• physical labour is a literal strain on your body. historically this has been a given of certain forms of labour, eg, even before the official recognition of disability, mine workers in many parts of the world received disproportionately high wages compared to other jobs because it was understood that your body would break down by the time you were 40-50 and you wouldn’t be able to work anymore. the high wages were for supporting you after that, but they were only present where unions had been able to force this demand on bosses; there’s a reason mine working has historically been a common form of slave or indentured labour. this example is an obvious one (and one i wouldn’t want to rely on for various reasons) but if you’ve worked stocking supermarket shelves, or cleaning, or as a barista, or as a farm labour, you will know that being on your feet for hours on end, the repetitive movements required to complete tasks, the strain of constant attention, these all take their toll
• work environments are stress inducing and long term stress has both physical and mental effects. it can change how you approach other people, how you regulate your emotions, how you relate to social settings. stress can produce strains, it can produce headaches, it can produce tightness in muscles that are can cause injury
• when you need to work to provide food, rent, clothing for yourself, you are not as able to protect yourself from health and safety risks. you are more exposed to disease and to other health risks, depending on the job, and you are less able to effectively rest and recover, thus increasing the likelihood of long term complications

• being disabled is expensive. simply getting healthcare at all can be prohibitively expensive for many people. this is not even to mention mobility aids or other specialised equipment. you may have to spend more on specialised diets or accommodation. you may need to hire personal assistants or other forms of labour to complete certain tasks for you
• there are less jobs that you are able to work. you are less likely to be able to work long term. you are less likely to be able to work longer hours, and your partners may also have to work shorter hours to care for you. you are more likely to be forced into precarious employment or onto benefits which, which available, are pitifully small
• you are more likely to face job discrimination and more likely to face housing discrimination. the housing you are able to get is likely to be more expensive
• you are more vulnerable to abuse, either domestic, or in public, or by the state. this is increasingly the case if you are Black or a migrant or a woman or trans or homeless, etc, and it’s increasingly the case the more poor you become

• Bras last longer if you let them air dry. Don’t put them in the dryer.
• If you have a problem with frizzy hair, don’t dry your hair with a towel. It makes the frizzies worse. (I recently read an article that said to use a t-shirt? I brush mine out and let it air dry.)
• Whites wash best in hot water. Everything else can be in cold - save on your electricity bill.
• You can kill 99.9% of germs in a sponge by putting it in the dishwasher for a cycle or by microwaving it for 2 min (be sure to make the sponge damp before microwaving and to put a cup half full of water in with it and please DO NOT squeeze the sponge until it has cooled off)
• Airing out your room/house and letting sunlight in every so often can decrease the number of household pests like silverfish and ants.
• Black underwear is best during your period as stains are less likely to be visible.
• To save money, put aside 10% of each paycheck into a savings account. It’ll add up.
• Unless your hair has something on/in it (like grease or mud or something), using conditioner first can actually be the better choice. The conditioner holds in the good oils that help you hair look sleek and beautiful, which shampoo would otherwise wash away.
• Speaking of shampoo - if you have long hair, washing just the bits that touch your scalp is generally enough. The rest of your hair gets cleaned with just the run off from your scalp.
• If you put a tampon in and it’s uncomfortable/you can feel it, you didn’t do it quite right. A properly placed tampon is virtually unnoticeable by the wearer.
• Apply deodorant/antiperspirant a couple hours in advance of when you need it. This gives the product the chance to block your sweat glands. Using deodorant just before going somewhere where you’ll sweat (this means walking outside for people in high humidity places) results in your sweat washing the deodorant off and starkly limiting its usefulness.
• After running the dryer, use the dryer sheet from that load to brush out the lint catch - it gets everything off in a fraction of the time it’ll take you to get it clean with your bare hands. Paper towels also work well.
• Wash your face everyday, or as often as possible. Forget which brand of cleanser is best. Just washing your face everyday will guarantee you clearer skin. And do you best not to pop pimples, as tempting as the urge may be.
• Fold laundry asap after taking it from the dryer to avoid wrinkles. This may seem obvious for dress shirts and silly for things like t-shirts, but you’ll notice the difference even then once your shirts stop looking like unfolded paper balls.

Texas troopers told to push children into Rio Grande, records say

archive.ph

WASHINGTON — Officers working for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative have been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to asylum seekers even in extreme heat, according to an email from a Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.”

The July 3 account, reviewed by Hearst Newspapers, discloses several previously unreported incidents the trooper witnessed in Eagle Pass, where the state of Texas has strung miles of razor wire and deployed a wall of buoys in the Rio Grande.

According to the email, a pregnant woman having a miscarriage was found late last month caught in the wire, doubled over in pain. A four-year-old girl passed out from heat exhaustion after she tried to go through it and was pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers. A teenager broke his leg trying to navigate the water around the wire and had to be carried by his father. The email, which the trooper sent to a superior, suggests that Texas has set “traps” of razor wire-wrapped barrels in parts of the river with high water and low visibility. And it says the wire has increased the risk of drownings by forcing migrants into deeper stretches of the river.

The trooper called for a series of rigorous policy changes to improve safety for migrants, including removing the barrels and revoking the directive on withholding water. “Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well,” the trooper wrote, later adding: “I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”

Department of Public Safety spokesman Travis Considine did not comment on all the contents of the trooper’s email, but said there is no policy against giving water to migrants. Considine also provided an email from DPS Director Steven McCraw on Saturday calling for an audit to determine if more can be done to minimize the risk to migrants. McCraw wrote troopers should warn migrants not to cross the wire, redirect them to ports of entry and to closely watch for anyone who needs medical attention.

In another email, McCraw acknowledged that there has been an increase in injuries from the wire, including seven incidents reported by Border Patrol where migrants needed “elevated medical attention” from July 4 to July 13. Those were in addition to the incidents detailed by the trooper. “The purpose of the wire is to deter smuggling between the ports of entry and not to injure migrants,” McCraw wrote. “The smugglers care not if the migrants are injured, but we do, and we must take all necessary measures to mitigate the risk to them including injuries from trying to cross over the concertina wire, drownings and dehydration.”

The incidents detailed in the email come as Abbott has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to physically bar migrants from entering the country through his Operation Lone Star initiative, escalating tensions between state and federal officials and drawing increased scrutiny from humanitarian groups who say the state is endangering asylum seekers. The most aggressive initiatives have been targeted at Eagle Pass.

The state has also now deployed a wall of floating buoys in the Rio Grande, which triggered complaints over the weekend from Mexico.

Federal Border Patrol officials have issued internal warnings that the razor wire is preventing their agents from reaching at-risk migrants and increasing the risk of drownings in the Rio Grande, Hearst Newspapers reported last week.

The DPS trooper expressed similar concerns, writing that the placement of the wire along the river “forces people to cross in other areas that are deeper and not as safe for people carrying kids and bags.”

The trooper’s email sheds new light on a series of previously reported drownings in the river during a one-week stretch earlier this month, including a mother and at least one of her two children, who federal Border Patrol agents spotted struggling to cross the Rio Grande on July 1.

According to the email, a DPS boat found the mother and one of the children, who went under the water for a minute. They were pulled from the river and given medical care before being transferred to EMS, but were later declared deceased at the hospital. The second child was never found, the email said. The governor has said he is taking necessary steps to secure the border and accused federal officials of refusing to do so.

“Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies entice migrants from over 150 countries to risk their lives entering the country illegally," said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary. "President Biden has unleashed a chaos on the border that’s unsustainable, and we have a constitutional duty to respond to this unprecedented crisis.”

The DPS trooper’s email details four incidents in just one day in which migrants were caught in the wire or injured trying to get around it. On June 30, troopers found a group of people along the wire, including a 4-year-old girl who tried to cross the wire and was pressed back by Texas Guard soldiers “due to the orders given to them,” the email says. The DPS trooper wrote that the temperature was “well over 100 degrees” and the girl passed out from exhaustion.

“We provided treatment to the unresponsive patient and transferred care to EMS,” the trooper wrote. A spokesperson for the Texas National Guard did not respond to a request for comment.

In another instance, troopers found a 19-year-old woman “in obvious pain” stuck in the wire. She was cut free and given a medical assessment, which determined she was pregnant and having a miscarriage. She was then transferred to EMS.

The trooper also treated a man with a “significant laceration” in his left leg, who said he had cut it while trying to free his child who was “stuck on a trap in the water,” describing a barrel with razor wire “all over it.” And the trooper treated a 15-year-old boy who broke his right leg walking in the river because the razor wire was “laid out in a manner that it forced him into the river where it is unsafe to travel.”

In another instance, on June 25, troopers came across a group of 120 people camped out along a fence set up along the river. The group included several small children and babies who were nursing, the trooper wrote. The entire group was exhausted, hungry and tired, the trooper wrote. The shift officer in command ordered the troopers to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico,” the email says.

The trooper wrote that the troopers decided it was not the right thing to do “with the very real potential of exhausted people drowning.” They called command again and expressed their concerns and were given the order to “tell them to go to Mexico and get into our vehicle and leave,” the trooper wrote. After they left, other troopers worked with Border Patrol to provide care to the migrants, the email said.

The trooper did not respond to a request for comment Monday. His email was shared by a confidential source with knowledge of border operations. It was unclear whether the trooper received a response from the sergeant he’d messaged.

Considine acknowledged that DPS was aware of the email and provided the additional agency emails in response. Those emails detail seven other incidents reported by federal border agents in which migrants were injured on the wires, including a child who was taken to the hospital on Thursday with cuts on his left arm, a mother and child who were taken to the hospital on Wednesday with “minor lacerations” on their “lower extremities,” and another migrant taken to San Antonio on July 4 to receive treatment for “several lacerations” that required staples. Victor Escalon, a DPS director who oversees South Texas, wrote in an email Friday to other agency officials that troopers “may need to open the wire to aid individuals in medical distress, maintain the peace, and/or to make an arrest for criminal trespass, criminal mischief, acts of violence, or other State crimes.

“Our DPS medical unit is assigned to this operation to address medical concerns for everyone involved,” Escalon wrote. “As we enforce State law, we may need to aid those in medical distress and provide water as necessary.”

New College of Florida is shifting returning students into housing in buildings with mold problems identified by an outside consultant to make way for student-athletes and other incoming freshmen who are part of a conservative transformation of the school launched by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Weeks before the start of the fall semester, the college emailed returning students Tuesday to tell them their housing assignments had been changed at the last minute to accommodate an influx of student- athletes and freshmen. The new cohort would live in the apartment-style Dort and Goldstein buildings — which have historically housed upperclassmen — while returning students would be moved to other, shared-space dorms, such as the older I. M. Pei designed buildings.

Pei dorms, however, were considered virtually uninhabitable due to mold as of early this summer. Although New College housed students in the Pei dorms last semester, a May report commissioned by the school and obtained by the Herald-Tribune concluded that the Pei dorms "should not be occupied in their current condition" due to a systematic mold issue that would require a fiscal investment to repair.

Mold can cause symptoms such as stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing or wheezing, burning eyes, or skin rash, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People with asthma or who are allergic to mold could have more severe reactions, and immunocompromised people could get lung infections from mold.

The college's email to students mentioned ongoing renovations, but it was unclear if those included repairing mold damage and the underlying building issues causing mold.

Students had until July 14 to cancel their housing agreements with no penalty, a deadline only three days after the email was sent.

For many upperclassmen working on thesis projects, living in an apartment-style dorm is preferable because of the private living and study spaces each student receives.

The idea of living in shared-space Pei dorms again has prompted some students to consider off- campus living options, or even transferring to another college. For many, living off-campus is financially impossible because of the cost of rent in the Sarasota-Manatee area.

On-campus housing costs between $3,000 and $5,000 per semester, a student housing employee told the Herald-Tribune. The estimated median monthly rent in Sarasota for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,500, and since March 2020, rents have increased by 43.5% in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metro area, the sixth-largest increase in the country, according to apartmentlist.com data.

Zoe Fountain, a 20-year-old psychology and gender studies student involved in student government, said giving student-athletes the nicer apartment-style dorms is indicative of the school's new DeSantis- appointed leadership trying to shape a new student body while neglecting the needs of current students.

Earlier in the year, the college fired an LGBTQ librarian and denied tenure to five faculty members. "To all of us (students), that just sounds like they're trying to drive us out," she said.

In addition to being given priority in housing assignments, student-athletes have been given preferential treatment in admissions and promised $1,400 laptops if they enrolled, a New College admissions official told the Herald-Tribune.

As the college seeks rapid renovations of different residential buildings, the treatment of the current student body is "dehumanizing," Fountain said. Current summer residents have dealt with construction crews and dust. “We are being treated as inconveniences that they need to move around," she said.

Fountain said that the housing situation, coupled with other actions by the administration, have alienated her from New College. She said she plans to take a gap semester this fall to find another college destination.

"The rug is being pulled out from under you, and all of us are just very desperately wanting to go back to the way things are and realizing that that's not possible for us anymore," Fountain said.

Megan Nigro, a 19-year-old zoology fourth-year student, was set to live in the Dort building with three other students this fall. Now, she's likely going to live in Pei dorms, where she lived last year. One of the biggest draws for the Dort and Goldstein dorms is the kitchens in each unit, something Nigro said she was excited to use because of the limited food options on campus. She said she's exploring off-campus living options. However, Nigro said she pays for housing through scholarships at the school, so being able to afford an apartment off-campus would be difficult.

Some students won't be given an on-campus housing opportunity at all. Andy Trinh, a 20-year-old computer science third-year, said they were supposed to live in the Palmer B dorm, but they received an email saying the dorm had been taken offline. Corcoran had previously received approval from the Board of Trustees to begin the process of demolishing the building, despite not having obtained permits to do so.

In the meeting, Corcoran said displaced students could be moved to a nearby hotel or to USF's Sarasota-Manatee campus.

"I don't have a car. I don't know how to get to campus from there unless I take the bus, but it's not something I can do for like every single meal," Trinh said. "It's not completely feasible unless they have like a shuttle or something running."