It's not just Alaska feeling the pinch in the oilfield layoffs. As par for course, we are always behind the rest of the country when it comes to economic impacts because takes several months for us to catch upon anything that impacts the economy of the US, whether it be the housing market or oil and gas. North Dakota has gone through their rough patch and is starting to stabilize as well as Texas. No new growth there, just a slowing of the impact and flat lining versus free fall. As to hitting the oil companies now, it's really not their fault that oil prices have dropped. Like any good business, it's time to rein their horns in during lean times and become more efficient. We should be looking to the current regime's allowance for Iran to ship oil and boosting our "friends" in the Middle East's economies as major impacts and reviewing our trade agreements as well as pushing for new refineries to be constructed in the US to process the oil glut that we have.