Willing and able: Lincoln West wrestlers Dartanyon Crockett and Leroy Sutton excel on mats

by Pat Galbincea/Plain Dealer Reporter

Friday February 20, 2009, 2:28 PM

Crockett also draws respect. Despite his severely limited vision, he became a two-time Senate champ when he pinned Irayel Williams of Rhodes in the finals in 1:15 in an unusual defensive maneuver.

Like Crockett, Sutton said he views his disadvantage as an advantage.

"My opponents have a higher base, so they often don't know how to attack me" Sutton said. "They have to stop my shoulders or I'll get to their legs. Once I do, I'm so strong I'll pull them down, and I do know two or three pinning combinations."

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"We can't have quadriplegics running track, nor do we need to have deaf persons serving on juries."
Rep. Ronnie Sutton, a Pembroke Democrat, on July 16, explaining why he opposed a bill providing for interpreters for deaf people who are picked as jurors.

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A bill that would have provided a procedure for judges to deal with deaf jurors led to a debate in the House over whether those who cannot hear should sit on a jury in North Carolina.
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June 24, 2009

British woman with prosthetic arm sues Abercrombie

By NARDINE SAAD
Associated Press Writer

A British woman with a prosthetic arm has filed a discrimination claim against Abercrombie & Fitch Co., alleging the U.S. retailer made her work in the stockroom because she didn't conform to its "look policy."

Riam Dean is seeking up to 25,000 pounds ($41,000) in damages at an employment tribunal that began Wednesday.

Dean, a 22-year-old law student at the University of London, told the tribunal she worked at Abercrombie's store on London's posh Saville Row and had been given permission to wear a white sweater over the company-issued white polo shirt to cover her prosthetic arm.

But in July 2008, several weeks after she started work, a manager sent her to the stockroom, saying the cardigan violated the store's "look policy," Dean said.

She said the same manager later taunted her and challenged her to go back out to the shop floor with her arm uncovered.

"It made me feel as though she had picked up on my most personal, sensitive and deeply buried insecurities about being accepted and included," Dean said.

Dean said she was asked by an employee from the company head office whether it would be possible "to keep you in the stockroom until the winter uniform arrives." She said she later received an e-mail from management saying she had been "erroneously placed on the shop floor."

Abercrombie & Fitch said in a statement it "has a strong anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy." It said Dean's account of what happened was inaccurate.

Dean, who was born missing her left forearm, said she did not mention her disability when she was interviewed for the job.

"I have never had any concessions made because of my arm, and all of my life my family friends and other have treated me equally. I would not have it any other way," she said.

She said her experience at the store had left her shaken.

"I was always prepared for children to be curious about my disability, but to be faced with adult bullying, no one could have prepared me for such debasement," she said.

Akash Nawbatt, a lawyer for the company, said Abercrombie had never asked Dean to cover her prosthetic arm and that the cardigan had been a temporary solution. He said that about a week after Dean was asked to work in the stockroom, the company proposed wearing a fleece top during the summer as a permanent solution and that this concession was made specifically for her.

The hearing is expected to last for three days.

The New Albany, Ohio-based company is known for its edgy advertisements and shops with nightclub atmosphere. It has faced criticism in the past by those who claim it deliberately selects young, good-looking people to work in its stores.

In 2004 it spent $50 million to settle a number of employment discrimination lawsuits in the United States.

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People with Down's syndrome rarely get most kinds of cancer and U.S. researchers have nailed down one reason why -- they have extra copies of a gene that helps keep tumors from feeding themselves.

The findings could lead to new treatments for cancer, the researchers reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday, and further study of Down's patients might reveal more ways to fight tumors.

The researchers at Harvard University and elsewhere made use of a new kind of embryonic-like stem cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell or iPS cell. These cells, made from ordinary skin, can be transformed to act like powerful stem cells, the body's master cells.

Using iPS cells from a volunteer with Down's syndrome and mice genetically engineered to have a version of the condition, the researchers pinpointed one gene that protects against tumors.

"It is, perhaps, inspiring that the Down's syndrome population provides us with new insight into mechanisms that regulate cancer growth," they wrote.

Down's syndrome is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation, occurring in 1 out of 700 live births.

The Down's syndrome theory had long been explored by Harvard's Dr. Judah Folkman, who died last year. Folkman, whose name is on the study, developed theories about how tumor cells grow blood vessels to nourish themselves in a process called angiogenesis.

EXTRA GENES

Folkman also noticed how rare cancer is among Down's patients, except for leukemia, and he wondered whether the genes explain why. A study of nearly 18,000 Down's patients showed they had 10 percent the expected rate of cancer.

People with Down's syndrome have a third copy of chromosome 21, where most people have two copies. The extra copy gives them extra versions of 231 different genes.

"One such gene is Down's syndrome candidate region-1 (DSCR1, also known as RCAN1)," Harvard's Sandra Ryeom and colleagues wrote.

This gene codes for a protein that suppresses vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF -- one of the compounds necessary for angiogenesis.

Down's patients have extra amounts of this DSCR1 protein, as do the genetically engineered Down's mice, the researchers showed. Genetically engineered mice with an extra copy of DSCR1 were resistant to tumors.

DSCR1 affects a compound called calcineurin, long a focus of cancer research.

"These data provide a mechanism for the reduced cancer incidence in Down's syndrome," the researchers wrote.

The study also provides three new potential targets for preventing or treating cancer -- calcineurin and two genes that regulate it, DSCR1 and DYRK1A, they said.

People with Down's syndrome are also less likely to develop angiogenesis-related diseases such as diabetic retinopathy (an eye disease related to diabetes) and atherosclerosis (hardened arteries), "suggesting that cancer protection ... may be due, in part, to angiogenesis suppression," the researchers wrote.

"Because human chromosome 21 contains over 200 genes, it would be surprising if DSCR1 was the only chromosome 21 gene implicated in tumor suppression in Down's syndrome individuals," they said.

(Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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