'Start Here': FBI questions Jussie Smollett decision, Brexit gets 'even more' Brexity - ABC News

It's Thursday, March 28, 2019. Let's start here.

1. Op-Fed

A day after prosecutors, who acknowledged Jussie Smollett fabricated a hate crime against himself in Chicago, let the "Empire" star walk free after charging him with 16 felonies, the FBI said it will investigate how that decision was reached.

ABC News' Alex Perez has the latest for "Start Here" on how the FBI got involved, while Leah Hope from WLS tells us, according to the state attorney's office, this type of alternate resolution has happened "thousands of times."

2. Most Brexitest

Kirit Radia, an ABC News foreign editor, joins "Start Here" to try to explain how Brexit, already a Brexity Brexit of pure Brexitude, is "even more of a mess now."

(Jessica Taylor/AP, FILE) Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May stands to talk to lawmakers inside the House of Commons parliament in London, March 27, 2019.

3. 105 degrees

Police in Arizona are explaining why officers forcibly entered a home to rescue a 2-year-old who'd recently had a 105-degree fever but wasn't taken to a hospital.

The boy, who wasn't vaccinated, and his two sisters were taken from their mother and placed with their grandparents.

Senior National Correspondent Matt Gutman joins us with the latest.

4. Rockets' red glare

Seven Israelis were injured in a rocket strike earlier this week, and Israel responded in kind, and now mediators have descended upon the Gaza Strip to prevent further escalation.

ABC News' Jordana Miller, reporting from Jerusalem, tells us on today's podcast that despite current events neither Israel nor Hamas are "interested in a major war right now."

(Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images) Israeli soldiers walk by Merkava Mark IV tanks during a military drill in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on May 1, 2018.

"Start Here" is the flagship daily news podcast from ABC News -- a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn or the ABC News app. On Amazon Echo, ask Alexa to "Play 'Start Here'" or add the "Start Here" skill to your Flash Briefing. Follow @StartHereABC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for exclusive content and show updates.

Happy birthday, us

As "Start Here" turns 1, Brad Mielke opens his notebook to share the five biggest lessons from hosting the show.

Among them: "Even in an age when journalists can seemingly learn everything there is to know about a story from afar, I'm constantly reminded that there's no substitute for actually seeing events up close."

Elsewhere:

'The world order has changed': ABC News spends more than a year with three families exploring in vitro fertilization: "Our goal is to continue to build our family and to take hold of what we believe -- our promise to be able to raise kids in our home -- and IVF helped us do that."

'I didn't expect it, but I'm doing OK': A public defender is punched in the back of the head by an inmate during a hearing.

'This is an amazing milestone moment for Wisconsin': A winning Powerball ticket is sold.

'Bye, Jayme': The 21-year-old who abducted and held captive 13-year-old Jayme Closs pleads guilty to that crime and also to murdering her parents.

From our friends at FiveThirtyEight:

2019 MLB Predictions: Updated every game.

Also check out FiveThirtyEight's favorites and breakout picks in the National League and the American League.

Doff your cap:

Everyone, meet Scotty.

(Amanda Kelley/University of Alberta) The towering and battle-scarred "Scotty"reported by UAlberta paleontologists is the world's largest Tyrannosaurus rex and the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Canada.

"The rex of rexes," according to one paleontologist, Scotty is the heaviest Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered.

The enormous skeleton was found in 1991 in the Canadian town of Eastend, but with the bones embedded in hard sandstone, it took paleontologists more than a decade to dig them out before reassembly could be attempted. The specimen, according to a recent study, is nearly two-thirds complete.

Scotty exemplifies the robust.

The 42-foot-long T. rex, which probably weighed more than 19,400 pounds when alive, got its name because of a celebratory bottle of scotch shared the night it was found, about 66 million years after it roamed what is now Saskatchewan.

"There is considerable size variability among Tyrannosaurus," Scott Persons, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Alberta's Department of Biological Sciences, said in a statement. "Some individuals were lankier than others, and some were more robust. Scotty exemplifies the robust."

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