WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2017
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VOL. 120 NO. 8 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Osceola football wins third MBC contest. PAGE 10
UW-Extension advises regular credit checks following Equifax data breach BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Polk County’s UW-Extension office is advising residents to keep an eye on their credit following the Equifax data breach, which was announced September 7. The consumer credit reporting agency believes files containing identifying information for as many as 143 million Americans were accessed from mid May through July 2017. According to Seena Gressin, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission, “If you have a credit report, there’s a good chance that you’re one of the 143 million American consumers whose sensitive personal infor-
mation was exposed.” However, there is a quick way to check on the Equifax website (www.equifaxsecurity2017. com, click on the “Potential Impact” tab). Gressin noted that it’s important to be on a secure computer with an encrypted network connection while doing so. Whether an individual’s information was exposed or not, any U.S. consumer can get a year of free credit monitoring and other services through the website. Even if they do, noted Gail Peavey of the UW-Extension, Americans should keep an eye on their own credit reports. “No one will pay attention to your own credit report like you will,” she said. According to Peavey, “If the
free monitoring fails to notice that someone fraudulently opens up a new line of credit under your name, you cannot sue the monitoring service but you can go to arbitration. “Consumers still have the right to sue or join a lawsuit regarding the data breach,” she emphasized. Find additional resources about placing a 90-day fraud alert or a credit freeze on your own credit report on the UW-Extension website, https://fyi. uwex.edu/creditreport/fixing_ errors/freezes_fraud. For more information about getting or reading your free report, check out the UW-Extension website, http://fyi.uwex. edu/creditreport.
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
Aflutter downtown
Monarch butterflies feasted on the nectar of meadow blazing star in downtown Osceola last week.
Dresser hires two for public works BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
The Dresser Village Board hired two new public works employees last week. Arik Mahler and Robert Thompson were selected by the Finance and Personnel Committee from a pool of seven applicants and recommended to the full board, which approved their hire September 12. They will replace former public works staffer Mike Qually, who retired July 6, and supervisor Steve Jacobs, who resigned unexpectedly in late July.
Mahler and Thompson must pass a pre-employment drug screen and work to obtain water certification within two years. Thompson will also need a Class B or greater commercial drivers license within 180 days. They will each be paid $19 per hour and their performance will be reviewed after six months. Finance and Personnel Committee chair Grace Bjorklund did not immediately respond to the Sun’s request for details on why these candidates were chosen.
Space Academy grads head back to school BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
As far as summer camps go, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp is probably the closest thing to an out-ofthis-world experience any kid will get. Dresser twins Ethan and Garrett Sellers attended the weeklong camp over the summer, applying science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills through handson activities and missions requiring teamwork, leadership and problem solving. The boys are students at Osceola Middle School. The 13-year-old Sellers were part of the camp’s Space Academy program, designed for 12 to 14 year olds with an interest in space exploration. They spent the week training with a team that flew a simulated space mission to the Moon, allowing them to try different space-exploration roles.
SUBMITTED
Ethan and Garrett Sellers met two stars from the “Mars Generation” documentary, Niko Blanks (right) and Jace Ezzell (left). The Sellers ran into them the night before camp started. Blanks and Ezzell are Space Camp alumni.
“They’re simulations of what the astronauts do in space.” Ethan explained. “There’s mission control, shuttle and the space station.” The crew participated in experiments and successfully completed an extra-vehicular
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activity (EVA), or spacewalk, and returned to Earth in time to graduate with honors. It was the twins’ first time at Space Camp, which operates year-round in Huntsville, Ala.,
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