Marketplace

The Texas-Mexico border is one of the least connected in the US. A map from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows border counties bathed in bright red, meaning less than around 60 percent have home internet access. It’s a distinction shared by the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia, other parts of the country with pernicious poverty. But that may change. The small city of Pharr, Texas — just a handful of miles from the border — is trying to make a change, and end the kind of disconnectedness that plagues low-income border communities.

A Q&A with Phil Weiser, a professor of law and telecommunications at the University of Colorado, about the state of online political advertising. 

Among the list of banned advertising on Facebook you’ll find the usual suspects: guns, drugs, porn etc. Also, on that list? Bad grammar, and recently added, cryptocurrencies. When it comes to political campaign ads however, the rules are few and far between. Unlike television, radio and print ads, online campaign ads don’t face federal regulations.

A Q&A with Christopher Mitchell, director of Community Broadband Networks for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.