Alaska's 'Corrupt Bastards Club'

Alaskan lawmakers are under investigation, and homes are falling into the permafrost. According to this Los Angeles Times editorial, the two have two very important commonalities: oil and money.

Oil is Alaska's dominant business, and oil wealth means that state residents pay no income taxes; instead tax time means the government hands them checks. But oil wealth goes deeper and farther when the checks are handed over with less public fanfare -- when politicians are compelled to make decisions based on the backing of powerful oil businesses.

That's why lawmakers are under investigation. Perversely, that adherence to oil and money is literally undermining the stability of Alaska. The very ground is giving way in parts of the state, as temperatures warm -- a consequence, in part, of burning all that oil -- and the ice and permafrost underpinning the region gives way.

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