text: In 2004 I speculated in an ADN op-ed that members of our legislature were taking bribes to deliver Alaska's fair share of oil profits to oil company stockholders. VECO owner Bill Allen was their surrogate. My confidence in risking that the most powerful people in Alaska would not sue me for saying it stemmed from confidence that bribery was the only logical reason and suing me would open the door to questions they did not want to answer. As the FBI proved two years later, several legislators were taking bribes. VECO got busted, the tax structure changed, and our share of profits increase by about four billion a year. We spent about half and saved about half. It is the savings we are spending down today. It took six years for the oil companies to buy our legislature back. Alaska's producers made cost plus $17 per barrel off of Alaska's oil last quarter. In today's market, they don't make anywhere near $17 anywhere else in the world. comparatively, Iraq and Kuwait pays BP $1 plus cost.