Federal Workers Living in Alaska Looking Forward to $900 Oil Dividend Check on Thursday

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Furloughed federal employees in Alaska have 900 more reasons to give thanks for the Great Land.

By luck of timing, the government shutdown came just as the Alaska Permanent Fund dividends - worth exactly $900 this year - are disbursed. Direct deposits and physical checks will be issued starting Oct. 3.

Known to all Alaskans as PFDs, the annual payout represents every Alaskan's checks are considered every resident's portion of the oil riches found beneath the North Slope. The idea of the late Gov. Jay Hammond and cronies circa 1980, the universal, socialist-style payments to everyone living in the state have been embraced by every governor since, including self-proclaimed "common-sense conservative" Sarah Palin.

Annual disbursements from the earnings of the oil-weath-funded ...

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