The headlines this morning all say pretty much the same thing:

-- "Deficit Effort Nears Collapse." (The Wall Street Journal)

-- "Debt Supercommittee Members Brace For Failure." (The Washington Post)

Video shot by Occupy protesters shows people linking arms and sitting down to block a sidewalk on the campus of California Davis. A campus police officer steps up with an oversized spray can and calmly douses them with pepper spray. Two campus police officers have been placed on administrative leave, the university says.

Thousands of protesters clashed with police Monday in Cairo in a spasm of violence that has lasted for three straight days and left dozens of people dead – the worst since the popular uprising that toppled Egypt's government.

Linda Wertheimer has business news.

The mountain of debt accumulated by Greece and Italy crushed those countries' prime ministers. Spain, too, is ushering in new leadership after Sunday's parliamentary elections. Spaniard Jorge Belena says, "All politicians are very boring," but incoming Prime Minister Mariano Rajo is "especially boring."

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LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

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We take a lot of products and technology for granted, like bar codes, compact discs, even cruise control on cars. These products and hundreds of others would not exist if not for a non-profit whose name few people are familiar with. It's called Battelle Memorial Institute. It's one of the world's largest independent research and development groups. It's based in Central Ohio. Niala Boodhoo of the Midwest reporting project Changing Gears takes us to Columbus to a place where hundreds of companies go for R&D.

Oil prices briefly rose above $100 a barrel last week on news of a pipeline deal that would cut a glut of U.S. inventories. Prices have dipped since then, but not enough to soften historic highs for diesel or home heating oil.