Alaska Aims to Make Pork Kosher

Alaska gets $1.89 from D.C. for every dollar it pays in taxes, which makes it the second biggest recipent (after New Mexico) of federal largesse. Troubled by the state's well-deserved reputation for sponging off the rest of the country, which was reinforced by last year's allocation of $450 million for two widely ridiculed "bridges to nowhere" in Alaska, Gov. Frank Murkowski is planning a P.R. campaign "to change the perception of Alaska and its people as greedy for federal money," as the Associated Press puts it. Maybe he can get a federal grant for the project.