First Run News

Puerto Rico is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis, economies across the Caribbean are on life support, and dozens of people are dead. The region was still recovering from Hurricane Irma when it was pummeled last week by Hurricane Maria. Days after the storm passed, Puerto Rico is still without power and has spotty access to water.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has a ready answer for anyone who questions his administration’s response to the hurricanes that laid waste to Texas, Florida, the United States Virgin Islands and now Puerto Rico. “We are doing a great job,” he declared on Tuesday in the Rose Garden. “We did a great job in Texas, a great job in Florida, a great job in Louisiana. We hit little pieces of Georgia and Alabama. And frankly,” he added, “we’re doing — ” Then he stopped himself to gild the lily even further. Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump pointed out, posed a special challenge to disaster relief efforts.

SAN JUAN, P.R. — The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport is normally a bustling and happy place, full of vacationers and warm family reunions. Since Hurricane Maria, however, the airport, the Caribbean’s busiest, has been a place of concentrated anxiety, with limited power and services and no air-conditioning.

SAN JUAN, P.R. — As Hurricane Maria pummeled Puerto Rico, María Martínez Espada, 86, slipped because of a water leak in her apartment and broke her hip. Almost a week later, doctors at Hospital del Maestro have not been able to operate because of a shortage of medical supplies. “The pain is a horrible thing,” Ms. Martínez said from her sweltering third-floor bed at the hospital, where the medical director, Veronica Rodriguez, said, “At 3 p.m. it gets so hot that it’s almost impossible to handle.” For the sick and the elderly, heat can be deadly.

At one major university, a sports agent arranged for a quid pro quo among Adidas, the college’s men’s basketball program and a top high school prospect in which the player’s family would receive $100,000 if he committed to the school and signed with the apparel giant once he turned pro. At another college, the basketball team’s associate head coach accepted nearly $100,000 to steer his team’s top players to a financial adviser eager to manage their future N.B.A. riches.

At one major university, a sports agent arranged for a quid pro quo among Adidas, the college’s men’s basketball program and a top high school prospect in which the player’s family would receive $100,000 if he committed to the school and signed with the apparel giant once he turned pro. At another college, the basketball team’s associate head coach accepted nearly $100,000 to steer his team’s top players to a financial adviser eager to manage their future N.B.A. riches.