These are today's most important stories and my takes on them.
First up, SunPass is a mess, and probably will be for a while. Florida could have seen it coming.
My Take: Here's an update from SunPass yesterday. More than 46 million transactions have been posted to date. As improvements to the system move forward, it is anticipated that up to 8 million transactions will be posted on a daily, recurring basis until all accounts are reconciled.
The knowledge that the company processing the billing for SunPass has previously taken a couple years to fix issues isn't exactly reassuring. What's also potentially of concern is the automatic payment credits that many of us have set up. There aren't any indications of over-billing that's resulted in excessive auto-debits but it's a legitimate concern at this point. The insult to injury with the turnpike is that we shouldn't be having this conversation. At the time of its creation, tolls were only to be assessed until the construction costs had been covered. All that's happened is that toll rates have risen.
It's a reminder that once a government has access to a revenue stream it's likely to go in one direction.
Next up we have Media Obsession With 'Collusion' Destroying Its Credibility David Harsanyi from the Federalist.
My Take: That's just it. Many "journalists" and many networks have so heavily invested in the Trump Russia collusion narrative that they've really decided they have nowhere else to go. According to MRC, 90%-91% of non-Fox News mainstream news coverage is negative when covering the Trump administration. What's also happened is that whole networks are truly looked at, not just by President Trump, but by tens of millions of Americans as "fake news". But, they did it to themselves. Take a look at a cross-section of reporting since Friday's indictments of 12 Russians and you'll find it in abundance. All of the usual suspects have stories about how Friday's Russian hacking indictments are bad for President Trump. Yet, there's literally nothing that was revealed that pointed to anything that'd be inherently good or bad for the President. So, how does that wash? As for President Trump not calling Putin a liar to his face in front of the world, what do you think would have happened at that point? Think that'd be good or bad in our efforts to create stability in Syria and prevent an escalation into conflict with Iran, Russia and perhaps China. The coverage in the wake of yesterday's meeting in Helsinki has been predictably reprehensible.
Credibility takes years to establish but not long to kill. A stunning number of networks have killed their credibility in their personal desires to get Trump. Imagine if they were as interested in Uranium One, Benghazi, the faked DNC/Hillary Dossier, etc.
Photo Credit: @NewsGuyGreg