Tea party group making stop in Columbia

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Another tea party group is spending some time in South Carolina this week. On Tuesday, the Tea Party Patriots are making a stop in Columbia for a news conference at the Statehouse. The Tea Party Patriots says it is a national grassroots coalition with more than 3,400 locally organized chapters and more than 15 million supporters nationwide. Last week, a group called the Tea Party Express traveled to Charleston, where its leaders asked U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and other lawmakers to agree to a pledge opposing any federal spending bill that includes funding for the federal health care act. That group says it is the nation’s largest tea party political action committee and has been holding a series of news conferences and events around the nation in recent days.