Ohio State Employee Loses Sensitive Information

The local news has mentioned this story lately, however, they have glossed-over the real nightmare! Here are the facts:
State employee, Jared Ilovar, an intern with the Office of Management and Budget division of our State Government, lost a radar detector and a $15 back-up tape from his car. He left the tape in his unlocked car in his apartment parking lot, and someone took it-duh. The Governor, Ted Strickland, is trying to down-play the theft but the information on the tape could cost hundreds of thousands of Ohio residents their life savings. At the very least, it is going to cost the taxpayers $660,000 for identity theft protection that the Governor has promised to all those whose personal information was on the tape. Here is a partial list of the information contained on the tape:
**2,685 records including school district names and local government names complete with their bank account information. This is all a theif would need to crack into all of the bank accounts of these institutions and empty their accounts!
**159,708 records of Medicaid provider names, tax identification numbers, addresses and bank information. A Gold Mine for identity theives!
**Names, social security numbers and STRS account information for all of the 1,031 state teachers enrolled in the State Teachers Retirement System.
**28,362 records of state employees and vendors that use Electronic Funds Transfer. Includes all of their state-assigned employee numbers, addresses, phone numbers and their complete bank information!
An additional review of data revealed that the storage device also held information on 53,797 participants enrolled in the state's pharmacy benefits management program, as well as names and Social Security numbers of about 75,532 dependents.
This is only a partial list of the sensitive information on the tape. The Governor is trying to down-play the serious nature of the theft, saying that a common theif would not know what to do with the information or how to access it. Maybe so, but a "common theif" would surely be able to find a buyer that could use this information!
Under protocol in place since 2002, a first backup storage device is kept at a temporary work site for a state office along with the computer system that holds all the employee information, and a second backup device is given to employees on a rotating basis to take home for safekeeping.
This idiot (and the supervisors) that came up with the "back-up tape protection program" will probably get a promotion and hefty pay raise in the near future for their good work!

Paris Hilton Gets a Bum Rap

Don't get me wrong, I think Paris Hilton is a spoiled rotten little bitch, but...
The same rules should apply to everyone. I don't think that she was made an example of, she got the same treatment that any "average Joe" would have received. Unless you have connections:
The top prosecutor (City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo), the person that tried the case and got her sent to jail, does not treat everyone the same. If you happen to be the wife of the City prosecutor, you might just get treated a little different: Seems that she was driving his city issued vehicle (something that is against the city rules) and got in a minor fender bender (twice). Well, the City Attorney (the one person you would expect to know the rules), did not know that personal use of his city vehicle was not allowed. He stated that the rule is un-clear when confronted about it (after all, "city vehicles are for official use only, and cannot be used for personal use", is a little hard to understand). Alright, so letting his wife drive around in his city vehicle may not be a big deal (even though she is not a very good driver). But driving on a suspended license, is a little different. Seems she was: 1.Driving a city owned vehicle, 2. Had a suspended license, 3. Got in an accident, 4. Refused to pay for the damage because the prosecutor thought since it was a city vehicle, the city should pay for it.
Here's how the rules apply to different people:
Paris Hilton: sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving on a suspended license
Michelle Delgadillo (the prosecutor's wife): Got into an accident (in her husband's city owned vehicle), and had her license suspended for failing to appear in court. Got in a second accident (same vehicle - a month later) and was fined $185.00. NO JAIL TIME!
The prosecutor states that (his wife) got no special treatment.
I beg to differ.
Welcome back to the world of the rich and bitchy, Paris!