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) has asked Interior Department investigators to reopen their probe into former Farmington BLM area manager Steve Henke‘s acceptance of undeclared gifts from the oil and gas firms regulated by his office, according to spokeswoman Celia Boddington.
Henke is currently the president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
The request for a new investigation into Henke follows the publication of “new information” — apparently a reference to BLM e-mails obtained with public records requests by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), showing that no action was taken against Henke for his acceptance of industry gifts or his failure to report those gifts as required.
POGO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan government watchdog organization.
Several environmental groups had petitioned the BLM to reopen the Henke investigation.
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.”
One oil company that reportedly gave gifts to Henke, Williams Exploration and Production, has initiated an internal investigation into the apparent violation of its corporate ethics policy.
