Take a look at the news in and around Odessa on Wednesday, May 9. Find complete local news coverage in the Odessa American every day, online at oaoa.com and our daily E-Edition at myoaoa.com.

1. Two conservation groups on Tuesday asked the federal government for protection of the dunes sagebrush lizard whose habitat has been disturbed by the Permian Basin frac sand mining boom.


2. Taya Kyle, veterans’ family activist and the widow of ‘American Sniper” author Chris Kyle, spoke at the Chris Kyle Memorial Highway dedication Tuesday morning at the site of the Chris Kyle Memorial Statue.


3. Ector County Independent School District is estimating an increase in tax collections and state foundation funding totaling about $14.2 million for 2018-19. Trustees also discussed asking for an 8-cent tax rate election which would yield $11,430,000 in revenue.


4. A final pretrial hearing took place Tuesday for 19-year-old Gabe McDonald who is scheduled for a jury trial next month in the shooting deaths of his parents.


5. Written depositions were taken this week in a civil suit involving a 23-year-old Odessa man accused of causing the deaths of three people in a fiery wreck last year.