FOR eight years its peace officers have patrolled Birmingham's troubled streets.
The Haile Selassie Peace Foundation has calmed community tension, built bridges with the police and helped persuade jailed offenders to live law-abiding and valuable lives.
THEIR music could hardly be more different.
Rhydian Roberts, just 24, is the new X-Factor singing sensation and Andy Hamilton, aged 89, is a jazz saxophonist with a pedigree stretching back many decades.
HARD work, goodwill and common sense have averted a strike by Travel West Midlands bus drivers.
Thank heavens for that because such a stoppage would have caused mayhem – snarling up roads with extra cars and leading to widespread absenteeism at workplaces across the region.
IF THIS country is serious about reducing the damage it causes to our world, the government's plans for a generation of eco-towns must proceed.
We need to build homes, schools and workplaces that are environmentally friendly and encourage people to travel less or to use public transport.
TRAFFIC cop Gavin Blease dismisses suggestions that he acted heroically as he wrestled with a gunman who had already opened fire.
"I don't think it was anything exceptional," says Pc Blease, describing how the drama began after a routine decision to question a man acting suspiciously.
DO NOT disregard Jaguar's glitzy launch of its new XF model in Monte Carlo merely as a junket.
Hundreds of influential motoring journalists from around the world are being invited there over the next six weeks.
AS DRIVERS sit tapping their steering wheels in frustration while they sit in jams on Birmingham's congested roads, it is clear that something must be done to get our city moving again.
Year after year more cars pour on to roads whose capacity is not infinite.
IT SAYS much for the stature of Duncan Edwards and the other Busby Babes who died in the Munich air crash that, 50 years after the tragedy, they are still remembered with such sadness and reverence.
These were extravagantly talented young players, a truly golden generation taken from us before they had realised their full potential.
RIP, lads. You are still sorely missed.
Thought the seagulls had taken revenge? Well panic not because Brian has merely moved to a new blogging home.
Click here to read more of Brian's blog entries.
See you there!
This page contains all entries posted to Birmingham Mail in February 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.
January 2008 is the previous archive.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.