Vox Sentences: The corruption scandal that toppled Guatemala's president

The president resigns in Guatemala; a minor county official in Kentucky continues to not do her job; and Tom Brady gets un-suspended.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

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TOP NEWS

Otto out

Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

• The president of Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina, resigned and then appeared in court today due to a corruption scandal.

  [NYT / Azam Ahmed and Elisabeth Malkin]

• The resignation followed a unanimous vote of Congress on Tuesday to strip Pérez Molina of immunity from prosecution, which was spurred by weeks of protests against the administration.

  [NYT / Elisabeth Malkin and Azam Ahmed]

• The corruption scandal is called "La Linea," after a phone number that customs officials allegedly called to engage in corrupt dealings.

  [InSight Crime / David Gagne]

• The scam was simple. Corrupt customs officials created fake documents to give corrupt importers discounts on import duties. The importer kept some of the discount, and the rest got paid to officials as a bribe.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• The scam goes back years, but the Pérez Molina regime apparently ramped it up dramatically.

  [InSight Crime / Steven Dudley]

• Guatemala has a presidential election on Sunday; Pérez Molina was term limited out of office, but it's hard to imagine this all helps his party's candidate, Mario David García Velásquez.

  [Slate / Beth Ethier]

• For more, see Amanda Tauba's comprehensive explainer.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• If you want to read more about Guatemalan politics, David Grann's "A Murder Foretold," which concerns Pérez Molina's predecessor Álvaro Colom, is absolutely incredible and riveting.

  [New Yorker / David Grann]

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Loafing as civil disobedience

Ty Wright / Getty Images

• So you know how that County Clerk in Kentucky, Kim Davis, was refusing to marry any couples because she doesn't like gay people? A federal judge has thrown her in jail.

  [AP]

• Davis's argument, that she should be exempt from performing a basic requirement of her job that happens also to be a fundamental right of citizens under the Constitution, had already been rejected in federal court, with the Supreme Court refusing to take it up.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Five of Davis's six deputies told Federal Judge David Bunning they'd be willing to issue licenses; the only holdout was her son Nathan. Bunning said he'd consider releasing Davis if she agreed to let her deputies issue the licenses. She declined.

  [NYT / Alan Blinder]

• Those five deputies are expected to issue licenses tomorrow, though their legality without Davis's signature is in question.

  [Courier-Journal / Mike Wynn and Chris Kenning]

• 2016 GOP presidential candidates aren't rallying around Davis, with only Mike Huckabee unequivocally in support. Most took a stance like Marco Rubio's; he said the office should carry out the law, but Davis herself should be allowed not to issue licenses to same-sex couples.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Bunning, who was appointed by George W. Bush, chose to jail Davis even though the same-sex couples suing her only wanted fines.

  [Washington Post / Sandhya Somashekhar]

• Bunning has said that Davis shall remain in custody until she agrees to issue licenses, and that he has no plans to release her tomorrow.

  [Courier-Journal / Mike Wynn and Chris Kenning]

• For more, see German Lopez's comprehensive explainer.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

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#FreeBrady

Spencer Blatt / Getty Images

• A federal court has ruled that Pats quarterback Tom Brady cannot be suspended for four games.

  [NYT / Ken Belson]

• Brady had been suspended after the NFL found that his team deflated footballs used in the AFC Championship last December. It was quickly dubbed "Deflategate" because we can't have nice things in this world.

  [Vox / Joseph Stromberg]

• But the legal battle had little to do with the substance of Deflategate. The question was whether Brady's suspension was allowed under football players' collective bargaining agreement.

  [Washington Post / Mark Maske]

• Judge Richard Berman ruled that the NFL's failure to notify Brady of the potential suspension, its failure to let Brady examine one of the lead investigators at an appeal hearing, and its failure to provide witness interview notes to Brady for his appeal all violated the contract.

  [Judge Richard Berman]

• The NFL is appealing the ruling.

  [ABC News / Susanna Kim and Aaron Katersky]

• If you'd like to have Deflategate explained to you in 90 seconds or less, I've got the video for you.

  [Youtube / Estelle Caswell, Joe Posner, Ezra Klein, Joseph Stromberg]

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MISCELLANEOUS

Meet GynePunks: a movement of feminist biohackers seeking open source, DIY alternatives to traditional gynecology. [Vice / Doug Bierend]

• The New York Times' Scott Anderson tracks a shipping boat launched from Libya and set for Sicily carrying 733 Eritreans trying to reach the EU.

  [NYT / Scott Anderson]

• 16 percent of Republicans express support for universal health care when told Obama supports it. 44 percent express support when told Donald Trump supports it.

  [Huffington Post / Ariel Edwards-Levy]

• Why doesn't the US have high-speed rail? As always in life, blame Congress.

  [CityLab / Yonah Freemark]

• Men's right's activists have started using frivolous lawsuits to fight women-in-tech networking events, because the tech industry definitely wasn't hard enough for women to break into.

  [Yahoo / Alyssa Bereznak]

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VERBATIM

"We play god when we vaccinate. We play god when we give women pain relief during labor. The challenge is to decide how to change the course of nature, not whether to change it." [Julian Savelescu to Nautilus / Steve Paulson]

• "SWIFT: Ah, but you see Socrates, it is not the player that decides to stay, stay, stay. Rather, the player becomes a stayer when he ceases to play, play, play."

  [McSweeney's / Jared Smith]

• "A representative from Fooducate told Quartz that it is not 'a co-conspirator against Hampton Creek' nor has it 'been played by the American Egg Board.'"

  [Quartz / Deena Shanker]

• "Defendants who were detained for the entire pre-trial period—rather than being let out on bail—were four times more likely to be sentenced to time in prison. Their sentences were significantly longer, too."

  [Pacific Standard / Maura Ewing]

• "It’s a new venture by [notable local restaurateur], the owner of [famous upscale bar], [spin-off of famous upscale bar], and [spin-off of the spin-off] — so you know it’s going to be good… There will also be a limited food menu of 'small bites', including such delights as [unexpected meat] sliders and Sriracha [something]."

  [Medium / Max Chanowitz]

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WATCH THIS

Vox / Rob Montz and Joe Posner

• How mandatory minimums helped drive mass incarceration

  [YouTube / Rob Montz and Joe Posner]