Headlines

Friends and supporters watch the procession at the Capitol steps for the Big Gay 4th of July Wedding on Saturday. Between 30 and 40 couples tied the knot during the three-hour marathon. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

Austin Music Hall will be demolished and replaced with a 28-story office building, to be completed by 2017. The venue has struggled for years, with a botched 2007 renovation and new rival venues like ACL Live at the Moody Theater making it hard to attract both bands and audiences.

Add a federal investigation to the mounting scandals surrounding Attorney General Ken Pax­ton. The Securities and Exchange Commis­sion is investigating Servergy, Inc., an IT company of which Paxton is a major shareholder. See "Paxton Mired in Legal, Ethical Charges" for the rest of his legal woes.

No guns on the table at Whataburger, after the burger chain's CEO Preston Atkinson issued a statement that open carry will not be allowed in his restaurants. Conservatives are already threatening a boycott.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office has introduced a new policy for hospital visits in the wake of Dacious Parker's June 27 escape from custody, now requiring a relief officer to be assigned to the hospital whenever there's an inmate. That officer would serve primarily as a break provider – giving primary officers the opportunity to, say, hit the vending machine – but likely would have kept Parker in custody. The 24-year-old escaped when the officer assigned to him used the restroom.

Self-driving cars parked in Austin this week. A unmanned white Lexus RX 450h SUV made a circular loop at the Long Center on Tuesday. Google is testing its new technology locally to get experience in places with different driving environments and traffic patterns after first experimenting with the software in Mountain View, Calif.

Fracking is more damaging than previously thought, according to two new studies. The USGS found fracking is a worrying drain on water resources like Texas' Eagle Ford and Barnett watersheds, while a new report in science journal Environ­mental Science & Technology shows leaks of greenhouse gas methane from wells are 50% higher than estimated.

Texas v. U.S., the lawsuit filed by 26 state attorney generals to block Obama's immigration reform, heads to oral arguments before the 5th Circuit tomorrow, July 10. For more, see "New Name, Same Game."

Proposed changes to the county's mass gathering permit process got put on hold temporarily while commissioners consider a new venue in Spicewood to be run by Spicewood resident Frank Davis and local venue vet Tim O'Connor. If approved, the changes would bring new procedures, provisions, and curfews to concerts and festivals outside the city. See "Fests Vs. Farms," June 5, for more.