Vox Sentences: Obama’s immigration plan’s on hold. Here’s why.

1. Deportation relief for some, protracted court proceedings for others

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• A federal judge ordered the Obama administration to temporarily halt its new deportation relief program.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced the administration now won't accept applications for deportation relief from immigrants who arrived in the US as children and are now older than 30; DHS was due to start accepting their applications Wednesday.

  [Department of Homeland Security]

• The ruling doesn't affect the existing program offering relief for under-30-year-olds who arrived as children ("DREAMers"), as that program, announced in 2012, isn't being challenged.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• It also doesn't say anything about the merits of the administration's actions; the ruling came because the judge thought the actions "hadn't properly followed the Administrative Procedures Act — which sets the typical procedure for making federal regulations."

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• That said, the judge, Andrew Hanen, is clearly skeptical of the actions, and in previous rulings called the administration's deportation policy "an open invitation to the most dangerous criminals in society."

  [Mother Jones / Kevin Drum]

• The Obama administration is immediately appealing, and some legal scholars think there's a good chance the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will put Hanen's ruling on hold.

  [NYT / Julia Preston]

• If you're unfamiliar with the program being fought over, here's our full explainer.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

2. Money for nothing

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis attends a press conference with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble following talks on February 5, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. (Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

• Greece is expected to request an extension on its bailout loan from European lenders.

  [Bloomberg / Jonathan Stearns and Brian Parkin]

• But the left-wing Syriza government seems as committed as ever to abandoning the austerity measures imposed as part of that bailout.

  [WSJ / Gabriele Steinhauser, Viktoria Dendrinou, and Nektaria Stamouli]

• Instead, it wants a "bridging loan" that allows it to keep going while negotiating a bigger deal with European leaders.

  [BBC]

• But "a senior European official" told the Wall Street Journal that a new loan without conditions attached to it is an "absolute no-go."

  [WSJ / Gabriele Steinhauser, Viktoria Dendrinou, and Nektaria Stamouli]

• Three ways this could go: (1) Greece folds and/or cuts a more favorable deal; (2) Greece toughs it out without the bailout cash for a few months while imposing capital controls to keep money from fleeing; or (3) Greece leaves the Euro.

  [Business Insider / Mike Bird]

• The Greek government claims to have enough money to last until June without a bailout, but that might be overly optimistic, especially if the European Central Bank cuts off lending to Greek banks entirely.

  [BBC]

3. Exploding trains

Oil containers sit at a train depot on July 26, 2013 outside Williston, North Dakota. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

• A train carrying oil from North Dakota derailed and exploded in West Virginia.

  [Reuters / Patrick Rucker]

• Just this past Thursday, another oil train derailed and spilled oil in northern Ontario.

  [Think Progress / Katie Valentine]

• "More than 141 'unintentional releases' were reported from railroad tankers in 2014, an all-time high and a nearly six-fold increase over the average of 25 spills per year during the period from 1975 to 2012."

  [Washington Post / Joby Warrick]

• Not all "unintentional releases" are actually derailments, but there have been at least 17 major accidents on trains carrying crude oil or ethanol since 2006.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• Part of the issue is that transporting oil by rail is becoming much more common; it's gone up nearly 400 percent since 2005.

  [Christian Science Monitor / Jared Gilmour]

• 60 to 70 percent of oil produced in North Dakota in the first half of 2014 was transported to refineries via rail.

  [Energy Information Agency]

• Three major reasons for accidents: North Dakota oil often has chemicals that make it more flammable, many train cars are outdated, and the trains arguably go too fast.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• Rail safety is a major factor in the Keystone XL debate; if the pipeline isn't built, there might be more oil traveling by rail, potentially causing more accidents like this.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

4. Misc.

• The median Chipotle order is 1,070 calories; 2 percent of orders top 2,000 (my typical order is 1,160, as long as we're shaming ourselves).

  [NYT / Kevin Quealy, Amanda Cox, and Josh Katz]

• That said, big meals aren't driving America's obesity problem: snacks are.

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• Newspapers have on over 6,000 occasions since the 1980s called someone "the Michael Jordan of" some field; examples include "the Michael Jordan of bagpipers, private detectives, juvenile delinquents, yo-yoers, cemetery backhoe operators, and taxi drivers."

  [WSJ / Ben Cohen and Tom McGinty]

• Ever wish your contact lenses could zoom? Swiss researchers have made a model that can.

  [New Scientist / Aviva Rutkin]

• The "Homer Simpson has been in a coma for 20 years" theory is extraordinary, up there with "Cars takes place on the Earth the humans in Wall-E left behind."

  [Jason Kottke]

5. Verbatim

• "I drew sketches of how the library users were co-opting the spaces and objects, ascribing a name to each type, as if they were yoga positions. Two laptop users sitting with their backs to each other were 'Reverse Battleships.'"

  [Curious Rituals / Dan Hill]

• "Early in the film, Anastasia idly nibbles a pencil with Christian Grey's name on it. That is the closest she comes to performing a sex act for the duration of the movie."

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• "'My desires are…unconventional,' he admits. 'So are mine,' I say. 'I want to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.'"

  [Laurie Penny]

• "I can buy information on any single individual in this classroom. I can overlay it with your voter information and make a profile — but I’m not done. I can get you directly. . . . I’m going to send an ad to [your] computer or, increasingly, directly to [your] television set."

  [Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to Washington Post / Ben Terris]

• "The Republican congressman presiding over the floor at the time tried in vain to bring Miller to order, banging his gavel so furiously that it broke in two."

  [Huffington Post / Sabrina Siddiqui]