Vox Sentences: Oregon's governor resigns in clean energy corruption scandal, because Oregon

1. Kitzhobbled

Soon-to-be-former Gov. John Kitzhaber (D-OR). (Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns)

• Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber (D) is resigning, effective Wednesday, February 18, due to a corruption scandal.

  [NYT / Kirk Johnson]

• Kitzhaber was elected in 2010 and reelected last November; previously, he served as governor from 1995 to 2003.

• The basic issue is that Kitzhaber's fiancé/energy adviser, Cylvia Hayes, received over $200,000 in consulting payments, much of it from groups interested in energy policy.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• Hayes "directed state employees how to implement a new policy while she was being paid $25,000 by an advocacy group to promote it."

  [The Oregonian / Laura Gunderson]

• Kitzhaber initially responded by announcing Hayes would no longer advise him on energy policy.

  [KOIN]

• But eventually pressure from fellow Democrats and the press mounted, and he concluded "t I have become a liability to the very institutions and policies to which I have dedicated my career and, indeed, my entire adult life."

  [The Oregonian / Laura Gunderson]

• He'll be succeeded by Secretary of State Kate Brown, the first-ever openly bi governor of a state.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• Nationally, Kitzhaber (a former ER doctor) was best known for his health policy efforts, where he has attempted to control costs by setting up "community care organizations," groups of health workers given set budgets to treat a number of patients as cost-effectively as possible.

  [Washington Post / Sarah Kliff]

• The goal was to realign health care workers' incentives from favoring more health care to favoring more effective health care.

• But Kitzhaber's reputation on that issue was sullied by the utterly disastrous rollout of Obamacare in Oregon.

  [Vox / Sarah Kliff]

2. Iran-Kirchner

President Kirchner. (Charlie Diaz/Azcue)

• Argentinian prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita will attempt to charge the country's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with a cover-up of negotiations with Iran.

  [NYT / Jonathan Gilbert and Simon Romero]

• The talks concerned Iran's involvement in the 1994 AMIA attack, the bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 people. It was the worst terrorist attack in Argentinian history.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• Iran is believed to be behind the bombing; in 2007, Argentina got Interpol arrest warrants for six Iranian nationals related to the attack, including one who was Iran's cultural attaché to Argentina.

  [Interpol]

• Kirchner stands accused of attempting to make a deal with Iran wherein Argentina would help cover up the country's role in the bombing in exchange for Iranian oil.

  [The Guardian / Uki Goni]

• The issue blew up publicly when prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating Kirchner, died under mysterious circumstances.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• Initially, investigators said it was a suicide, but Nisman's hands had no gunshot residue, leading to suspicion Nisman was murdered and the scene was staged.

  [WSJ / Taos Turner and Santiago Perez]

• Kirchner's behavior has been totally bizarre throughout, initially saying Nisman's death was a suicide, and then reversing herself, and then suddenly announcing she wanted to dissolve the Argentinian intelligence service.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• Kirchner's chief of staff called the latest move to prosecute her "a clear maneuver of antidemocratic destabilization."

  [NYT / Jonathan Gilbert and Simon Romero]

3. Remember the Ukraine ceasefire? Yeah…

A destroyed apartment which took a direct hit from a shell resulting in the death of two is viewed on September 15, 2014 in Ilovaisk, Ukraine. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• So remember how there was a big ceasefire deal in Ukraine starting Saturday, and everyone was excited? It turns out the fighting's intensifying now.

• "According to various estimates, dozens of combatants and civilians died on Friday."

  [FT / Roman Olearchyk]

• The US is also accusing Russia of placing artillery and rocket systems in a fought-over town in Eastern Ukraine, which certainly violates the spirit of the ceasefire deal, if not the letter.

  [NYT / Michael Gordon and Andrew Kramer]

• Here's the Vox explainer on the ceasefire deal, which — even if it were being respected — seems to put Russia in a stronger position.

  [Vox / Max Fisher]

• It's worth also remembering that Ukraine's economy is in freefall, which risks causing yet more political instability.

  [NYT / David Herszenhorn]

4. Misc.

• Huh: autism rates have actually been pretty stagnant since 1990.

  [Vox / Julia Belluz]

• Rolling Stone ranked every SNL cast member ever, all 141 of these. Robert Downey, Jr. comes in last.

  [Rolling Stone / Rob Sheffield]

• A spreadsheet of things boys at parties have asked Claire Carusillo if she's familiar with, including "R&B Music," "the International Space Station," and "paid sick leave."

  [Racked / Claire Carusillo]

• John Podesta — senior advisor to Obama, chief of staff to Clinton — is totally obsessed with UFOs in a pretty adorable way.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

5. Verbatim

• "I have a super-cool record collection, so we never had that awkward thing happen where we’d be in the middle of making out and a two-minute Spotify ad for Walgreen’s would come on."

  [New Yorker / Hallie Cantor]

• "A year earlier, he had been awaiting trial for supporting an affiliate of Al Qaeda; now he would be buried among war heroes."

  [New Yorker / Nicholas Schmidle]

• "I said friendly and neutral things like 'I will never kill you,' and my sweetheart's dad replied by saying, 'I would try pretty hard to save you from a witch."

  [Clickhole]

• "Except I had one stuffed animal — she was my favorite, so I was like, 'I’m not going to sully her with my gross sex stuff.''"

  [Emily V. Gordon to AV Club / Erik Adams]

• "This party was a lovely thought, if vastly misguided and incredibly inappropriate."

  [Mariah MacCarthy via NYT / Alexis Soloski]

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