Clintons' Caribbean Vacation Cost Taxpayers At Least $211K

     Bill and Hillary Clinton vacationed in the Dominican Republic around New Years, visiting at least two exclusive resorts, Punta Cana and the Casa de Campo. The once-and-possibly-future first couple spent the week, of course, under the watchful eye of the U.S. Secret Service, but the security required for the trip didn't come cheap. Five contracts for the Secret Service for lodging and vehicles totaled more than $211,000, not including food or transportation to and from the island for the agents on duty.
    The trip was first reported by THE WEEKLY STANDARD in April, but since that time more contracts have come to light, one as recently as June. The initial contract for hotels rooms for SS agents was $104,093, as shown in this composite screenshot of contract details:

     However, a second contract was subsequently posted, this one for $87,786.  This contract specifically mentions the hotel at Punta Cana, one of the resorts where the Clintons stayed:

     Besides the hotel contracts, there were three separate contracts for vehicles, one for $1,430, a second for $5,530, and a third for $12,560, bringing the vehicle total to $19,520. The description for each of the vehicle contracts reads "VEHICLE RENTAL FOR US SECRET SERVICE (FPOTUS/ FFLOTUS CLINTON)". Total hotel and vehicle costs came to $211,399.
     The Clintons each appeared in some photos during the trip, Mrs. Clinton at Punta Cana and Mr. Clinton at Casa de Campo:

     Mrs. Clinton reportedly discussed her decision to run for president during the Clintons' Caribbean vacation during a meal with sugar tycoons the Fanjul brothers and businessman Rolando Bunster, friends of the Clintons and participants (Alonso Fanjul and Bunster) in the Clinton Foundation’s Future of the Americas conference in New York in December 2014.


Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Clintons' New Year's Vacation in Dominican Republic Costs Taxpayers $104K

    President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are no longer "broke" if their choice of holiday destinations is any indication. A short article at DominicanToday.com colorfully reports that the famous couple was in the Dominican Republic to "hobnob with tycoons at Dominican resorts" around the turn of the year. And while the Clintons are responsible for their own expenses, the US taxpayer picks up the tab for Secret Service protection, and the hotel bill alone for this trip totaled at least $104,093. Below is a composite of screenshots from the details for the contract:

    The contract for the hotel appears to cover about a week. The effective date of the contract is listed as December 29, 2014 and the completion date is January 5, 2015. It is unclear how many rooms were required or even how many hotels may have been used; the contract simply says "Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees" rather than specific hotels.
    The report on the Clintons' trip by Dominican Today says that in addition to their stay at the Punta Cana resort, they also "went to the even more exclusive resort of Casa de Campo". However, it is not clear if the Clintons lodged at Casa de Campo or just visited during the day.
    At least one Twitter user tweeted a photo purporting to show President Clinton on the golf course at Punta Cana, and an Instagram user uploaded this photo with Hillary Clinton, also at the Punta Cana resort:

    Another Instagram user posted this casual photo with Bill Clinton at the Casa de Campo resort:

    Also at the Casa de Campo resort, the Clintons met brothers Pepe [José] and Alfy [Alfonso] Fanjul, owners of the Florida Crystals Corporation, a sugar company based in Florida, again according to Dominican Today. The same article cites the Dominican-based website listin.com.do as saying that "in addition to personal matters, the sugar tycoons discuss the possibility of Hillary Clinton’s run for the White [House] on the Democratic ballot in the US elections in Nov., 2016."
    Yet another Dominican-based website (deultimominuto.com.do) reported that businessman Rolando Bunster joined the Fanjuls and the Clintons for lunch and included this photo of the four men on the golf course:

    Alonso Fanjul and Rolando Bunster both participated in the Clinton Foundation’s Future of the Americas conference in New York in December.
    The daily newspaper of the Casa del Campo resort also reported on the Clintons' visit:

Arriving in Casa de Campo a few days after New Year’s Eve, former president of the United States, Bill Clinton and his wife, Hilary Clinton were spotted eating out at Limoncello in the Marina Casa de Campo, where they were joined by the Fanjul and the Gonzalez-Bunster families. And while yes the Casa de Campo community is in general pretty laid back about celebrity spotting, seeing Mr Bill Clinton casually having dinner out in the open, in the middle of the Plaza Portofino of the Marina Casa de Campo – now that did cause some excitement – the result being that he kindly agreed to pose for few photos. 

After that first night in the Marina Casa de Campo, former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, spent the remainder of his time in Casa de Campo enjoying private dinners with friends at their Casa de Campo villas, and of course playing a few rounds of golf.

    The Casa del Campo newspaper article was accompanied by this photo of President Clinton with an unidentified couple:

    No photos of the Clintons together on their Dominican vacation could be located. While the article reported that the president played several rounds of golf at the resort and joined friends for dinner at their resort villas, no details were given as to the activities of Mrs. Clinton during that time.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Good Badges, Evil Badges

    The $100,000 NEA grant for HERadventure that I wrote about two weeks ago has got some competition. This time, however, it is the University of California coughing up the funds. In a hands-across-the-country gesture, New York University's Steinhardt School of Cultural, Education, and Human Development announced that its Paulette Goddard Professor in Digital Media and Learning Sciences Jan L. Plass has received a $173,000 grant from "the Digital Media and Learning Research Competition of the University of California Humanities Research Institute for a project titled, “Good Badges, Evil Badges? An Empirical Inquiry into the Impact of Badge Design on Goal Orientation and Learning.’"

    I am not making up any of that.

    Perhaps "Badge Design" is throwing you for a loop? The announcement goes on to explain:

Video games have often used badges as a measure of achievement, from completing a specific task to showing mastery over a particular skill set. In order to realize the potential of badges on lifelong learning, the researchers will be studying the effect of different badge design on players’ attitudes and achievements.

    So "badges" are a digital pat on the back for players who make progress in their game of choice that encourage them to move on to bigger and better... levels of the game. A virtual trophy out of various patterns of colored lights on a video screen. An eBadge.

    Next, here's how the study will work:

The study will look at commercial games as well as the educational geometry-concept game, Noobs vs. Leets, to learn how the presence or absence of badges and trophies affects game play and motivation. Video recordings of gameplay will be analyzed for trends and insight into participants’ perception and valuation of badges as part of their gameplay experience and for changes in gameplay patterns when a player receives a badge.
The study will collect empirical evidence that will inform the discourse on the purpose and function and badges, and enable the researchers to develop theory-based, empirically validated design patterns to support badge designers and issuers in their design decisions.

     I believe that's pretty self-explanatory. And yet somehow at the same time wildly incomprehensible.

    The taxpayers of California and students at the University of California (and perhaps New York University as well, since I assume NYU might have to kick in some lunch money at least) may be looking with envy at HERadventure before all is said and done. After all, how can "badge design" hope to compete with an alien superhero charged with saving the auras of Earth’s women by fighting climate change? And for $73,000 less. The NEA knows a bargain when it sees one.