Alaska news organizations and political leaders have never paid enough attention to Jeff Hildebrand, though he is the single most important player in the Alaska economy and one of the richest men in America.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump asked the oil and gas industry this year to give $1 billion to Trump’s campaign as a “deal.” He promised to reward industry owners with tax cuts and other government actions—an exchange that sounds exactly like bribery.

Hildebrand was one of four oil tycoons who hosted a Houston fundraiser for Trump in May at which the host committee members gave $250,000 each or $500,000 per couple, the Financial Times reported.

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A fresh reminder that former President Donald Trump does not know the name of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and that he continues to lie about the oil prospects of the coastal plain.

"We have Bagram in Alaska,” Trump said in a campaign event in Michigan, confusing ANWR with an airfield in Afghanistan.

“They say it might be as big, might be bigger than, all of Saudi Arabia. I got it approved. Ronald Reagan couldn't do it. Nobody could do it. I got it done,” said Trump.

“In their first week they terminated it,” Trump said, while host Sarah Huckabee Sanders nodded in approval.

Trump has been lying about ANWR and its oil potential for six years. He has also lying about the fossil fuel reserves of the United States and lying that oil production would increase fourfold with him as president.

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As I reported here on August 28, the state missed out on more than $50 million in federal funding for highway projects because of the continuing troubles with the handling of transportation planning.

The Anchorage Daily News picked up on the story Sunday, with a story that includes the claim that the Dunleavy administration is pleased that it only received $19 million of the $71.4 million sought through the so-called August redistribution process.

“We are actually pleased to have captured this $19 million,” said Shannon McCarthy of the transportation public relations department.

The transportation department may be pleased with itself. I don’t know why.

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Private companies that do business or want to do business with the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation often pick up the tab for corporation employees to travel to office sites, conferences and other meetings.

There are rules in the Alaska Administrative Manual about how to handle this, but the Permanent Fund has not followed them.

With more and more companies offering to pay for travel, the fund is proposing to change the way it accounts for these trips to come into alignment with the state regulations.

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The Alaska Legislature tried to shut down the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation plan to run an Anchorage office for a handful of employees, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the trustees declined to go along.

The trustees are now proposing $35,000 to continue an Anchorage lease that the Legislature officially rejected. The corporation trustees voted 4-2 in June to ignore the Legislature on this, backed up by the governor.

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The 2024 financial disclosure reports of Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Nick Begich the Third were due a month before the primary election, but the clerk’s office of the U.S. House claims they were not filed.

It makes little difference, however, as there is a $200 token penalty for candidates who do not file in a timely manner.

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John Espindola, whose 2023 appointment to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska led to a new law this year making it harder for the governor to put unqualified people on the commission, is now the chairman of the RCA.

In a meeting Wednesday, the other commissioners elected Espindola, the former personal assistant to Dunleavy, to preside over the commission.

There is already one vacancy on the five-member commission. There will soon be two.

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The Ketchikan dog survival story is a good one.

A week after the Ketchikan landslide that killed city employee Sean Griffin and injured three others, state geologist Travis Watkins heard whimpering in the wreckage of a house that had been pushed 47 feet.

James Montiver was able to escape the building after the slide, but Bill Montiver was trapped and later rescued.

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I suspect that some people in Minto, the 150-person village northwest of Fairbanks, don’t know what is being done in their names by Minto Money, which makes small loans at interest rates of more than 700 percent on the internet.

Minto Money says it does not do business in Alaska, is not subject to state laws that limit interest rates and does not have to be licensed in any state.

It is allegedly organized under the laws of the Native Village of Minto and headquartered at “205 Lakeview Drive, Suite 7, Minto, Alaska.”

As one of numerous lawsuits against Minto Money says, there is a tribal building at that address with no suites or numbers, so it is an unlikely site for e-commerce.

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The federal highway department annually marks the end of August with a redistribution of billions in transportation dollars that states haven’t obligated.

It does this through a competitive process in which states must have plans in place to obligate the money for approved projects before the end of the fiscal year September 30.

Alaska came up short in the competition this year, with a $19 million share, down from $108 million last year and $87 million two years ago.

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