Morning Edition on WAMC

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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with a spike in gas prices.

Gasoline prices jumped 18 cents over the last couple of weeks. That's the biggest increase so far this year. The Lundberg Survey shows that heading into the weekend, the national average price of a gallon of self-serve was $3.69. Now, analysts say the spike is in part because of some refinery and pipeline issues around the country.

Researchers used economic principles to predict which countries would win the most medals at the London Olympic Games. The study was 95 percent accurate for the 2008 games. And this time around, it was 97.7 percent accurate.

Over the weekend, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney named Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. David Greene talks to Ryan Lizza, a reporter for The New Yorker, who recently profiled Ryan for the magazine.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

For more on this big weekend in politics, we turn to Cokie Roberts for some analysis. Good morning.

COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi, Renee.

MONTAGNE: So we just heard in Ari's piece the excitement Paul Ryan is generating among the Republican faithful. Is that partly why Mitt Romney chose him as his running mate, to generate some of the kind of enthusiasm that has been missing from his own campaign?

The addition of Rep. Paul Ryan to the GOP ticket is certain to elevate health care as a campaign issue this fall.

One factor that has kept Poland somewhat insulated from the eurozone crisis is domestic consumer spending. Poland had more than 4 percent growth last year while the rest of the continent was mired in negative or flat growth. Poles have more discretionary income than ever before, and they're using it to buy things in swank malls cropping up all over the country.

A former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood occupies Egypt's presidential palace, leaving many of the country's Coptic Christians deeply anxious about their future.

Now, a new group calling itself the Christian Brotherhood has emerged, vowing to stand up for the rights of Copts.

On a Cairo rooftop recently, members of the new Christian Brotherhood are debating how to respond to the first major outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence since President Mohammed Morsi came into office in June.

FEMA has decided to grant Orange County over $3.6 million for hurricane damage to the county government center in Goshen. County Executive Edward Diana had originally sought about $7.5 million,
Diana and the State Office of Emergency Management have both endorsed the funding.

The award is a far cry from the $505,290 FEMA first offered the county. It upped that to $534,980, but Diana now said it is because of the perseverance of his administration to challenge the numbers that convinced FEMA to increase them dramatically. 

The state Board of Education has approved plans by schools in four Connecticut cities to turn around low-performing schools.

Officials on Thursday accepted the plans from Bridgeport's Curiale School, Hartford's Core Knowledge Academy at Milner School, New Haven's High School in the Community and Norwich's Stanton School.