Birmingham Post

Bravo to Steve Killigrew, project manager at Turner & Townsend's Birmingham office.
The brave boy celebrated reaching the landmark age of 50 by climbing Africa's highest mountain – the nearly 20,000 ft Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

The script for Friday's council scrutiny committee inquiry into the viability of Birmingham's proposed £193 million library in Centenary Square could have been written weeks in advance.
It was entirely predictable that city council leader Mike Whitby would have one of his hissy fits when called upon to account for policy decisions.

There are no two ways about it. What I am about to say is going to cause trouble.

Here goes: people don't like pushy women. There, I've said it. It's out in the open.

The Aston election court has none of the high drama of the 2005 "banana republic" trial, which exposed extensive Labour-organised postal ballot fraud.
This is a drab affair, with Liberal Democrat supporters trying to convince a judge that their candidate lost the 2007 election as the result of a Labour smear campaign.

I am thinking of setting up a new website for like-minded technophobes who have been turned into blubbing, borderline psychotics by their home computers.

The working title is my-laptop-is-as-useful-as-abagofwetfish.com. The only problem is that I fear I will not be able to set it up, because my laptop is as useful as a bag of wet fish.

Birmingham's corporate ski challenge seems to have caught the imagination.
There has been a huge 82-strong entry, with plenty of Bright column regulars in the frame.

Another productive week for Hall Green Liberal Democrat councillor Mick Wilkes, who is fast becoming unofficial leader of the opposition on Birmingham City Council.
In fact, the Revenge of Coun Wilkes is a major topic of conversation in the corridors of power.

Chris Pretty is one of the West Midlands' most experienced detectives and has brought to justice criminals of uncompromising repugnance.
Detectives like Pretty investigate offences that make your stomach churn. They walk, from time to time, in the sewer of humanity, and confront those aspects of human behaviour we would rather not recognise, let alone face.