Inflation is dropping! Good news, huh?

Apparently you don’t understand how this game is played.

Sure, for this snapshot in time, the latest figures are leading the major papers.

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New York Times: "Inflation data released on Wednesday showed a pronounced cooling and offered some of the most hopeful news since the Federal Reserve began trying to tame rapid price increases 16 months ago."

Washington Post: "A year after inflation soared to the highest level in four decades, price increases are returning closer to normal levels, with families and businesses feeling the difference as wages rise faster than prices and policymakers debate how much more to slow the economy."

So the 3 percent inflation rate reported for June – beating the market’s all-knowing, all-seeing expectations – is a welcome surprise. It’s the lowest level in more than two years.

But the unwritten rules of cable and online news say statistics are only important when we are careening toward a crisis.

Inflation got quite high, Republicans used rising prices to pound President Biden every day, and that’s fair game.

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But now that it’s down to a more reasonable 3 percent, while some Republicans may continue their bashing (on the theory that many people don’t follow the numbers), many others will move on to other topics.

The president will boast about taming inflation, as he did yesterday, but the press will only cover it for a couple of days before it is deemed old news.

I’m not suggesting here that Biden is being treated unfairly. When George H.W. Bush was running for reelection in 1992, the country had technically pulled out of a deep recession, but most people felt the outlook was bleak. In politics, perception is what matters.

A similar scenario has unfolded at the border. For Biden’s first two years, a strong case could be made that he botched the immigration issue and that things at the southern border were out of control. Every Republican running for president is denouncing Biden on border issues – and, in Ron DeSantis’ case, vowing to build the wall that Donald Trump could not.

There was a particularly loud media drumbeat as we approached the end of the Title 42 policy, launched during the pandemic, that allowed for quick expulsion of illegal migrants. The media echoed the same warnings – a humanitarian crisis is about to get far worse.

But then a strange thing happened. Since early May, according to Customs figures, illegal crossings have dropped by almost 70 percent. Heard much about that? Of course you haven’t.

As the Post puts it, "the Biden administration appears to have better control over the southern border than at any point since early 2021."

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Now the Biden team isn’t spiking the football. Maybe this is a temporary fluke, or maybe it’s the result of the administration allowing tens of thousands of migrants to enter legally through a mobile app, with more deportations for those who break the rules.

So while the plunge in illegal crossings is drawing modest coverage, it’s nothing like when the numbers were soaring every month and the networks were belatedly sending correspondents to places like El Paso. A 70 percent plunge just ain’t that exciting.

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Bad news is big news. Good news, yawn, not so much.

A Jamaican man pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud charges in a Scranton, Pennsylvania, court in connection with a phony sweepstakes scheme that targeted elderly Americans, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Damone Oakley, 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud after he admitted to attempting to make himself wealthy through a fraudulent sweepstakes scheme targeting elderly and vulnerable Americans. He was extradited to the U.S. from Point District, St. James Parish, Jamaica, to face the charges.

The scheme involved telling people they won millions of dollars and luxury vehicles in sweepstakes, but had to pay taxes and fees in order to claim their winnings. 

Oakley used the postal service, text messages or phone calls to contact his victims under different names, like "Officer Alex Logan" and "Officer Stan Valentine."

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The fraudulent payments requested by Oakley would be sent directly to him via a wire transfer, direct bank deposit, through the postal service or private commercial mail carriers. In some instances, Oakley would have the money sent to others in the U.S. and elsewhere who then transferred the money to him.

In addition to sending cash or wire transfers, some victims were also told to buy electronics, jewelry and clothing, which were sent to Oakley in Jamaica through mail forwarding services in Florida.

The DOJ said Oakley scammed "the most vulnerable people in our society" out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Today’s guilty plea reflects our office’s commitment to protecting elderly victims and punishing individuals who engage in this type of behavior," U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Eric Shen, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group, reiterated Karam's sentiments, adding that Wednesday's plea agreement exemplifies the group's commitment to "investigating scammers, domestically and internationally, who use the U.S. mail to enrich themselves by targeting and financially exploiting vulnerable American consumers, including the elderly."

The case was investigated by the USPIS with assistance from the DOJ's Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Marshals. Law enforcement partners in Jamaica helped to secure Oakley's arrest and extradition.

"Oakley was the first individual whose extradition was requested by the United States under Jamaica’s revised Extradition Act, and we are confident that we will continue our efforts to root out fraud that targets vulnerable consumers, wherever the fraudsters are located," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

The DOJ said it has a help hotline available for people over the age of 60 who have fallen victim to financial fraud. It can be reached seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET at 1-833-372-8311.