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Show TWITTER.COMDIXIESUN r FACEBOOK.COMDIXIE.SUN A GET THE LATEST NEWS eou thir event landmark to host Utah Equality ... JL -- - -- - BY TAYLOR GRIN Staff Writer. The largest advocacy event to ever occur in southern Utah for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender movement will be hosted by Equality Utah at the Coyote Gulch Art Inn May 2 1 Linda Stay, a junior communication major from St. George and local committee planning member for the Equality Utah event, has been key in orchestrating the landmark event. Stay is known for her involvement in the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition, as well as her advocacy for LGBT rights. Stay said on April 17 there will be a recruiting kickoff for volunteers. There will be a potluck at the Vernon Park, Stay said. "We need people for regisbar tration booths, and hostessing tending, human signs to guide people . set-u- p, to the event. The full title of the event is the Equality Celebration: Building Bridges in Southern Utah, and it is the inau- gural iteration. The event will, in part, celebrate the service Claudia Bradshaw and Chris McArdle have given to the LGBT movement, said Stay at a coordinating meeting. Both being honored will give short acceptance speeches. v ri 'U - A ( A iff- x Linda Stay, a junior communication major from St. George and Equality Utah committee member, as well as other members of the Equality Utah committee, meet to discuss their upcoming event in effort to increase LGBT awareness and acceptance. Years in the making, the movement is aimed at educating students, parents, and community members and celebrating the progress made by the group. Winn Claybaugh, coowner of Paul Mitchell and author of "Be Nice (or Else!)" will be the keynote speaker for the event, Stay said. As a show of his empathy for the movement he will be covering all costs of the speech and waiving his speaking fee. The Equality Celebration will begin at 5:30 p.m. and will have a meet and greet with a jazz band until 7:30 p.m., at which time a dinner will occur. Then the speeches will commence as well as a video honoring the presidents of local high school alliance clubs for their efforts. Stay said the mission for Equality Utah is to create a enviromnent for LGBT individuals, both on sit-do- gay-straig- ht fair-mind- the local and on the electoral level. The event is a way to create conversation and to focus on how far weve come, Stay said. We also want to honor those whove been fighting in the trenches of a conservative community for so many years. Bobby Edwards, committee member and sophomore visual design major from St. George, said the event is about creating common ground and building a community. Claudia Bradshaw is being honored for her initiative and dedication in starting Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Stay said she started the organization when her son came out of the closet and had considered suicide as an cou C not eve option for dealing are with social pressure. She started PFLAG while she was also a veil watcher in the Mormon church, Stay said. She found that parents didnt know what to do when their kids came out, and she wanted a forum for them to gain acceptance. Chris McArdle on the other hand is being honored for galvanizing the LGBT community in southern Utah. Edwards said he moved here front Palm Springs, Calif. He didnt know the local politics, Edwards said. Hes planned forth, event eight years before was possible. He was untainted by local admonishment. He said Why noth S ofl Cei Soi this wo rit) sch sail age wil tioi till! mg 1 in' hie 18 sai tha it cai 1 this? McArdle was also instni mental in starting the Prid. parades in Springdale that ran until 2008, Stay said Stay said she hopes the event can serve as a fundraiser to gather enoug: to begin a community outreach program. We want to get out of battle mode and honor the work weve done, Stay said. We also hope that we can start to represent PFLAG more publicly events, so that kids know theyre not alone. We to take steps toward nor at want malcy. clr New certificate prepares Identity theft preventable students for career in law BY TAYLOR GRIN Staff Writer BY MICHAEL CHRISTENSEN Staff Writer certification of completion is now availA new able at Dixie State 1 as Col- lege that will benefit both students and the local law enforcement. A new computer forensic certificate program will be offered through the four- - year integrated studies major with an emphasis on criminal justice. This will allow students to gain an emphasis of learning on digital forensics. According to the March 2011 news release on DSCs website at www.dixie.edunews, the college received state approval last month to offer this program starting in the fall. William Matthews, director of the Southwest Regional Computer Crime Institute and a recently retired FBI agent of twenty five years, said he is excited for students to enroll. The federal grant DSC received will be used to establish computer forensics, Matthews said. have designed the com- I puter forensics program to correlate to with what the FBI teaches. According to the website, the new program will utilize courses currently being taught at DSC through the integrated studies criminal justice program. This will not only help students who want to go into a computer forensics career, but it will also help local and state law enforcement personnel who need the knowledge on how to conduct an investigation and gather evidence from digital devices. This certificate is great for students that want to gain a little more attention w'hen out looking for a job after college, Matthews said. After talking to the local police department, they say they need more officers trained in computer forensics. This certificate will put you at the top of the list if you w'ere to apply at the police department. According to the w'eb-sitthe creation of SWR-CC- I will make DSC one of the first institutions of higher education in the country that will offer forensics computer-base- d training to students, law enforcement professionals and private industry professionals. SWRCCI instructor Gary Cantrell said the new program will provide valuable job skill for e, "This is great for students who have an interest in the up and coming field of digital forensics," Cantrell said. "Students who complete the certificate of completion will be eligible for two other highly valued professional certificates: ACE A." and This new certificate of completion is huge for DSC because not many other colleges or universities provide it. A lot of other colleges and universities do offer a computer forensics emphasis, Matthews said. How'ever, the new program here at DSC differs because it is an actual certificate and has core classes specified in just the computer forensics area and is based on many principles the FBI teaches. Students and community members are excited about the new program and cant wait to enroll Cantrell said. "I have had several students this semester that have been periodically asking me about the program and if it has been approved," Cantrell said. "We are even having two of the advanced courses next semester, and Im expecting several students to enroll." College aged students make . up a disproportionate amount of identity fraud victims; those aged 1 8 to 29 account for 29 percent of those who have had their identity stolen. This information comes from Justin Seegmiller, the associate branch manager at Zions Bank in St. George. He also had information on how students could avoid identity theft. Its especially common for young adults to be victims of credit card fraud, he said. One common way for it to happen is that a roommate will walk into a students room, take their card to order something online, and put it back where they found it. Seegmiller said the important identity infomiation for an individual to.kecp safe is his or her: name, address, driver's license number, social security number, place of employment and mother's maiden name. It is important not to make this information easily obtainable, he said. Dont let anyone know your PINs or passwords, and dont write them dowrr. Commit them to memory instead. If your identity is stolen you should immediately contact tire three credit bureaus, Seegmiller said. Theyll place an alert on your transactions, so they know where theyre coming from. You have to move fast though, it takes about 320 horns on average to recover from identity theft. In order to protect your identity Seegmiller said to use a password with numbers and letters, and it is important for that password not to relate to something obvious about your life, like a pet name. He also said by not using birth dates and the like for PIN numbers they are more secure. Its important to change your password and PINs every 60 to 90 days, he said. That way it will be harder to collect your information, and its less likely one password will work for your multiple accounts. Carlene Holm, director of revenue at DSC, said for students using a Dixie OneCard there are safety protections in place. When tire card is activated students create a "shared secret," which allows the student to verify authenticity when contacting the company. "When you sign with a purchase you can verify that it was you purchasing, she said. "If you didn't sign then you're out of luck proving authentic from fraudulent transactions if some-tirin- g bad happens." Seegmiller said most banks offer a low-co- st service to keep track of transactions to look for credit fraud. When a transaction takes place that is outside your usual purchasing area, tire bank will see an alert and call a client to verify they have been making tire transactions. We try to educate people when they start an account on how to avoid identity theft, he said. Its a big problem, but you can protect yourself against it. ait pn CO! car set cit ho sai do ha sq 'M cai di J SOI sta tht Mi i. he E C( dii ' tht ;o L i ; on St ev nii ar J an. A irihlrai arii -- ..ri St s L- - 'ihc 'tht St the M A; Pel |