The Santa David

(Big Spring, Texas is a booming community about 100 miles east of Kermit. This story made the AP national news wire in early December, and I'm pleased to bring it to you, late as usual. Enjoy!)
From the San Angelo Standard-Times:
Naked 'Santa David' statue offends Big Spring neighbors
The Associated Press
Updated Monday, December 7, 2009

BIG SPRING, Texas --- A Texas homeowner who adorned his front lawn with Michelangelo's "David" as a scantily clad Santa got more than just jolly laughs from his neighbors.

Barry McBee says he was aiming to make people chuckle by adding a Santa hat and white beard to the 5-foot-tall replica of the Renaissance statue with six-pack abs an image at odds with usual depictions of a fat, jolly St. Nick.

Then, parents started calling Big Spring city officials saying their children were asking why Santa was naked.

"I just like to shock people to make them laugh, kind of break the monotony around here," said McBee, who has all kinds of animal yard ornaments in his garage. "I just bring them out occasionally."

Last week, code enforcement officials received an informal complaint and an officer went to photograph where McBee had placed the statue, which is normally in the back yard.

The sculpture on the corner lot along a main road into McBee's subdivision did not violate any town ordinances, and the copy of one of the world's most well-known statues did not involve any obscenity issues, said Linda Sjogren, city attorney in Big Spring, about 290 miles west of Dallas.

But Sjogren, concerned that complaints would continue, decided to consult with others on a possible remedy. She posted a query on the Texas Municipal League's secure Web site, which someone with access to then reposted on Facebook.

Sjogren left McBee a voice mail last week, requesting that he put more clothes on David.

McBee relented after his friends teased him as well, putting a pair of black and white faux-velvet shorts, with a Christmas bow, on the statue.

"I think if it offends any children, I didn't want to do that," McBee said. Lest he end up with a bag of coal for Christmas.

Big Spring Refinery Explosion

From Fox News : BIG SPRING, Texas (About a hundred miles east of us - DK) - A thunderous explosion rocked an oil refinery Monday, injuring four workers and shaking buildings miles away.

One employee was hospitalized for burns, while the others were treated and released, said Blake Lewis, a spokesman for refinery owner Alon USA.

All workers were accounted for about an hour after the explosion, he said. The refinery employs about 170 people.

Fires caused by the blast were under control but still burning in the afternoon, Lewis said. The Dallas-based company was waiting for access to the site to investigate the cause of the explosion.

• Click here for photos.

The blast sent black smoke billowing into the sky, and forced the closure of schools and an interstate.

"It was extremely scary. You shook you were so scared," said Laura McEwen, the mayor's wife who lives about two miles from the refinery. "Our walls shook. It jolted your bed. It was like an earthquake."

John Moseley, managing editor of the Big Spring Herald whose downtown office is also about two miles from the refinery, said, "I thought it would knock the walls down."

Two elementary schools were evacuated, then classes were canceled at all nine campuses in the Big Spring school district, assistant superintendent Carie Dunnam said.

Classes also were canceled at Howard College, according to the two-year junior college's Web site.

The explosion forced open the doors of the school district's administration building about four miles from the plant, Dunnam said.

"Literally pieces of my ceiling came on top of my head," she said.

Bus routes were affected by road closures and that emergency officials were warning of the potential for more explosions, Dunnam said. Parents were asked to pick up their children, she said.

Interstate 20 was shut down near the plant, Big Spring police spokesman Roger Sweatt said.

"There's some fire and a whole bunch of smoke," Sweatt said.

Big Spring is about halfway between Dallas and El Paso.