Dummy

87,000 per year and he didn't have the good sense to lock his door (better yet, keep the sensitive information AT THE OFFICE)?

Jason C. Purslow has been a valued employee at the state tax department for more than 15 years, rising to become the coordinator of electronic filing of state tax returns.

He was trusted enough that the department's commissioner said he was "the best qualified" to conduct special computer testing in August of the department's new electronic Taxpayer Service Center, which was going "live" a few days later on the Internet.

Purslow, a 40-year-old supervisor who earns more than $87,000 per year, is also the employee whose laptop computer was stolen outside a Long Island hotel, igniting a political firestorm because it contained the names and Social Security numbers of 106,000 taxpayers.

Department officials succeeded in keeping Purslow's name private from all Connecticut media for more than six weeks, but his name is mentioned in a police report released Thursday to The Courant by the Suffolk County Police Department. The report states that the $950 Dell laptop was stolen from Purslow's 2005 Honda Pilot with the "door possibly left unlocked," because there were no signs of a break-in.

People-Powered Media Sunday

What better way to start a Sunday morning than by watching two of the most talented online media personalities stepping away from the keyboard, and offering their opinion in front of the camera.

WTIC's Beyond the Headlines featured CTNewsJunkie's very own Christine Stuart offering her take on the Chris Caruso lawsuit while My Left Nutmeg's Maura Keaney made a cameo appearance on WFSB's Face the State to talk about blogging in general.

Personally, I don't know which person did better on camera. On one hand, Christine gave an excellent analysis on the whole Caurso affair but Maura making a connection between Thomas Paine and blogging was simply a stroke of genius.

PPM baby!