Balancing green goals against the imperative for growth can be tricky (just look at Europe), but one solution can advance both pursuits: increasing efficiency. The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has some smart suggestions for next steps on increasing building efficiencies for a variety of clients, from universities to government agencies, from corporate giants to car dealerships. Green policymakers would do well to follow the RMI’s example and go after this kind of realistic, environmentally-friendly option.

The Economist calls it “one of the most audacious challenges ever to the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish prime minister.” In a police operation, a mayor, a construction typhoon, and the sons of three of Erdoğan’s cabinet ministers were arrested as part of a corruption probe. The juicy details were leaked to the press: “$4.5 million in cash packed in shoe boxes found in the home of the chief executive of a state-run bank; a money-counting machine and piles of bank notes discovered in the bedroom of a government minister’s son.”

A New York federal judge has issued the first permanent injunction against Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate. His opinion is the first to hold that the mandate, even with the compromise, is a “substantial burden” on the free exercise of religion. The opinion is important because the Supreme Court has agreed to hear two related cases, and the arguments offered by Cogan here could come into play at the Court. But it’s also an entertaining read, largely because Cogan repeatedly makes the point that the way the Obama administration has implemented the ACA undermines the very mandate it wants to defend.

Even though the government promised it would pay a good price for his rice, Mana Nutchyoo hasn’t seen half the money. “It’s in the system,” he said hopefully, held up by the turmoil sparked by opposition protests in Bangkok, 90 minutes to the south. But even if the political crisis eases, Nutchyoo may never see the rest of the money: the government is having serious trouble funding its rice-buying scheme and other pro-poor subsidies. If the fiscal crisis worsens the “Red Shirts” could end up turning on their government patrons.

There are many similarities between our period and the pre-WWI system: widespread belief in the peaceful powers of globalization mixed with ineffective leaders; geopolitical grappling; rising nationalism; and instability in smaller countries that are “clients” of larger powers. Geopolitics is back, and we need to re-learn how to think strategically about engaging whole nations in a global power struggle.

Gallup Polls and Purdue University will be spending the next five years surveying hundreds of thousands of college graduates to paint a more accurate picture of where students from various colleges end up and what sort of impact their degree has on their life. This measurement will go far beyond more recent attempts to put a value of a degree by simply looking at post-college earnings, and looks like the best attempt yet to put a true value on college degrees.

The EPA invalidated 33.5 million renewable fuel credits (RINs, for shorthand) on Wednesday for the simple reason that the company that sold the credits didn’t actually produce the fuel. It’s the fourth case of fraud for America’s biofuels boondoggle, but the RFS itself is an even bigger fraud than cons taking place within it.

The eurozone’s most important economy could be in for a rude awakening. In the wake of Standard & Poor’s recent downgrade of the Netherlands, Germany’s coveted triple-A credit rating may be at risk. Germany is one of only two Eurozone countries left with the top rating, but with its slowing output, aging population, expensive pledges to save the euro, and a new, untested governing coalition, the problems that brought down the Netherlands down may eventually afflict the economy holding Europe together.

In response to alleged mistreatment of an Indian diplomat by American law enforcement officials, Indian authorities have taken a series of unprecedented steps to show their displeasure, including the removal of security barriers around the American embassy in New Delhi. Indian outrage over alleged mistreatment abroad is not new, but during election season, opportunistic politicians are especially eager to stoke anti-American sentiment.

Detroit’s charter schools have the second-highest market share of any city in America, but the abundance of schools is also creating a somewhat chaotic marketplace as a large number of schools compete for a declining student base. The confusion is hard on students and parents, but it may be necessary to fix one of the worst school systems in the country.