Hawaii Reporter
BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN -KAILUA, Hawaii
The now familiar signs that President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Sasha and Malia and First Dog Bo will be arriving in Hawaii for Christmas are appearing in the close knit beachside community on Oahu’s windward side.
Coast Guard officials have contacted boat owners in the area to remind them the canal and popular surf spot fronting the private beachfront homes where the President will vacation beginning Friday are off limits for 17 days. The Coast Guard also has released information on the temporary security zone that will be enforced from 6 a.m. on Friday to 10 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2014.
Black SUVs and government issued vans are parked along the street fronting homes now occupied by the U.S. Secret Service, Navy SEALs and Coast Guard.
By the time the President arrives, concrete blockades and security will bar direct entrance to Kailuana Place where the President stays. Coast Guard on armed boats will patrol the canal and ocean. All airlines will be barred from flying over the island.
The First Family has spent every Christmas since the President was first elected in 2008 in Kailua, a community built around stunning white sands and turquoise seas of Kailua beach that boasts fiery sunrises over the Mokulua Islands.
The First Family is a two-minute drive from Kaneohe Bay and the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where they can access private beaches, a military gym and bowling alley, and five minutes from a variety of restaurants, stores and water sports rental shops in quaint Kailua town.
Obama is popular in Hawaii, however, there are people critical of the cost to taxpayers and the inconvenience the President's presence causes.
Sunrise over Kailua's Mokulua Islands
Michael Tasselmyer of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, estimates the 18-hour roundtrip aboard Air Force One, which he said costs $179,750 per hour for flight and operation, will total $3,235,500 for the roundtrip. A Congressional Research Service report released in May 2012 matches that figure.
There are reports the President might also stop on the island of Maui, a 30-minute flight from Oahu, which would add additional expense.
The cost for USAF C-17 cargo aircraft that transports the Presidential limos, helicopters and other support equipment to Hawaii has never been disclosed, but the roundtrip flight time between Andrews Air Force Base and Hawaii is 21.5 hours, with estimated operating cost of $12,000 per hour. (Source: GAO report, updated by C-17 crew member).
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Group sues for Obama vacation records
AP file photo
LAWSUIT:
Judicial Watch Inc., a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based organization
that focuses on transparency and accountability in government, filed the
lawsuit on May 6 to obtain financial records from U.S. Secret Service
related to the first family’s Hawaiian vacations.
HONOLULU — Aloha, U.S. Secret Service? You’ve been served.
About those vacations to Hawaii, we want to know how much they’re costing taxpayers.
Judicial Watch Inc., a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based organization that focuses on transparency and accountability in government, filed the lawsuit May 6 to obtain from the U.S. Secret Service financial records related to the first family’s Hawaiian vacations.
Hawaii Reporter and Watchdog.org has sought this information since 2008, when the Obamas and their entourage began traveling annually to Hawaii during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
The organization filed the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit — Judicial Watch v. U.S. Secret Service — to obtain records related to the use of taxpayer money to provide “security and/or any other services to President Obama and any companions on their January 1 and 2, 2013, trip to Honolulu, Hawaii.”
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
BEACH VIEW: View of Kailua Beach, where the president stays.
According to Judicial Watch, the U.S. Secret Service acknowledged the agency received the request Jan. 31, and, by law, is required to determine whether to comply with the FOIA request within 20 days and notify Judicial Watch by Feb. 11.
As of May 6, the Secret Service produced no records and has failed to follow-up on the request.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “President Obama is not king and his administration should stop ignoring the FOIA open records law and account to the American people the spending on his luxury vacations.”
Keith Koffler, a veteran White House reporter, wrote in a column Jan. 4 the “total cost to taxpayers of Obama’s vacations to Hawaii since becoming president is likely in excess of $20 million, and possibly much, much more.”
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