Media Watch - March 14
Top Birmingham City Council Stories
Stockhausen opera comes complete with helicopters (Guardian, Birmingham Mail) Birmingham Opera Company has announced it is to stage one of the most challenging operas ever written, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s five-hour epic Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light), during the London 2012 festival.
Elected mayors: Birmingham ponders whether it wants a Brummie Boris (The Guardian) In the first in a series on devolving power to English cities, Michael White finds voters around Spaghetti Junction have little appetite for May’s referendum on the issue.
City poor ‘live 12 years less than richest’ (Birmingham Mail) People in some of Birmingham’s most deprived districts have a life expectancy of 12 years less than those in the wealthiest, it has emerged.
Homes joy to ‘change lives’ (Birmingham Mail) Birmingham house-hunters have been boosted with the opening of a new development in Woodgate.
City square honour for top author (Birmingham Mail)A £300,000 public square, built to honour a much-loved Birmingham author, has been unveiled in the area that inspired her.
Shisha clampdown: Concerns raised over fire and health risks (BBC) Councils are considering bringing in licensing for shisha cafes, in an attempt to tackle the growing number of back-street premises.
Regional Headlines
Poor buildings school an academy
A West Midlands school (Joseph Leckie College, Walsall) where pupils once filmed the poor state of its buildings reopens as an academy.
Card refund over faulty implants
A woman from the Midlands who was given PIP breast implants that went on to rupture has had their £3,700 cost refunded by her credit card provider.
National Headlines
CS gas use ‘could tackle rioters’
Using CS gas to disperse troublemakers during outbreaks of disorder is to be considered by the Metropolitan Police, a Scotland Yard review says.
PM urges peaceful change in Syria
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama will discuss Syria and Afghanistan when they meet at the White House.
