The drought has affected several planned Independence Day events across Central Texas.

And though Austin canceled its annual pyrotechnic show and musical celebration on Lady Bird Lake, surrounding areas still plan to offer events like parades, festivals and, yes, fireworks.

To see the current status of local events, visit the July 4 events calendar here.

Anyone delayed by the weekend construction closures of Interstate 35 or just frustrated with the daily slowdowns will be interested to hear that the Austin City Council recently approved a $1 million traffic study to find ways to ease congestion.

The global engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff Americas will study the feasibility of such projects cutting accident response times and altering traffic light timing to see whether smaller solutions would have a bigger impact than adding lanes.

And in other City Hall news, the council delayed a vote on the controversial Formula One project until June 29. At the most recent City Council meeting, members expressed concerns that pending contracts had not been fully vetted and about potential loopholes related to environmental and tax concerns.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell, the only member of the City Council who voted against the delay, recently told the Austin American-Statesman, "It could kill the deal for the City of Austin."

However, other council members expressed discomfort over details in the contracts and said they wanted time to scrutinize them further.

"It's the responsible thing on our part to take the time to do this right," Council Member Laura Morrison told the Statesman.

The Austin F1 project has both strong supporters and detractors, who have debated everything from the extent of the race's economic impact to the role of the state in the financial arrangements. A lawyer for F1 organizers told the Austin City Council that its delay could endanger the deal, though construction has already begun near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Talk about a boost for live music in Austin: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas a $450,000 to expand the scope of its classical music program over the next three years.

And thanks to a few university officials, who are matching the Mellon gift, the program will get a total of $900,000 to complete its mission.

The funds will support interdisciplinary programming, artist residencies, composer commissions and the formation of a classical music task force.

Former Planning Commission member Kathie Tovo defeated incumbent Randi Shade for the Place 3 City Council Seat. And the surprising thing was that more people voted in the runoff than in the May general election.

Tovo garnered about 56 percent of the vote in the runoff with Shade collecting about 44 percent.

According to election figures provided by the City of Austin, overall turnout for the runoff was just under 10 percent, or 42,626 registered voters. That's nearly 10,000 more voters than the number that participated in the May 14 general election.