It's Friday, March 8th.

Welcome to our new podcast, Skim This.

Every Monday through Friday at 5 PM, we're breaking down the biggest, most complex

stories of the day and giving you the context on why they matter.

Today, we want to look at how judges hand down sentences and for how long.

We'll explain the rules for federal guidelines and how they're tied to Paul Manafort's case.

Then another court case for Chelsea Manning.

We'll give you what you need to know about her and why she's going back to jail.

When we left all the calls we received last night, so we'll be sharing your nominations

for Women of the Week.

We're here to make your evening smarter.

Let's skim this.

We're going to start out with a story that was still up in the air when we went live yesterday.

The president's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was in federal court to be sentenced.

You remember from yesterday?

Manafort has been convicted on eight counts of bank fraud and tax fraud.

He had hidden $55 million in overseas bank accounts and he still owes the government $6

million in taxes.

Prosecutors were asking the judge to give Manafort between 19 and 24 years in prison.

Manafort's 69 now, so probably for the rest of his life.

That recommendation was based on federal guidelines.

But this federal judge ignored the prosecutor's recommendation and those guidelines.

...