NightBlogger

(Bloomberg) — Manhattan’s office vacancy rate rose to its highest level since 2006 in the second quarter as financial firms, beset by losses, fired workers and reduced their office space, real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Inc. said. Financial companies took about 14 percent of space that was leased in the second quarter, down from more than a third a year earlier, Cushman said. New York City’s Independent Budget Office said in a May report that it expects 33,300 finance jobs in the city, or 7.1 percent of the total, to be cut from the peak in 2007. More than 9,000 jobs are being eliminated at New York-based Bear Stearns Cos., acquired last month by JPMorgan Chase & Co. More

LINDSEY TANNER, AP
Surprising research suggests that childhood cancer is most common in the Northeast, results that even caught experts off guard. But some specialists say it could just reflect differences in reporting.

The large government study is the first to find notable regional differences in pediatric cancer. Experts say it also provides important information to bolster smaller studies, confirming that cancer is rare in children, but also more common in older kids, especially among white boys.

The study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based on data representing 90 percent of the U.S. population. It found that cancer affects about 166 out of every million children, a number that shows just how rare childhood cancers are. More