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President Obama on 2-day visit to LA

October 9, 2014
President Barack Obama steps off of Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

President Barack Obama steps off of Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – President Barack Obama is scheduled today to use the first day of a two-day Los Angeles area visit to promote his plans to create economic opportunity for millennials and conduct a fundraiser at Gwyneth Paltrow’s home.

Obama is scheduled to arrive aboard Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport from Joint Base Andrews this afternoon for his 20th trip to Los Angeles or Orange counties since taking office in 2009. His first stop will be Cross Campus, described by the White House as a collaborative space in Santa Monica that brings together freelancers, creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and startup teams funded by venture capitalists.

Obama is scheduled to tour its working space and interact with founders of several start-ups there and participate in a town hall meeting on the economy, with a particular focus on millennials, according to the White House.

The event coincides with today’s release of a report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisors on millennials, the group born between 1980 and the mid-2000s, the nation’s largest generation, representing one-third of the population.

In an attempt to aid millennials, Obama has proposed increasing federal financial support for higher education, making student loan payments more affordable, supporting innovation, increasing the minimum wage and assisting first-time homebuyers.

Obama will then speak and answer questions at a reception and dinner benefiting the Democratic National Committee at Paltrow’s home.

Tickets are priced from $1,000 to $32,400, the maximum allowable contribution to a national party committee in a calendar year, according to the website, PoliticalPartyTime.org, which tracks political fundraisers.

The fundraiser will be Obama’s 30th in Los Angeles County as president. Bill Clinton conducted 36 and George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan eight each through the sixth years of their administrations, according to research by Brendan J. Doherty, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the U.S. Naval Academy, for his book “The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign.”

George H.W. Bush conducted 10 and Jimmy Carter six during their single terms, according to Doherty.

Obama has conducted fundraisers during 17 of his 20 trips to Los Angeles or Orange counties as president.

Coincidentally, one of Obama’s top political adversaries is also scheduled to be in the Southland for a fundraiser today. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is set to headline an evening fundraiser in Irvine for the Republican Party of Orange County.

The president will conduct another Democratic National Committee fundraiser Friday and go to Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas to announce an executive order declaring 346,000 acres of land in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles as a national monument.

Obama’s arrival comes hours after The Washington Post reported that senior White House aides were given information in 2012 suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance team member in Colombia, yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told The Post on Wednesday that Obama and his advisers did not interfere with an investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s Office.