Updates from Monday 4 - Sunday 10 December
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A Coventry woman found with fatal stab injuries at a house in Tile Hill has been named by police as Susan Westwood.
The 68-year-old was pronounced dead at the property in Cavendish Road on Friday 1 December.
Image source, West Midlands PoliceThomas Westwood, 46, of Rosemary Close, Tile Hill, has appeared in court charged with murder.
The prime minister should ditch Number 10's "gas guzzler" and replace it with a modern, electric Jaguar, according to Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant.
Image source, NICK DIMBLEBY/JAGUAR LAND ROVERMr Fabricant appealed to Theresa May to support the car industry in the West Midlands which he said was "at the very heart of European autonomous drive and electric drive cars".
Mrs May said she could make no promises as "sadly the Jaguar in Number 10 Downing Street is not mine" but said she was looking forward to technology developments in self-driving cars.
She also said £31m had been invested in developing new automotive technologies in the West Midlands, including driverless cars.
Severn Trent Water is looking at satellite images to identify water leaks and says the results so far have been "quite promising".
It says images and data from a Japanese satellite can monitor changes in the landscape which would help identify problems more quickly.
Image source, Severn Trent WaterThe water supplier says it has been able to spot leaks ranging from weeping stop taps to mains bursts.
Quote MessageIt sends radiation down and it's looking for a specific signature back of chlorinated water which is mixed in with the ground."
Sam Berry, Severn Trent Water
More than 50 children in north Staffordshire and south Cheshire will be without a permanent home this Christmas, according to the charity Shelter.
It says across the West Midlands and North West, more than 7,500 children will be living with their families in B&Bs, hostels and other temporary accommodation.
Image source, ThinkstockThe charity says 2017 has the seen the highest number of homeless children in a decade, and is blaming cuts to benefits, as well as a shortage of affordable housing.
Riyah Collins
BBC News
This year's civic carol service in Wolverhampton is breaking from tradition and taking place in the Mander shopping centre.
Reverend Chris Collins will be leading the service said it's "a chance to try something different and new".
"Over the years, carol services become the same, and people perhaps lose a bit of interest in them," he said.
The free service begins at 18:00 tonight.
Image source, Wolverhampton Council
BBC Sport
Ian Ward, chairman of Birmingham's bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, has said he "welcomes the robustness of the process" after it was announced that the winning bid may not be revealed until next year.
"All our efforts have been focused on demonstrating that Birmingham would make the ideal host for the 2022 Games," said Mr Ward, who is also leader of Birmingham City Council.
Image source, Birmingham 2022Birmingham was the only interested city before the 30 September deadline but was deemed "not fully compliant".
Last week, The Commonwalth Games Fereration (CGF) said it had "updates" from Australia, Canada and Malaysia - but did not confirm any official bids.
Ian Perry
BBC Radio Shropshire
A group that collects surplus food from retailers in Shrewsbury is appealing for more organisations to benefit.
The Shrewsbury Food Hub says many of its existing clients will close over Christmas.
The charity is looking for other non-profit organisations that could use extra food between 18 December and 2 January.
Court hears of a plan to bomb Downing Street security gates before trying to kill Theresa May.
Read More
Dominic O'Connell
Business Presenter, BBC Radio 4 Today programme
Hamerson, the owner of Birmingham's Bullring and Grand Central shoping centres has aquired its rival Intu in a £3.4bn deal.
The union has been the Holy Grail of property investment for more than a decade.
The end result is a shopping centre monster - £21bn worth of assets across Europe - that will quickly weed out underperforming properties once the deal is done.
Joanne Gallacher
Political reporter, BBC Shropshire
Shrewsbury's three shopping centres could be bought by Shropshire Council for an undisclosed amount of money.
It has revealed it's in negotiations to take over the Charles Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside shopping centres, with council leader Peter Nutting saying it would be both an investment and an "opportunity to shape the future of Shrewsbury".
The authority's Chief Executive Clive Wright said it would be "the biggest investment" it has ever made.
The full council will decide on whether to go ahead with the purchase when they meet later this month.
Quote MessageThis is a substantial investment for Shropshire Council, an investment that could make a real difference to the future of Shrewsbury for the next 50 years, or even longer. I do see it as a very, very exciting opportunity."
Peter Nutting, Leader of Shropshire Council
"There's been no full and independent investigation for who was responsible" for the Birmingham Pub Bombings, according to lawyers for victims' families.
The families are at the High Court in Birmingham today in a bid to overturn coroner Sir Peter Thornton's decision not to identify suspects in new inquests.
Sir Peter's barrister, Peter Skelton QC, said identifying suspects risked turning hearings into a "proxy criminal trial".
"A public conclusion about who bombed Birmingham... is entirely legitimate," Mr Skelton told the court, "but it is not [an aim] that these inquests can achieve."
The families' lawyers said the opportunity for a full investigation would be "lost" if the coroner's decision was not overturned.
The hearing is set to last two days.
The new leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council says the "buck must stop at the top" and promised that future elections will run ok.
Almost 1,500 people were unable to vote in June's general election and Conservative councillor Simon Tagg was voted leader following the resignation of Labour's Elizabeth Shenton last night.
She insisted her decision to step down was not an admission of responsibility for the problems.
Buck must stop at the top says new council leader
Riyah Collins
BBC News
After The Times revealed this morning that chancellor Philip Hammond has been using MoD jets and helicopters to fly to locations including Dudley and Wolverhampton, external, Twitter users have been trying to work out where they might land.
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Drones and satellites are the modern methods used to find water leaks.
Read MoreHere are some of the stories making the headlines on the Birmingham Mail website today:
Six men have been arrested after police discovered cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £1.5m at a poultry farm in Staffordshire.
Image source, Staffordshire PoliceThe barn at Three Angels Farm on Ivetsey Road in Wheaton Aston was filled with more than 3,000 cannabis plants, officers said.
The six men, aged between 17 and 44, are in police custody.
Image source, Staffordshire PoliceQuote MessageThis is the largest and most sophisticated cannabis factory I’ve ever experienced and I am delighted we have been able to take such a large number of drugs off the streets."
Insp Richard Meaden, Staffordshire Police
The Environment Agency says work to prevent flooding around New Road in Worcester could make a big difference to the local economy when the river bursts its banks.
The plans, which involve raising the road by a couple of inches, are due to start in the new year and could take up to four months.
An Environment Agency spokesman said the work was one of a number of schemes to "keep the county going during times of flooding".
Quote MessageIt's only a matter of a couple of inches I think, it's not very much, but that makes quite a big difference in terms of flood impacts. And clearly when Worcester is cut off or gridlocked then there is going to be a very significant impact on the economy and any costs need to be off-set against that kind of economic impact."
Dave Throup, Environment Agency
Stoke-on-Trent's bid to be crowned UK City of Culture in 2021 is trending on Twitter this lunchtime, with the bidding cities all making last-ditch efforts to get themselves noticed on social media.
Last week rivals Coventry were able to get large numbers of people using #ThisisCoventry on Twitter and today #sot2021 is also making a splash.
Image source, @sot2021Yesterday, the Stoke bid team asked its followers to use the hashtag, saying the judges would be monitoring social media today.
Swimmer smashed record and won two world titles - profile of Sports Personality nominee.
Read MoreBirmingham may need to wait until next year to find out if it will host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
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