More time for runners to enter half marathon
Blue badge verification trial launches
West Midlands mayor's salary to be agreed
Wasps centre out for rest of Premiership season
Updates from Friday 3 March 2017
Stephanie Barnard
BBC Local Live
Good morning.
I'll be bringing you the latest news, sport, travel and weather updates for Coventry and Warwickshire between now and 18:00.
If you'd like to get in touch - email , tweet, external or visit our Facebook page, external .
We'll be back with our usual mix of news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 on Thursday.
Keep an eye out here for more updates this evening and into the morning.
The hard work begins now for Warwickshire Bears Women according to coach Jacob Robinson , external after his side were crowned British Wheelchair Basketball Women’s League Division Three (B) champions.
Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today
It will turn windy with showers through the evening, giving some heavy bursts at times. The rain will linger through the early hours, mainly in northern parts, turning to snow over higher ground and perhaps settling in a few places - lows of 2C (36F).
Tomorrow, any rain will linger for some at first on Thursday. However, it will clear through the morning.
Latest weather forecast for the West Midlands
Coventry City will learn tonight who they will face in their first return to Wembley , external in 30 years – after moving a step closer to relegation last night at Bury.
It's 100 days until the Women's Tour passes through Warwickshire.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Here's the route map:
A multi-million pound investment in mobile technology will see frontline police across Warwickshire and West Mercia , external equipped with personal-issue smartphones and laptop computers.
Mike Taylor
BBC WM Sport
Coventry sprinter Marlon Devonish says the World Indoor Athletics Championships being held in the West Midlands could inspire a new generation of athletes.
Devonish who represented the Coventry Godiva club for many years is encouraging people to register their interest for the championships which will be held at Birmingham's NIA in exactly one year.
Image source, EmpicsQuote MessageIt’s great watching on TV, and I encourage that, but there’s no comparison to being able to watch it as a spectator – to see how quickly we’re moving, and how far we’re throwing, and you get the real essence – I’d like to see children and adults involved, thinking ‘I want to be able to try that, I think I can do that’. If you get those thought processes going, you plant that seed, you never know what can happen – and it happens – I remember watching Linford Christie.
Marlon Devonish, Sprinter
Image source, EmpicsDevonish isn't so sure where the time has gone - it's now 14 years since he took gold.
He says: "I remember it very clearly. It was one of my highest accolades, the highest thing I achieved in my athletics career, and I hold it very dear to my heart.”
Tributes were today paid, external to a “British gentleman” killed after being attacked inside a Coventry snooker hall.
Police continue to question a 37-year-old man on suspicion of murder after a 68-year-old man was attacked at a snooker hall in Coventry.
The man was punched to the floor and died from his injuries yesterday, when his life support machine was switched off.
West Midlands Police say the attack on the man happened on Monday at about 23:00.
Give a dog a home - a campaign's been started to find a new home for one of the longest-serving residents of the Dog's Trust kennels in Kenilworth. , external
Image source, Dogs trustRudi who is eight years old, has been living there since 2014 but is said to have "a real zest for life" and is happy with his own company.
Unblocking "bed blocking": A suitable case for treatment?
Read MoreStephanie Barnard
BBC Local Live
The police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands is calling for the £200 fine for drivers caught using their mobile phones to be given to local forces to fund the enforcement of the tougher law.
Image source, DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORTDavid Jamieson, a former transport minister says he welcomes the new tougher measure which he originally helped introduce in 2003 , but should be given to the police forces to help enforce it.
In 2003, when the ban of mobile phones while driving was introduced, came with a £30 fine if drivers were caught using a mobile.
Today, the government has announced a £200 fine and six points after a rise in road deaths. In 2015, 22 people were killed and 99 seriously injured in accidents where a driver was using their phone.
Quote MessageMy force has lost 2,000 officers in the last seven years, that means the blue line is thinner and the capacity for officers to enforce this is more and more difficult. Last year I wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport asking for fines to be recycled back to local police forces so it could be used for enforcement, rather than the tax payer paying for this measure. The level of enforcement at the minute is nowhere near that which the public expect. I'm not calling for new public money, what I am saying is, let the people who have offended, let them pay for the enforcement.
David Jamieson , West Midlands police and crime commissioner
We have contacted the Department for Transport and are awaiting a response.
Twitter
James Hartshorn has been in touch on Twitter , external about Twycross Zoo's plans to find a new home for their four Asian elephants.
He said: "Sad to see them go, here's a photo of them from last year."
Image source, James Hartshorn
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
People in the Rugby area will be paying more council tax next year after councillors approved plans last night., external
An average rise of £5 for the coming year was approved and is said to be the first increased in more than eight years.
The 68-year-old man was punched to the floor and suffered a fatal head injury.
Read MoreKombat Breakers dancer Leeroy Bailey, 35, had been accused of plying a teenage boy with alcohol.
Read MoreMike Taylor
BBC WM Sport
One year from today – 1 March 2018 – the World Indoor Athletics Championships will begin at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.
The event will return to the Arena 15 years after it was last successfully staged there, and was hailed at the time by the athletics world governing body IAAF as the best World Indoors ever staged.
Marlon Devonish, the Coventry sprinter who was one of two British gold medallists at the 2003 event , was present in Birmingham this morning to mark one year to go.
The NIA has a long history of staging sport, and in particular athletics, which has featured regularly since the venue was officially opened – by Olympic sprint champion Linford Christie – in 1991.
The event’s official website is now open to register interest in tickets , external , with updates on Twitter at @WICBham2018.
Rugby & Lutterworth Observer
A brave nine-year-old Lutterworth lad with a rare form of cancer could be kicked out of America, external before finishing the only treatment that could save his life.
A Britain's Got Talent finalist accused of plying a teenage boy with "strong alcohol and beer" has been found not guilty by a jury.
Kombat Breakers dancer Leeroy Bailey, 35, of Heera Close, Coventry denied cruelty to a child by exposing him to alcohol in 2016.
Image source, PA
