National News from NPR

Egypt holds parliamentary elections this month and many people expect the outcome to be similar to recent polls in Tunisia, where an Islamist party won the largest bloc of seats.

Nearly a dozen official parties with ties to Islamist groups have sprung up in Egypt since the summer, and most analysts predict they will do well.

Gamal Ashry is one parliamentary candidate. He's with the Freedom and Justice Party, the political offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world's largest and oldest Islamist movement.

Top Pentagon leaders went to Capitol Hill Tuesday and took tough questions from lawmakers on the future of the U.S. relationship with Iraq. Specifically, they addressed how the decision to withdraw all U.S. combat troops by the end of this year will impact Iraq's stability and U.S. national security interests in the region. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told a congressional committee that, while U.S. military commanders wanted to keep a contingency force on the ground, it was Iraq's decision to make.

On Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu will answer congressional questioning over the handling of a large federal loan guarantee made to the solar energy company Solyndra. The California-based company was to be the first of many American green technology innovators to receive support from the U.S. government. Two years later, Solyndra went belly-up. Melissa Block speaks with Chu about the scrutiny he is now facing over his support of the company.

Note: There are some details of alleged sexual activity with minors in this post.

There's a story unfolding in Charleston, S.C., that sounds depressingly similar to the scandal that has rocked Penn State University.

When New York Police moved to dismantle the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park in the pre-dawn hours, one of the first questions aired on the Web was, "What about the First Amendment?"

Juan Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, quickly penned a blog post, concluding:

Earlier this year, on Jan. 8, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head as she met with constituents in Tucson, Ariz. She was one of 13 people injured that day. Six people were killed.

It had been four years since Giffords arrived in Washington as a wide-eyed freshman and told NPR: "Life's good and [I'm] very, very excited — so optimistic about taking our country in a new direction."

Police officers removed Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park in New York City early Tuesday morning. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the operation took place at night to "reduce the risk of confrontation." But clashes erupted and about 70 people were arrested.

From a conversation later today on All Things Considered with her husband Mark Kelly, to last night's interview with the couple on ABC-TV to an audio message for her constituents, there are several things to pass along this morning about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and the recovery she's making from being shot in the head last January.

Hospitals are going alternative. Forty-two percent now offer at least one type of complementary or alternative medicine treatment, according to a recent survey by the American Hospital Association and the Samueli Institute, a nonprofit research organization that focuses on these treatments.

Local food is fashionable. Customers are swarming farmers' markets. Organic vegetables sell at a premium. So what's to keep a young, smart, enthusiastic would-be farmer from getting into this business and making a good living?