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It’s a sad day for Big Tex. The 52-foot talking cowboy icon of the Texas State Fair was destroyed by fire this morning.

RIP, Big Tex!

Thieves with firsthand knowledge of the oil business have descended on Texas oilfields, unleashing a multimillion-dollar crime wave. 

According to the FBI, which last took count when crude prices surpassed $100 a barrel in 2008, the crime wave cost $78 million over a three-year span. Since then, said Lamar Pruit, senior supervisory special agent in Midland, a new oilfield task force has made 79 arrests, contributed to 39 convictions and recovered $2.3 million in stolen property. Criminals have been ordered to pay $15 million in restitution.

“Many times they’re oilfield workers or friends of oilfield workers,” Pruit said. “They know exactly what they’re looking for. And there’s miles and miles of territory to cover. They’re pretty much free to steal.”

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, but … this is wild. More than 21,000 people showed up to celebrate as a Texas high school unveiled a $59.6 million super stadium.  In the exurbs far north of Dallas, the Eagles of Allen High School christened their $59.6 million stadium — replete with 18,000 seats, 40 food service lines and a 79-foot-wide electronic scoreboard — by shutting out the Dragons of Southlake Carroll 24-0 before an overflow crowd of more than 21,000. “It’s pretty much the center of the high school football world this weekend,” said Chris Tripucka, the father of the Eagles’ starting punter, Shane. “Everybody’s excited about it.”

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, but … this is wild. More than 21,000 people showed up to celebrate as a Texas high school unveiled a $59.6 million super stadium. 

In the exurbs far north of Dallas, the Eagles of Allen High School christened their $59.6 million stadium — replete with 18,000 seats, 40 food service lines and a 79-foot-wide electronic scoreboard — by shutting out the Dragons of Southlake Carroll 24-0 before an overflow crowd of more than 21,000.

“It’s pretty much the center of the high school football world this weekend,” said Chris Tripucka, the father of the Eagles’ starting punter, Shane. “Everybody’s excited about it.”

Holy hamburger! Everything is big in Texas and nothing is bigger with the Rangers than the arrival of Yu Darvish. One sports bar decided to take fandom up a notch with the creation of the Darvilicious burger. You or Yu may start it but will likely need a reliever to finish the mammoth meal. Photo by Kyodo/Landov

Holy hamburger! Everything is big in Texas and nothing is bigger with the Rangers than the arrival of Yu Darvish. One sports bar decided to take fandom up a notch with the creation of the Darvilicious burger. You or Yu may start it but will likely need a reliever to finish the mammoth meal.

Photo by Kyodo/Landov

Three different tornadoes struck Texas yesterday. As this map shows, two of the funnel clouds touched down multiple times. SCARY.

Three different tornadoes struck Texas yesterday. As this map shows, two of the funnel clouds touched down multiple times. SCARY.

The faces, pets and horrific scenes out of Texas yesterday, where rare, powerful tornadoes hammered the Dallas-Fort Worth area, flinging tractor-trailer rigs like toy trains, peeling back rooftops and reducing homes to rubble.

Guess everything really is bigger in Texas — it’s home to the nation’s most obese city.  The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area of Texas, for example, is the fattest metropolitan region in the country, where 38.8 percent of the population is obese, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which recently ranked the top 10 most and least obese cities in the United States. Coming in second was Binghamton, N.Y., with a 37.6 percent obesity rate. Boulder, Colo., with a rate of 12.1 percent, was the least obese.

Guess everything really is bigger in Texas — it’s home to the nation’s most obese city. 

The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area of Texas, for example, is the fattest metropolitan region in the country, where 38.8 percent of the population is obese, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which recently ranked the top 10 most and least obese cities in the United States.

Coming in second was Binghamton, N.Y., with a 37.6 percent obesity rate. Boulder, Colo., with a rate of 12.1 percent, was the least obese.

Meet the Texas family staging a 12-year standoff with the law on a 47-acre compound with no electricity, running water or phone.

For 12 years running, a Texan named John Joe Gray has been in America’s longest standoff with law enforcement.

In 2000, the wanted, anti-government militant and his family barricaded themselves in a 47-acre parcel outside Trinidad, population 1,100, and told the cops to “bring body bags” if they tried to enter his property.

Wary of provoking another Waco-like shootout, Henderson County’s then-sheriff, Howard “Slick” Alfred, listened. Instead of sending deputies to seize Gray, he decided to wait them out.

More than a decade later, Alfred has retired, as have two of his successors — and Gray has still not left the property.

The unrelenting drought in Texas may have killed up to half a billion trees. Experts estimate between 100 million and 500 million trees succumbed to the weather, up to 10 percent of the state’s 4.9 billion trees. The count includes only trees on forest land that are 5 inches or larger in diameter and not ones that were killed by this year’s wildfires. The numbers are preliminary. The Forest Service plans to use satellite imagery in the spring to derive more precise figures — and distinguish the dead trees from ones that are dormant.

The unrelenting drought in Texas may have killed up to half a billion trees.

Experts estimate between 100 million and 500 million trees succumbed to the weather, up to 10 percent of the state’s 4.9 billion trees. The count includes only trees on forest land that are 5 inches or larger in diameter and not ones that were killed by this year’s wildfires.

The numbers are preliminary. The Forest Service plans to use satellite imagery in the spring to derive more precise figures — and distinguish the dead trees from ones that are dormant.

Brace yourselves for a massive snowstorm…in TEXAS. Senior forecaster Ken Schneider of the National Weather Service said the snow will hit New Mexico and the southern Rocky Mountains, spread east to Texas and dump up to 16 inches overnight. It will move along Interstate 40, with the most severe conditions in higher elevations.

Brace yourselves for a massive snowstorm…in TEXAS.

Senior forecaster Ken Schneider of the National Weather Service said the snow will hit New Mexico and the southern Rocky Mountains, spread east to Texas and dump up to 16 inches overnight. It will move along Interstate 40, with the most severe conditions in higher elevations.