Headlines

• Austin's barreling toward the finish on two fronts: City Council is under pressure to sign onto a "risk-free" deal that would bring Formula One to town, and early voting is under way for the June 18 council run-off as candidates Kathie Tovo and incumbent Randi Shade sharpen their get-out-the-vote messages – one of which happens to be Tovo's warning flag against allowing Formula One to drink from the taxpayer trough. See voting info and our endorsement, and "City Hall Hustle."

• As he's done in fiercely contested council run-offs past, former Texas Monthly Publisher Mike Levy has again saturated tens of thousands of households with a 1,500-words-plus, single-spaced letter designed to strike fear in the hearts of Austin voters. Levy opens with a plea to vote against Kathie Tovo because, in addition to a litany of dozens of other perceived threats (crime! thirst! mediocrity!), she would threaten "any hope of bringing sanity to Austin government." The one threat to Levy the letter doesn't mention? His treasured seat on the city's Public Safety Commission, a position he holds as an appointee of Randi Shade.

• As extreme drought conditions continue, new seasonal temperature records are being set across the state. The thermometer hit 103 degrees at Camp Mabry on June 6 – the earliest date in the year to ever reach that high at the West Austin weather station.

• It's time for a dip, and municipal pools have shifted to a summer schedule, but there's a hitch: The Parks and Recreation Department announced that the Bartholomew Muni­ci­pal, Brentwood, and Shipe pools will stay closed for repairs, and that a number of pools could be closed for good next summer due to budget restraints.

• The special legislative session continues and expands: Debates on Medicaid and education finance were scheduled for June 8, but Gov. Rick Perry has thrown a monkey wrench into the serious business by adding multiple immigration-related bills to the call. See "Special Session on a Binge."

• Wednesday, June 8, marked the third anniversary of the arson that destroyed the historic Governor's Mansion, which was undergoing restoration work at the time. Investigators have yet to resolve the mystery.

• Austin ISD is getting closer to opening a school for young boys with the June 2 announcement of a seven-year, $4.6 million grant from the Galves­ton-based Moody Foundation. However, AISD board President Mark Williams said that trustees have not yet voted to open such an academy, and at this point no location has been discussed.

• Del Valle ISD trustees on June 7 appointed Kelly Crook, the district's assistant superintendent of finance and business operations, as interim superintendent after Superintendent Bernard Blanchard and Assistant Superintendent Sandra Dowdy quit the district. The two had been in a long-running feud with trustee Richard Franklin, who has said that they campaigned against his election.

• After campuswide protests, UT has rehired adjunct professor Sarah Weddington – the attorney who won the pivotal Roe v. Wade reproductive rights case. Weddington, who has lectured at UT since 1986, was one of the huge number of adjuncts, as well as teaching and research assistants, who were let go as part of the state's massive funding cuts.

• Attack of the Central Texas psychic: Law enforcement in Liberty County near Houston is hunting for a woman with a 512 area code after her tip about a mass grave turned out to be nonsense. Police raided the alleged crime scene after the unnamed woman claimed to be a psychic.