Louise Jew

HE'S the guy everyone recognises at Stourbridge's New Inn, with his distinctive red hair, dark glasses and neck scarf.

"GENTLEMAN" John Cooke had a noble send-off worthy of his romantic hero "Don Juan" - complete with a white carriage drawn by two plumed horses, which bore his coffin to Stourbridge Crematorium.

STREETS next to 15 schools in the Dudley borough look set to become 20mph zones in a drive to improve safety for children.

DUDLEY borough schools are still top of the class in the Black Country - although they have slipped slightly in their average performance when compared to the year before.

A BLACK Country professor in public health is about to publish the latest edition of his prize-winning textbook to help medics to grapple with complicated statistics about diseases.

NINETY-ONE-year-old great grandfather Joe Bullock reckons he was just doing his job when he braved stormy seas in a flimsy barge and dodged heavy shelling in the D-Day landings that paved the way for the liberation of France.

STEVE Tracey and Luke Thomas hold up their hands to having been bad boys in the past.

TRAGIC Brierley Hill teenager Omar Al-Shaikh has been honoured with an award for boosting the chances of life for fellow leukaemia sufferers - five months after he died.

MEMBERS of a Black Country charity think staff at a Brierley Hill jewellers are "a real gem" after they donated £1,000 to help them cope with a funding crisis.

The loss of more than 140 jobs at Caparo steel plants in Dudley, Oldbury and Cradley Heath has been met with shock and dismay by workers, union leaders and MPs.