Editor's note
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One year ago tomorrow, Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico. Since then, the island’s struggles have made for painful headlines, highlighting the longest power outage in American history, the ever-rising death toll and the exodus to the U.S. mainland. “To say that the island of 3.3 million has not yet recovered is an understatement,” writes urban studies researcher Lauren Lluveras, whose extended family remains in Puerto Rico. “One year after Maria, nearly every pillar of Puerto Rican society remains devastated.”
Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie Bezos have pledged to give $2 billion dollars to build preschools and house the homeless. That may sound generous, but political theorist Ted Lechterman, who studies the ethics of philanthropy, argues that their giving also “raises grave concerns about the pervasive power of business moguls.”
And binge drinking is often accepted as part of the college experience, but a growing body of research into the maturing brain shows that it comes with serious risks. Blackouts – that feeling that you can’t remember what happened during a binge – impede the formation of memory. They can also “affect learning inside and outside the classroom,” writes University of Florida addiction researcher Jamie Smolen.
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Catesby Holmes
Global Affairs Editor
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Top stories
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Some Puerto Ricans had to restore downed power lines themselves after Hurricane Maria.
Alvin Baez/Reuters
Lauren Lluveras, University of Texas at Austin
It's been one year since a Category 4 storm turned Puerto Rico into a disaster zone. Today, nearly every pillar of society — including the economy, health care and schools — remains hobbled.
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Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos are becoming bigger donors.
Invision and AP/Evan Agostini
Ted Lechterman, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
The US$2 billion that the Amazon founder and his wife are donating to help the homeless and educate young kids may appear selfless. But this money may also soften calls to raise taxes on the rich.
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Young adults at a tailgate. Young adults are more likely than older adults to binge drink and are at greater risk when they do.
Monkey Business ImagesShutterstock.com
Jamie Smolen, University of Florida
A Sept. 14 report on drug use suggested that opioid use has declined. But troubling trends in drinking among teens and young adults stood out. An addiction specialist explains the unique dangers.
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Politics + Society
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Christopher Boone, Arizona State University
Today, 8 out of every 10 Americans live in a city or suburb.
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Korey Pasch, Queen's University, Ontario
As Trump fumes about the Hurricane Maria death toll, it's clear that politics and political considerations often play an important role in how death toll estimates are communicated to the public.
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Science + Technology
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Jeremy Straub, North Dakota State University
Cybercriminals may steal data from laptops and mobile phones when they are plugged in via USB ports.
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Samer Zaky, University of Pittsburgh
With fall almost upon us, there's a lot we can learn from the changing season.
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Trending on site
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Jean Twenge, San Diego State University
Changes in how we're spending our free time is a likely culprit.
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Matt Bertone, North Carolina State University
This Speed Read makes the case why you should be nice to spiders you encounter in your home and consider a live-and-let-live policy.
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Rosemary Braun, Northwestern University
Everybody has a personal internal clock in their brain that dictates when we feel like eating, waking and sleeping. But what happens when our life doesn't match our body clock? And how do we read it?
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