President Barack Obama spent at least part of his Sunday in Chicago doing two things he loves: playing and watching basketball.

Obama spent about two hours on a basketball court at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where his two daughters attended before the family’s move to Washington in early January. He played four games, with his team losing the final and championship game by a basket.
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There are certain things you know as a New Yorker as you stroll down a street. When it’s Fleet Week (after all, there are adorable sailors everywhere. And yes, they’re in uniform!), when the Yankees are in the playoffs (there’s a certain buzz in the air), when the UN is in session (midtown traffic simply stops at a standstill) and when a president is in town.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama jet to Manhattan this past weekend and took it by storm. Roads were barricaded, the Secret Service were in full effect and you knew someone special was in the vicinity.
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The man who (accidentally) elbowed President Obama in the face during a pick-up basketball game today — requiring a dozen stitches to the presidential upper lip — has come forward.
Rey Decerega, who is the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, issued this statement:
“I learned today the president is both a tough competitor and a good sport. I enjoyed playing basketball with him this morning. I’m sure he’ll be back out on the court again soon,” Decerega said.
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First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Sasha and Malia and family dog Bo will fly to Hawaii on Saturday for a winter vacation, Politics Daily has learned, while President Obama remains in Washington to deal with Congress.
In a pre-emptive move — remembering the stinging criticism of her lavish vacation to Spain last summer — the East Wing volunteered that Mrs. Obama will be flying to Hawaii in a military version of a business airplane — not the jumbo jet that flew her to the Mediterranean coast in August.
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Stress and pressure as a president we couldn’t imagine, it might be the reason why we almost never heard a president relaxing. And this fact might be the first and memorable trip that Barack Obama and his family ever had. Spending weekend to a spectacular national park on the coast of Maine, no doubt hoping this latest jaunt doesn’t fall victim to the Obama family travel hex.

In a mere 18 months on the job, Obama has rolled up an impressive record of diversions, interruptions, delays and outright cancellations of planned family travel all thanks to the nonstop demands of a turbulent presidency.
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