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.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) took no action against former Farmington District manager Steve Henke after the U.S. Interior Department’s inspector general found Henke had sought and accepted unreported gifts and donations from oil companies regulated by his office, according to a new report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
Henke was subsequently hired as president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
In e-mails obtained by POGO, Henke told the Oil and Gas Association that he had “unequivocally” told his BLM employees that they were “back in the oil and gas business.”
“Despite BLM’s possession of these documents, the ethics official found that BLM would not need to apply any post-employment restrictions on Henke,” the POGO report states.
One oil company that reportedly gave gifts to Henke, Williams Exploration and Production, has announced an internal investigation into apparent violations of its corporate ethics policy.
The Henke episode is just the latest ethics lapse at an Interior Department agency, POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian wrote last week in a letter to U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar.
“BLM seems not to have noticed the meltdown of the Minerals Management Service,” Brian said. “It’s shocking that BLM wasn’t concerned with the misconduct of one of its managers, nor his turn through the revolving door to represent the companies he was supposed to have been overseeing. Henke’s new position could present a significant conflict of interest. This should be a no-brainer.”
“What will it take to end Interior’s cozy relationship with industry?” asked Brian.
