Police officer, with more than one third coming from minority ethnic communities, the force said.
South Yorkshire Police criticised its methods, which included advertising in BAME press, and information events and coaching sessions specifically for BAME candidates.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, David Jamieson, who has previously called for more action on this issue , has insisted the force's methods represent "positive action and not positive discrimination - an important distinction".
Meet the candidates vying to be the "metro mayor" of the West Midlands.
Read MoreFormer Wolves footballer, Shaun Newton, is on a London police force's most wanted list, external after he did not turn up at court on a burglary charge.
Image source, Merton PoliceHe was initially given bail and was due to appear at Kingston Crown Court on 13 October.
The 41-year-old, who also played for Charlton and West Ham, was part of the Wolves team who won promotion to the Premier League in 2003.
Merton Police want to know of his whereabouts.
A man's brutal attack on his girlfriend was caught on CCTV.
Read MoreAn illegal Tamworth angler who used "threatening behaviour" after being challenged about his rod licence has been fined in his absence. , external
Image source, Tamworth HeraldA trial to replace "do not resuscitate" orders, tested in Coventry and Birmingham, is be be rolled out across the country.
Image source, Science Photo LibraryThe scheme, called Respect, involves having conversations between patients, relatives and healthcare professionals, and creating a plan for their "end of life".
It also includes better training for clinicians to initiate difficult conversations, and a more detailed, version of the notice.
Dr Zoe Fritz, part of the Respect working group and a fellow in society and ethics at the University of Warwick, said the new process has been carefully developed to "nudge patients and doctors into having difficult conversations".
A man from Kidderminster has been jailed for four years and six months after admitting starting a fire in a toilet on board an aeroplane.
It happened on a Monarch flight from Birmingham to Sharm-el-Sheikh carrying 194 passengers in August 2015, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
John Cox, 46, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
The CPS said the aircraft, travelling at 33,000ft, was forced to initiate an emergency landing until passengers and crew managed to put out the fire and another one in a waste paper bin.
Cox, of Coates Road, was removed from the plane and arrested by police in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
Quote MessageThe motive of John Cox behind such a senseless crime is still unclear, but what is clear is that his irresponsible actions put the lives of all passengers and crew on board the aircraft in danger."
Paul Reid , District Crown Prosecutor from West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service
The former deputy leader of Walsall Council has dubbed as "shocking" a councillor's description of people in Pheasey as "alien" and "foreign" in a council meeting.
Image source, GoogleLabour Councillor Eileen Russell, who represents the St Matthews Ward, used the terms during a discussion about proposed Parliamentary boundary changes and whether Pheasey Park Farm should be considered as part of Birmingham or Walsall.
Councillor Adrian Andrew demanded an apology and Ms Russell said the "two words were taken out of context" and she "certainly meant nothing derogatory and apologised wholeheartedly for any offence given".
