Alaska

It has always seemed strange to me that Alaska became a State. I know we bought it from the Russian some time ago but it just seems so remote to the other States and has very few people. There are only about 700,000 in the State and of those 120,000 are natives. Alaska pays in all a negative State tax, that is they get money form the State for just living there. I imagine the Coast Guard presence, which is immense in the State, costs much more than they even pay in federal taxes.