Handles

This is civic tech: Day laborers in New York City have started using a mobile app called Jornalero that will help them fight wage theft, Liz Robbins reports for the New York Times. Built with an immigrant rights group in Queens, the New Immigrant Community Empowerment, with support from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the app helps them log their hours, monitor their employer, and send instant alerts to other workers.

Nadia Owusu reviews Living Cities journey into the civic tech ecosystem.

President Obama will appear at SXSW Interactive on March 11 for a conversation with Evan Smith, the CEO/Editor-in-Chief of The Texas Tribune to talk about “civic engagement in the 21st Century,” the conference announced. First Lady Michelle Obama will appear at SXSW Music the following week.

Rad Campaign’s Allyson Kapin, the founder of Women Who Tech, offers “10 tips for planning a tech conference that women will want to attend“

The G0V Summit in Taipei, rooted in Taiwan’s civic tech community, has released the agenda for its May 14-15 conference.

Trump watch: Longtime journalist and digital pioneer (and Civic Hall member) Dan Gillmor writes on Zocalo Public Square that the traditional news media, including newspapers and local TV news, bear a portion of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump for over-reporting murder, mayhem, and terrorism while failing to hold the powerful to account. But he also argues that Trump’s rise could give the media a second chance at greatness and purpose.

Gizmodo’s Matt Novak asks a good question: Has Donald Trump ever used a computer? And he finds little evidence that he has.

Tech and politics: The State Department staffer who worked on setting up Hillary Clinton’s private email server in 2009 has been granted immunity by the Justice Department, as part of a “criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information,” Adam Goldman reports for the Washington Post.

Crypto-wars, continued: Speaking at the RSA security trade show in San Francisco, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says he’s “not a believer in back doors” and supports strong encryption, the AP reports.

The Bitcoin network is at a serious impasse, Ben Popper reports for The Verge, with its capacity to process transactions at a near standstill due to its rapid growth.