Tunstall imam found guilty of terror offences
Arrests after alleged axe threats
Ceramics Biennial starts in Stoke-on-Trent
Mental health staff off work more than doubles
More time to consider putting down stray dogs if owners don't pay
Updates from Friday 22 September 2017
Councillor Ken Norchi has refused the offer for free food, but is keen to visit the restaurant once it is up, external and running.
Senegal international Mame Diouf signs a new three-year contract at Premier League side Stoke City.
Read MoreOk so it's not quite a rose, but you get our drift.
Angus and Me took this lovely picture in Hednesford.
Image source, Angus and meCompleting the raindrop theme is Ukjay, who took this picture in Longton.
Share your weather snaps here.
Image source, ukjay
Charlie Slater
BBC Weather presenter
The rain is finally beginning to clear and we should have a clear night, with some sunshine tomorrow.
Weather forecast for the West Midlands
A company has been fined after an employee was crushed by a reversing excavator.
Employees of Sterry Lane Limited had been contracted to complete demolition work on a site in Stafford in May 2016, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said.
The organisation said an excavator began to reverse, crushing the 39-year-old man and leaving him with multiple fractures to his legs and pelvis, as well as punctured lungs and liver injuries.
An HSE investigation found the company failed to implement a suitable management system to segregate pedestrians and vehicles on site.
The investigation also found the company failed to adequately plan the demolition work.
Sterry Lane Limited of Hickman Avenue, Eastfield, Wolverhampton pleaded guilty to the offences and was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,726.88.
Matt Lee
Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke
A Stoke-on-Trent teacher is hoping to be crowned as the strongest woman in the UK next month.
Melissa Coates, who works at Blackfriars Academy in Newcastle, is already the third strongest woman in Britain.
I visited her earlier to see how her training for the event was going.
Stoke-on-Trent teacher hopes to become UK's strongest woman
Police investigating an allegation of fraud at one of Stoke-on-Trent’s best-known, external companies have made an arrest.
Motorway police have rescued a dog that made a "bid for freedom" out of a caravan window while on the M6 in the Staffordshire area.
You can call 101 if you recognise this gorgeous pooch.
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Stoke City Ladies last night thumped Nottingham Forest 3-1 to secure their first win of the season.
Forest were previously unbeaten in their last three matches.
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Stoke Ladies now sit in sixth place on seven points, with Forest one point ahead of them.
A Stoke-on-Trent pottery firm has produced a toby jug resembling Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour supporter Alexander Kirk, from Lincoln, commissioned Hanley's Bairstow Manor pottery to make 500 jugs.
The 19-year-old student said he would donate some profits to the Jo Cox Foundation.
Image source, PAHowever, Roger Bairstow, owner of Bairstow Manor Collectables, says the Corbyn pots have "no chance" of overtaking the firm's number one seller.
"He's never going to catch Winston Churchill," Mr Bairstow said.
Sarah Robertson
Journalist, BBC Radio Stoke
I love seeing old pictures of Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and this one tweeted by Tsp coffee shop in Hanley is no different.
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A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the trial of a Stoke-on-Trent imam accused of telling children that martyrdom was better than anything they would achieve at school.
Kamran Hussain, 40, was recorded by an undercover officer making a series of radical sermons at a charity-run mosque in Tunstall, over four months last year, the Old Bailey heard.
Image source, GoogleThe court was told Mr Hussain was encouraging terrorism and supporting the terror group in Syria.
He allegedly said martyrdom was the supreme success and was greater than any other success, such as school or college.
Mr Hussain denies eight charges, two of supporting IS and six of encouraging terrorism on dates between June and September last year.
Police are launching a massive road safety operation across Stoke-on-Trent, external and Staffordshire.
BBC Radio Stoke Sport
Former Port Vale captain Phil Sproson (pictured left alongside his uncle Gordon Banks) has told BBC Radio Stoke that the next manager needs to be given time to turn the club around.
Vale are currently bottom of the Football League and without a manager.
Speaking to Sport at Six last night, Sproson says they need to think about a long-term plan.
Quote MessageI think it's a two, three-year project, I don't think it's a plaster that can be put on this cut... it needs radical surgery to get things going again and get us up to mid-table."
Phil Sproson, Former Port Vale captain
London Midland says the train line between Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford is blocked after a lorry shed its load, hitting a railway bridge.
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BBC Midlands Today
A farm shop and wedding venue is closing its doors for the last time this weekend, one of the first businesses to fold because of the planned high speed railway line HS2.
About 30 jobs will be lost with the closure of Packington Moor near Lichfield which has been in the same family for nearly 100 years.
Image source, GoogleHS2 will run directly through its land.
Our reporter Bob Hockenhull will have more on BBC One from 13:30.
With each day our BBC Weather Watcher pictures seem to get more and more autumnal.
This one full of orange-leafed trees was taken in Leek by Videoman.
Image source, videomanThis gorgeous up-close shot was taken in Alton by Terry Eyre.
You can share your weather pics here.
Image source, terry eyre
Stephanie Barnard
BBC Local Live
Velo Birmingham is taking place on Sunday - with thousands of cyclists pedaling their way through the open roads of the West Midlands.
So motorists be advised, many of the roads will be closed throughout Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Birmingham and the Black Country.
Here's a map , externalso you can check to see whether you're affected...
Image source, Velo BirminghamThe closures will also be affecting public transport.
Check the Velo Birmingham website, external for full details of road closure, as some are closed from midnight on Saturday.
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A £1m revamp of the former Staffordshire University Octagon computer centre has been announced by the site’s, external Chinese owners.
Facebook
We told you earlier about the plans being put forward by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council to potentially put down stray dogs if their owners don't pay a fine.
It's as too many owners don't pay the fine and any kennel fees.
It's got many of you talking on BBC Radio Stoke's Facebook page, external.
Quote MessageI'm hoping this plan isn't put in place. I'm horrified that a healthy dog is at risk of being put to sleep just because owners don't pay up. There are enough dogs being destroyed due to them not being re-homed."
Liz Draper
Quote MessageGrrr not the dogs fault, horrible humans."
Ross Howard
Quote MessageWhy?! Give them all to me I'll have them."
Liam Pritchard
