Readers may have already heard that the Alaska Retirement Management Board and the actuarial firm it accused of providing bad retirement fund data and then covering up the mistake have settled for $500 million instead of the (at least) $2.8 billion the state originally sought. But according to the Juneau Empire, the state's public employee and teacher retirement trust fund will only get $403 million of the settlement amount because the state owes a $91.3 million contingency fee to the Outside law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP for representing it in the suit. The Empire reminded Alaska Beat that in 2007, some legislators balked at funding the Alaska Department of Law to conduct the lawsuit itself for $12 million, and that the department's entire budget next year will be $84 million. Still, though, some people the Empire spoke to said they hesitate to second-guess the Legislature's decision. Read much, much more, here.