The Social Democrat finds it fascinating to watch politics in a nation where social democracy is an established, ongoing experiment. No issue has been more prominent in French politics of late than France’s extensive employement code. Critics, like France’s new president, claim that its protections for workers go too far, hindering job creation. For the old-guard socialist left, the employment code is sacred turf, its critics traitors to the leftist project.  Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell offers a neat summary of the issue.

Military-style drug raids have led “time and again to avoidable deaths, gruesome injuries, demolished property . . . and . . . enduring trauma,” writes Kevin Sack in the New York Times.

The Palm Beach Post, considering the city’s poor record of police shootings, looks at options for citizen review. The Social Democrat supports ward-level citizen review boards with expert authorities, legal counsel, subpoena power, and the authority to dismiss unwanted officers.

California leads the way in moving to sustainable energy production. Writing in Mother Jones magazine, Gabriel Kahn explains how the Golden State is doing it.

Chicago’s rails-to-trails initiative turned a former 2.7-mile freight line into an elevated greenway and has been a boon to the working class neighborhoods that it transects. The green space has made the adjacent areas attractive to high-end developers, however, and long-time residents fear being displaced by gentrification. The Chicago Tribune looks at the controversy.