my %state = (
   Alaska => ["Joe Blow", "Peter Tork"],
   California => ["Lily White","Erik Svendater"],
   Florida => ["Fred Flinstone", "Barney Rubble", "Judy Jetson"],
);

##</code><code>##

my @state = [ 
   map {
      state => $_,
      people => [ map {person => $_}, @{$state{$_}} ],
   }, sort keys %state 
];