Tornado, wildfires top 2012 Norman news

In August, voters approved a $42.6 million general obligation package to finance improvements to city streets, including a major widening project on W Lindsey Street, from Interstate 35 to Berry Road.

Money also will be used to correct flooding problems on W Lindsey, W Main Street and Franklin Road.

City council members in November voted to ease restrictions on backyard chickens. A new ordinance allows residents to keep up to four chickens or laying hens in fully enclosed coops, as long as the coops are at least 25 feet from a neighboring house.

Two people fell to their deaths in 2012. On June 3, University of Oklahoma student Casey Cooke, 22, died after falling from a fire escape at Evans Hall. Roofer Colby Shaw, 24, died June 18 after falling from OU's Headington Hall, which is under construction at Lindsey and Jenkins Avenue.

Two people died after being struck by trains in separate accidents, and eight others died as a result of fatality accidents in 2012, Norman police reported.

A Norman woman was shot to death Sept. 13 at her home at 1210 Stubbeman Ave. Mary Ellyn Benavidez, 57, was shot in the chest in the early morning hours. Dustin Dale Allen, 20, has been charged with first-degree murder in the woman's death.