Blog Posts by Rachel Rose Hartman, Yahoo! News

teapartyUnlike the two major political parties, the tea party movement has no single leader, no centralized structure and no formal organization. So what defines this grassroots movement?

In a partnership with Yahoo! News, USA Today's Kathy Kiely and Susan Page set out to answer that question by interviewing tea party activists around the country.

Despite the lack of a national communication system, Kiely and Page found, tea party members from all over the U.S. share common beliefs, inspiration and goals that paint a broad picture of what drives today's tea party movement.

Read the complete report here.

(Photo: AP/Charlie Riedel)

South Carolina Senate candidate Alvin Greene was indicted Friday on a felony obscenity charge, the Associated Press reports.

Greene was arrested in November after allegedly showing a University of South Carolina student obscene online photos at a school computer lab.

Greene, an unemployed military veteran with no political experience, won the Democratic nomination for Senate despite having held no campaign events and raising no money for his bid.

WaterspresserDemocratic Rep. Maxine Waters isn't waiting for her day in court. The California congresswoman held a news conference Friday — complete with an opening statement, a speaker on her behalf, and a PowerPoint presentation accentuated by a laser pointer — to defend herself against the three ethics violations lobbed against her by the House Ethics Committee.

Waters expressed frustration that her House trial has yet to be scheduled and might not be held until after the November elections.

"Such a delay is unacceptable ... considering that the investigation has dragged out for over one year," Waters said, adding that she is "anxious to share these facts ... because I have not violated any House rules."'

So, for the next 40 minutes, Waters' chief of staff, Mikael Moore (who is also her grandson), presented her lengthy defense to reporters gathered at the Capitol Visitor Center. Then the lawmaker took questions. Moore was named in the Statement of Alleged Violation released by the committee.

Welcome to "First Shots," a daily morning roundup of early-bird news and a preview of what's to come later.

• The  President is expected to sign a bill today approving $600 million for emergency border security. (CNN)

• Is the BP oil well sealed for good? We may find out that answer today. (Associated Press)

• Iran readies its first nuclear plant. (BBC News)

• Many were stunned by the emotion New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg displayed in a speech defending the proposed mosque and community center near Ground Zero. What's fueling Bloomberg's impassioned defense? (The New York Times)

Welcome to "First Shots," a daily morning roundup of early-bird news and a preview of what's to come later.

• David W. Johnson, an aide for New York Gov. David Paterson, has been charged with assault. (The New York Times)

• The average compensation for a federal employee has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn. (USA Today)

• A federal court in California is expected to rule today on whether to keep a temporary stay on recent Prop 8 ruling that overturned the state's ban on same sex marriages: (CNN)

• A "person of interest" has been arrested in the Michigan-Virginia-Ohio serial killer case. (The Washington Post)

RangelescFor Democrats, the news out of Washington yesterday was supposed to be about the $26 billion jobs package that members had been called back from recess to pass. Instead, Rep. Charlie Rangel snagged the spotlight.

As we reported Tuesday, Rangel took to the House floor to issue a surprise 30-minute diatribe protesting the drawn-out ethics investigation and impending House trial he faces on 13 ethics charges. While many fellow lawmakers were sympathetic about why Rangel made the speech, that doesn't mean they liked it.

"He should have his day [in court]. Yesterday, really, though, was about this education vote," Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday. Kaine later added, "and I'm sorry that it took attention away from what I think was a very, very positive vote."

"It was definitely a distraction," Democratic Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama told the Birmingham News after yesterday's speech.

Even Republicans lamented Rangel's decision to make the speech. "It just reminds people of the issue, the more you talk about something like this, the more you are going to open up more issues," New York Rep. Peter King told the Hill, after indicating that he "wished" Rangel hadn't made his public address.

ReidSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a funny way of courting Hispanics to vote Democratic. He told a mostly Hispanic audience in Nevada on Tuesday that "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican," the Weekly Standard reports.

He continued: "Do I need to say more?"

Of course, the Reid comment was welcome news to his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, who has drawn headline after headline this election season for her own public gaffes.

"Reid has said he'll do more if re-elected. Apparently that means more insensitive racial comments, more gaffes, more lame attempts to distract from what he has done to destroy the Nevada economy," said Jordan Gehrke, Angle's communications director, in a statement. "With that said, I suppose Nevadans should just be glad he didn't say anything racist about Hispanic people's skin tone or 'dialect' this time."

You can watch the video clip of Reid's remark below:

Welcome to "First Shots," a daily morning roundup of early-bird news and a preview of what's to come later.

• U.S.-backed fighters in Iraq are being offered more money to join up with Al Qaeda -- and they're defecting. (Guardian)

• Ben Quayle, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle and a candidate for Congress, has backtracked and now admits that he did post comments on a trashy website -- and he used the handle "Brock Landers." (Politico)

• Though BP actually owns only 2 percent of its 10,000 stations, local owners were not spared from protests and boycotts connected to the oil spill. But the brand isn't going anywhere. Now, BP Station owners are left struggling. (The New York Times)

• A giant ice island four times the size of Manhattan is on the move in the Arctic Ocean and could soon destroy oil and shipping industries in those waters. (Associated Press)