I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico Oil and Gas Association President Steve Henke accepted gifts from an oil company and abused government travel funds when he was a U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) official responsible for regulating oil and gas production in the San Juan Basin, according to a newly-released report from the U.S. Interior Department Office of Inspector General.
Former BLM Farmington district manager Steve Henke accepted golf tickets, hotels and meals from Williams Exploration and Production, one of the largest producers on BLM lands in the San Juan Basin.
Henke also convinced the company to donate approximately $8,000 for his son’s baseball teams, according to the Associated Press. But he did not do any favors for Williams, he told reporters Monday.
Henke used $1,000 in BLM travel funds to attend the 2007 PGA Championship in Oklahoma, where he was a guest of Williams company officials.
Henke’s annual federal financial disclosure reports did not include mention of the gifts, according to the investigation. But no evidence of corruption favoring Williams was found, the report states.
Henke retired from the BLM in May to become the president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
“There was absolutely no quid pro quo of any sort, at any time during my tenure and that’s really the bottom line,” Henke told The Associated Press.
Using government travel funds to attend the golf trip was a mistake, he said. Donations to youth baseball programs he solicited from the oil company benefited many children, not just his son, Henke emphasized.
“We think that the activities documented in the IG report are the tip of the iceberg and that the U.S. attorney for the district of New Mexico and Department of Justice need to conduct an immediate investigation on decisions made by the Farmington BLM office and the BLM New Mexico State Office,” San Juan Citizen’s Alliance spokesman Mike Eisenfeld told the AP.
