On March 26, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument over whether California?s Proposition 8, the voter initiative which banned gay marriage in that state, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
In the brief they submitted to the Supreme Court yesterday, Prop. 8?s supporters cloaked their case against gay marriage in the principles of states? rights, arguing that California should be permitted to ban same-sex unions without interference from the federal courts. ?Our federal system of government is designed to permit a diversity of approaches to difficult and uncertain social issues,? the brief states, ?and the democratic process regarding marriage that is unfolding throughout the Nation shows the genius of that system at work.?
At first glance, that argument appears tailor-made to appeal to conservative and libertarian advocates of federalism. Unfortunately, the Prop. 8 defenders also base their case on a dubious left-wing legal theory that cuts against the very idea of limited government. Immediately after the statement quoted above, the Prop. 8 supporter's brief quotes from Justice Louis Brandeis? famous dissent in New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann (1932), where Brandeis wrote, ?it is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.?
Don?t let these words fool you. Brandeis? goal was the expansion of state power at the expense of individual rights.
At issue in New State Ice Co. was a 1925 Oklahoma regulatory scheme that granted monopoly powers over the manufacture, sale, and distribution of ice to a select group of companies. The law effectively outlawed competition by requiring any would-be entrepreneur that wanted to enter the ice business to first provide ?competent testimony and proof showing the necessity? of his business plan to state officials. Needless to say, there was no legitimate public health, welfare, or safety justification for this infringement on the right to earn a living. And predictably, the state regulators were working in cahoots with the state-sanctioned ice monopoly to eliminate would-be competitors.
What prompted Brandeis to spin this naked act of protectionism as a ?courageous state...experiment?? Remember that Brandeis got his start in the Progressive movement of the 1890s, where he lobbied on behalf of vast regulatory powers and urged the courts to give second-class treatment to those constitutional rights he didn?t believe to be worthy of respect. In fact, in a letter to Felix Frankfurter, Brandeis even privately advocated the wholesale repeal of the 14th Amendment due to the limits it placed on state power.
Supporters of limited government should be wary of any legal argument that cites Brandeis? dubious ode to untrammeled state authority.
Indeed, consider how Brandeis? words were utilized in another recent high-profile Supreme Court case. When Chicago went before the Court in 2010 to justify its handgun ban and other elements of its restrictive gun control regime in McDonald v. Chicago, city officials cited Brandeis in defense of their infringement on the right to keep and bear arms. ?Firearms regulation is a quintessential issue on which state and local governments can ?serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country,?? the city argued. Chicago officials should therefore be permitted ?the greatest flexibility to create and enforce firearms policy.?
The Supreme Court thankfully rejected this sweeping assertion of regulatory power.
Federalism is a bedrock American principle, but that does not mean that state governments enjoy free rein to ?experiment? on their citizens in violation of the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment. It?s time to stop invoking Brandeis and instead start reviving the eloquent words of Justice George Sutherland, who penned the majority opinion striking down the Oklahoma monopoly in New State Ice Co. ?In our constitutional system,? Sutherland wrote, ?there are certain essentials of liberty with which the state is not entitled to dispense in the interests of experiments.?
Speaking anonymously, a senior defense official said on Wednesday that the Pentagon would be lifting the rule against women being assigned to direct combat roles. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey will make the official announcement. The policy change will allow the military services to begin planning their implementation of the decision. Modern warfare has brought more women than ever to the front lines, where there were front lines, and into combat.
Heroes
Many women have been recognized for their bravery in combat. Here are just a few. Army helicopter pilot Rhonda Cornum was captured by Iraqi forces in 1991 and held for two weeks. Kim Campbell was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for her piloting of a severely damaged A-10 over Iraq in 2003. The Silver Star is the nation's third highest medal for valor in battle. Two women were awarded this honor in the last decade, a first for a woman since World War II. Leigh Ann Hester received a Silver Star for her heroic actions during an ambush in Iraq in 2005 that killed 27 enemy fighters. In an Afghan fight in 2007, Monica Lin Brown received a Silver Star for her bravery as a combat medic while treating wounded under fire.
Killed in Action
Hundreds of American military personnel who are women have been killed or wounded since 2001. Here is a small sample of those losses. In 2006, Amanda Pinson was waiting for a bus on a U.S. base in Iraq when she was killed by mortar fire. Jennifer Parcell served with the Marine Lioness program in Iraq and was killed by a female suicide bomber in 2007. Rachael Hugo was killed in an convoy ambush in Iraq in 2007. Jessica Sarandrea was killed in a mortar attack on a U.S. base in Iraq in 2009. Devin Snyder was killed in 2011 when her vehicle hit a mine in Afghanistan.
Reactions
Arizona Sen. John McCain, a career Navy officer and former POW, has this to say about the decision to open direct combat roles to women: "I respect and support Secretary Panetta's decision to lift the ban on women serving in combat. The fact is that American women are already serving in harm's way today all over the world and in every branch of our armed forces. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice, and our nation owes them a deep debt of gratitude."
Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, herself a combat veteran who was badly wounded when her helicopter was struck by enemy fire, also applauded the decision. "This decision to allow women to serve in combat will allow the best man or woman on the frontline to keep America safe. ... As a veteran who saw combat action I know the inclusion of women in combat roles will make America safer and provide inspiration to women throughout our country."
So this is what California governors do when they retire? Not exactly. You've got to be connected to be invited to act in a dumb action comedy like The Last Stand, the second release of Arnold Schwarzenegger's post-Sacramento golden years ? if we count the two Expendables as one movie, which is being generous. Not every ex-guv qualifies. Gray Davis, Pete Wilson, and George Deukmejian should probably not waste time waiting for that phone call. Only the Terminator could think of his political career as a six-year vacation from Hollywood.
Instead of appearing on Meet the Press or stinking up fairways with his cigars, Arnie portrays Ray Owens, sheriff of Sommerton Junction, Arizona, a peaceful but vigilant burg on the Mexican border. Everyone in town packs a piece, even the little old lady who runs the gift shop. That's why it's a bad idea for Gabriel Cortez (Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega), third-generation generalissimo of a Mexican drug cartel, to pick Sommerton as the spot to cross back over to Mexico after he escapes FBI custody in Las Vegas. Sheriff Ray has a secret weapon: Lewis Dinkum, a junkyard owner played by Johnny Knoxville, governor of the Jackass franchise. True to form, Dinkum pulls stupid stunts like climbing a sawed-off utility pole that's hanging by a live wire, while wearing a Mongolian helmet in the middle of a firefight.
The Last Stand is directed by Kim Jee-woon, Korean helmer of I Saw the Devil, a shocker, and The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a playful riff on spaghetti westerns. His Arnie project ? written, rewritten, and supervised by three clowns ? is slapdash even at its most coherent (except for a nice car chase in a field of dry corn) but may still be a step forward for Kim. How else would he get to hang out with the guy who delivers the movie's best line? To the undocumented cartel brat, Sheriff Ray declares: "You're giving us immigrants a bad name." That settles that. Next issue, please.
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Researchers discover promising prognostic marker for aggressive breast cancerPublic release date: 23-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alicia Reale alicia.reale@uhhospitals.org University Hospitals Case Medical Center
Research published in Science Translational Medicine may lead to new therapies
Cleveland - A team of researchers led by Goutham Narla, MD, PhD, at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and collaborators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Erasmus Medical Center, have discovered a gene variant that drives the spread of breast cancer. Published in Science Translational Medicine (embargoed Jan. 23 at 2:00 pm ET), the study lays the early foundation for predicting which breast cancer patients may develop more aggressive disease and for designing more effective treatments.
"Breast cancer is a genetically complex disease and it remains a challenge to predict disease outcomes and which patients may benefit from more aggressive treatment," says Dr. Narla, assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and medical geneticist at UH Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center. "Our research has uncovered a promising gene marker that will not only help us better identify tumors that behave badly but provide a basis for developing and 'personalizing' therapies to better treat our patients."
The research team discovered that a mutant gene, KLF6-SV1, was linked to the recurrence and metastasis in women with breast cancer. The incorrect splicing of the KLF6 gene essentially creates a protein that causes cancer cells to spread or metastasize. The researchers examined the tumors of 671 breast cancer patients in a tumor bank at Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and found that those whose tumors expressed high levels of the gene variant were 50 percent more likely to die. Since recurrence and metastasis are the major causes of death in breast cancer, this finding will provide a new direction of research to both identify women at risk and to develop targeted drugs that block the process of metastasis.
"This study presents biological proof that this splice variant can potentially be a marker for determining which early stage breast cancer patients will have disease progression," adds Dr. Narla. "More studies need to be done, but this could provide an important prognostic marker to determine which patients need to be treated more aggressively or watched more closely."
Dr. Narla came to UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve in spring, 2012, from Mt. Sinai and is the first Harrington Distinguished Scholar (Early Career Award). This inaugural award provides physician-scientists with the ability to tap into grant funding and a peer network of innovators and mentors within the infrastructure of the Harrington Discovery Institute at UH Case Medical Center. The Institute is part of the $250 million Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, which was launched in February, 2012, with a $50 million gift to UH from the Harrington family of Hudson, OH.
Dr. Narla's laboratory focuses on the identification and characterization of the genes and pathways involved in cancer metastasis. By studying the functional role of the KLF6 tumor suppressor gene, Dr. Narla and his team have identified new signaling pathways regulated by this gene family thus providing new insight into cancer diagnosis and treatment. The team's research found that KLF6 and FOXO1, both tumor suppressor genes, are turned off as cancer spreads through the body. Since first discovering the KLF6 gene 13 years ago as a medical student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Scott Friedman, Dr. Narla has been involved in the identification and characterization of the gene and its role in cancer development.
"In this new research as well as previous studies, Goutham and his team have uncovered important and previously unrecognized genetic markers in cancer," said Stanton Gerson, MD, Director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UH Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center. "This work highlights how understanding the basic mechanisms regulating cancer development and progression can lead to significant advances in the treatment of cancer. We are so pleased to have a physician-scientist of his caliber at our cancer center and are excited about the impact of this important work."
Dr. Narla will work with the breast cancer team, led by Lyndsay Harris, MD, to study further KLF6-SV1's potential as a prognostic marker for patients with poor outcomes. The group also will work to develop novel therapeutics that can turn the protein off and cause the cells to become less aggressive.
"We look forward to continuing this work to further define the role of this gene variance and improve our understanding of the molecular basis for tumor progression and metastasis," says Dr. Harris, Director of the Breast Cancer Program at UH Case Medical Center and Professor, Medicine-Hematology/Oncology at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. "These findings provide us with an important new tool to be able to distinguish between indolent and lethal early stage disease. This will potentially enable us to develop more "personalized" treatments for patients and thereby reduce breast cancer mortality."
###
This work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Additional support for Dr. Narla's research comes from the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Narla is also supported by an early physician scientist career award from the HHMI.
About Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Founded in 1843, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is the largest medical research institution in Ohio and is among the nation's top medical schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine is recognized throughout the international medical community for outstanding achievements in teaching. The School's innovative and pioneering Western Reserve2 curriculum interweaves four themes--research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership, and civic professionalism--to prepare students for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century. Nine Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with the School of Medicine.
Annually, the School of Medicine trains more than 800 MD and MD/PhD students and ranks in the top 25 among U.S. research-oriented medical schools as designated by U.S. News & World Report's "Guide to Graduate Education."
The School of Medicine's primary affiliate is University Hospitals Case Medical Center and is additionally affiliated with MetroHealth Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, with which it established the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2002. http://casemed.case.edu
About Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Case Comprehensive Cancer Center is an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center located at Case Western Reserve University. The center, now in its 22nd year of funding, integrates the cancer research activities of the largest biomedical research and health care institutions in Ohio Case Western Reserve, University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. NCI-designated cancer centers are characterized by scientific excellence and the capability to integrate a diversity of research approaches to focus on the problem of cancer. It is led by Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa and Patricia Shiverick- Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology, director of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, Case Western Reserve, and director of the Seidman Cancer Center at UH Case Medical Center.
About University Hospitals
University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. University Hospitals Case Medical Center is the 2012 recipient of the American Hospital Association McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety. For more information, go to www.uhhospitals.org.
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Researchers discover promising prognostic marker for aggressive breast cancerPublic release date: 23-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alicia Reale alicia.reale@uhhospitals.org University Hospitals Case Medical Center
Research published in Science Translational Medicine may lead to new therapies
Cleveland - A team of researchers led by Goutham Narla, MD, PhD, at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and collaborators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Erasmus Medical Center, have discovered a gene variant that drives the spread of breast cancer. Published in Science Translational Medicine (embargoed Jan. 23 at 2:00 pm ET), the study lays the early foundation for predicting which breast cancer patients may develop more aggressive disease and for designing more effective treatments.
"Breast cancer is a genetically complex disease and it remains a challenge to predict disease outcomes and which patients may benefit from more aggressive treatment," says Dr. Narla, assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and medical geneticist at UH Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center. "Our research has uncovered a promising gene marker that will not only help us better identify tumors that behave badly but provide a basis for developing and 'personalizing' therapies to better treat our patients."
The research team discovered that a mutant gene, KLF6-SV1, was linked to the recurrence and metastasis in women with breast cancer. The incorrect splicing of the KLF6 gene essentially creates a protein that causes cancer cells to spread or metastasize. The researchers examined the tumors of 671 breast cancer patients in a tumor bank at Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and found that those whose tumors expressed high levels of the gene variant were 50 percent more likely to die. Since recurrence and metastasis are the major causes of death in breast cancer, this finding will provide a new direction of research to both identify women at risk and to develop targeted drugs that block the process of metastasis.
"This study presents biological proof that this splice variant can potentially be a marker for determining which early stage breast cancer patients will have disease progression," adds Dr. Narla. "More studies need to be done, but this could provide an important prognostic marker to determine which patients need to be treated more aggressively or watched more closely."
Dr. Narla came to UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve in spring, 2012, from Mt. Sinai and is the first Harrington Distinguished Scholar (Early Career Award). This inaugural award provides physician-scientists with the ability to tap into grant funding and a peer network of innovators and mentors within the infrastructure of the Harrington Discovery Institute at UH Case Medical Center. The Institute is part of the $250 million Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, which was launched in February, 2012, with a $50 million gift to UH from the Harrington family of Hudson, OH.
Dr. Narla's laboratory focuses on the identification and characterization of the genes and pathways involved in cancer metastasis. By studying the functional role of the KLF6 tumor suppressor gene, Dr. Narla and his team have identified new signaling pathways regulated by this gene family thus providing new insight into cancer diagnosis and treatment. The team's research found that KLF6 and FOXO1, both tumor suppressor genes, are turned off as cancer spreads through the body. Since first discovering the KLF6 gene 13 years ago as a medical student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Scott Friedman, Dr. Narla has been involved in the identification and characterization of the gene and its role in cancer development.
"In this new research as well as previous studies, Goutham and his team have uncovered important and previously unrecognized genetic markers in cancer," said Stanton Gerson, MD, Director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UH Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center. "This work highlights how understanding the basic mechanisms regulating cancer development and progression can lead to significant advances in the treatment of cancer. We are so pleased to have a physician-scientist of his caliber at our cancer center and are excited about the impact of this important work."
Dr. Narla will work with the breast cancer team, led by Lyndsay Harris, MD, to study further KLF6-SV1's potential as a prognostic marker for patients with poor outcomes. The group also will work to develop novel therapeutics that can turn the protein off and cause the cells to become less aggressive.
"We look forward to continuing this work to further define the role of this gene variance and improve our understanding of the molecular basis for tumor progression and metastasis," says Dr. Harris, Director of the Breast Cancer Program at UH Case Medical Center and Professor, Medicine-Hematology/Oncology at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. "These findings provide us with an important new tool to be able to distinguish between indolent and lethal early stage disease. This will potentially enable us to develop more "personalized" treatments for patients and thereby reduce breast cancer mortality."
###
This work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Additional support for Dr. Narla's research comes from the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Narla is also supported by an early physician scientist career award from the HHMI.
About Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Founded in 1843, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is the largest medical research institution in Ohio and is among the nation's top medical schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine is recognized throughout the international medical community for outstanding achievements in teaching. The School's innovative and pioneering Western Reserve2 curriculum interweaves four themes--research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership, and civic professionalism--to prepare students for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century. Nine Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with the School of Medicine.
Annually, the School of Medicine trains more than 800 MD and MD/PhD students and ranks in the top 25 among U.S. research-oriented medical schools as designated by U.S. News & World Report's "Guide to Graduate Education."
The School of Medicine's primary affiliate is University Hospitals Case Medical Center and is additionally affiliated with MetroHealth Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, with which it established the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2002. http://casemed.case.edu
About Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Case Comprehensive Cancer Center is an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center located at Case Western Reserve University. The center, now in its 22nd year of funding, integrates the cancer research activities of the largest biomedical research and health care institutions in Ohio Case Western Reserve, University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. NCI-designated cancer centers are characterized by scientific excellence and the capability to integrate a diversity of research approaches to focus on the problem of cancer. It is led by Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa and Patricia Shiverick- Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology, director of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, Case Western Reserve, and director of the Seidman Cancer Center at UH Case Medical Center.
About University Hospitals
University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. University Hospitals Case Medical Center is the 2012 recipient of the American Hospital Association McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety. For more information, go to www.uhhospitals.org.
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Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the provider of global real estate services, has tipped the Midlands? commercial property market to outperform all but the South-East in its latest report released this week.
Unveiled at a specially arranged event in Birmingham on Monday, the report details JLL?s predictions for the country?s property markets in 2013. Projections suggest that GDP growth is likely to be in the region of 1.3% in the West Midlands, whilst the East Midlands has a similarly healthy outlook for growth of 1.2%.
Jon Neale, head of research at JLL UK, suggested that the regional centres of ?Birmingham and Nottingham have forecasted stronger growth than many of their counterparts?, having been tipped for growth levels of 1.4% and 1.8% respectively.
Having stated that ?the Midlands appeared to be more confident about business prospects than those further North?, Neale was quick to sound a note of caution on the over-reliance on prospective growth in the industrial sector, adding: ?The region needs to nurture start-ups and ensure the prosperity created from manufacturing is used to develop emerging and hi-tech industries to provide sustainable long-term growth.?
However, having witnessed significant job losses in the predominant industrial sector as a result of the financial crisis, JLL said that their predictions were buoyed as a result of recovery in the occupational markets and continuation of talks on speculative funding for industrial projects.
Allan Wilson, JLL?s head of capital markets for the Midlands, said: ?We are already seeing evidence of speculative development in the South-East in very selective markets. ?No spec funding was witnessed in our region in 2012, but we saw a number of funds backing developers on land deals and Jones Lang LaSalle acted on two deals putting equity backers together with developers.
?The next phase will be to see spec funding but scheme choice will be highly selective, prime only and likely to be led by one of the specialist warehouse developers.?
Guy Grainger, the recently appointed chief executive of JLL, indicated during his speech that ? in spite of the recession ? the Midlands? commercial property market would continue to play a vital role in in bolstering the local economy, but most likely in a different guise.
He said: ?Retail is changing with the UK embracing on-line retailing more than any other country in the world, but far from doing away with bricks and mortar, retailers are looking at omni-channel distribution and for the first time Amazon will add a store into its mix.
?Towns and cities need to adapt in the same way retailers have adapted to changing consumer demands and look at developing the public realm, adding more leisure facilities and making parking simpler and more low cost to attract people. ?
Ian Cornock, Midlands lead director at JLL, stated that governmental support for significant infrastructural developments is likely to come to fruition in 2013, with analysts anxious to observe whether the projects will have a tangible effect on the regional property market.
He said: ??In the short term we would see the positive effects in Birmingham of the first phase of New Street opening, the extension of the Metro and the new runway at Birmingham Airport and in the long term we have HS2.
?However the blighting of land along the route would need to be resolved sooner rather than later, so that important proposed developments could proceed such as UK Mail?s ?25m expansion of its depot at Washwood Heath.?In Nottingham, we have phase two of NET Tram, the dualling of the A453 and redevelopment of Nottingham train station.?
The Midlands? office space market is likely to grow as a result of such projects, whilst a combination of high property prices in the South-East and the advent of flexi-working technologies have led bosses to adapt a more pragmatic approach towards commercial occupation.
One such example is the recent sale of Linwood Grove ? previously a WWII bomb aimers? training premises ? on Martin Moor, Lincolnshire. Adjoining the former Lancaster Bomber base of RAF Metheringham, the building was once used to suspend trainee bomb aimers from the ceiling to study aerial photographs.
It has since been converted into a mixed-use office space and light industrial unit, which has been purchased for lease by local estate agents Hodgson Elkington. Director Sam Elkington said in a statement that he was pleased to help preserve piece of national heritage.
Written by Ben Parkinson
Ben Parkinson is a copywriter and online content producer for Search Office Space. He is an avid writer and social media marketer, with a penchant for music and literature when he's not documenting the flexible office industry.
He began his interest in professional writing through his work with leading festival news site Virtual Festivals, before taking on a blogger role for online new music publication There Goes The Fear.
In his professional life he has produced online content and corporate literature for a number of colleges, including London Graduate School and Kensington College of Business, before joining the SOS team.
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Public release date: 23-Jan-2013
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