Pain Points

This is civic tech: Journalist Max Galka’s FOIA Mapper goes live today, Joseph Lichterman reports for NiemanLab. Its goal is to make it much easier to figure out where documents are and the best ways to request them.

Jack Smith of Tech.Mic explains exactly why the FCC’s proposed plan to expand its Lifeline subsidy program to include coverage for broadband services for poor Americans is so vital.

Rodney Sampson shares a must-read Storify of a day in the life of an Atlanta #CodeStart School student. It’s a reminder that, as he puts it, “the pain points we are hacking … are much larger than teaching the hard skills of coding.”

Online voter registration is coming to Rhode Island. Nearly two-thirds of the states now offer it.

The city of Philadelphia is forging ahead with civic tech despite the recent departure of its civic tech director Aaron Ogle, Dominique Johnson reports for Al Dia News.

Crypto-wars, continued: The Justice Department is still trying to get Apple to help it crack open an iPhone in a case in new York, Sarah Jeong points out for Motherboard.

Related: Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) has introduced legislation banning the purchase of so-called burner phones in the United States, GovTrack.us reports. The bill would require purchasers to provide their identification when buying pre-paid phones.