Who Needs It?: As long expected, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is leaving, President Trump announced yesterday. Kelly is expected to go by the end of the year.

Vice-President Pence’s Chief of Staff Nick Ayers has been mentioned as a replacement. He would be Trump’s third chief of staff. Back in 2012 Trump  tweeted, “3 Chief of Staffs in less than 3 years of being President: Part of the reason why@BarackObama can’t manage to pass his agenda.”

Reports in recent days say things are so bad between Trump and Kelly that they aren’t speaking to each other. The former Marine general, Trump’s second chief of staff in less than two years, was brought on to bring discipline to the White House kindergarten. He found out the Trump White House doesn’t work like the Marines. Insiders have told reporters that  Kelly has been telling colleagues in recent days, “I don’t need this.”

Annie Karni and Maggie Habermanwrite for The NY Times  that, “If Mr. Ayers accepts the job, his appointment would be seen inside the White House as a coup for Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who clashed with Mr. Kelly and are seen as close to Mr. Ayers. The view inside is that they are now ‘running the building,’ one of the president’s allies said.”

Individual-1: It’s the bullet you don’t hear that gets you.

While Washington awaits the Special Counsel’s report, for now the biggest danger posed to President Trump comes from federal prosecutors in New York.

In the sentencing recommendation for Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, prosecutors say a person they call “Individual-1” directed Cohen to manipulate the 2016 election by breaking campaign finance law. That’s President Trump.

“While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows,” the prosecutors wrote.

The case is being compared to the prosecution of former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, who used campaign money to cover an affair that produced a child.

Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos write in The NY Times that, “The framers of the Constitution specifically envisioned impeachment as a remedy for removing a president who obtained office through corrupt means, and legal scholars have long concluded that the threshold of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ does not necessarily require a statutory crime.”

Friendly Fire: The California sheriff’s deputy killed responding to a mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks last month was accidentally killed by a highway patrol officer, investigators revealed yesterday

Sgt. Ron Helus, a 29-year veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, was hit by six bullets, five of them fired by the gunman, Ian Long. The fatal shot fired from a rifle by the CHP officer hit Helus in the heart.

China Syndrome: China has issued a stern warning to Canada, threatening “serious consequences” if Canada fails to immediately release Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese electronics giant Huawei.

Meng was arrested at the request of the US, which accuses her of violating sanctions against Iran

An editorial in the People’s Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Beijing regime,  says, “Only by correcting its mistake, immediately ending its violation of a Chinese citizen’s lawful and legitimate rights and giving the Chinese people a due explanation can Canada avoid paying a heavy price.”

Baby It’s Cold: A winter storm howling through the Southeast has already cut power to 200,000 customers and threatens to dump a foot of snow in some areas.

Already toady, 1,600 flights have been cancelled and 5,300 are delayed.

Heavy snow is in the southern and central Appalachians, the National Weather Service said. Snowfall could total 12 to 20 inches over the Appalachians and into the Carolinas by Monday — when the storm is expected to move off the coast.

Home Run: Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray was named the winner of the coveted Heisman Trophy last night at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York.

Murray has thrown the ball for 4,053 yards and 40 touchdowns. He ran  the ball himself for 892 yards and 11 more scores on the ground. Oklahoma leads the nation in total yardage and points per game.

Murray is not going to play professional football. He’s going to play baseball.

Grand Theft Auto: To attract a younger audience, the International Olympic Committee has actually considered including video games in the games, but not yet. The Committee issued a statement saying, “It was agreed that competitive gaming entails physical activity which can be compared to that required in more traditional sports. This, on the other hand, cannot necessarily be said to apply to leisure electronic gaming.”

Or badminton.

-30-