THE NEWS IN REVIEW: On the eve of July 4^th, we’re going to take it easy because there isn’t a lot of big breaking news. Unless there’s something big, we’re taking off the next two days.

  Air travel has been hell for the past week and already today more than 500 flights are cancelled and over 12,000 delayed. Boston, New York, and DC are the major hot spots on the FlightAware misery map.

  Travelers might not be getting there, but record numbers of them are passing through TSA security, 2.75 million last Friday.

  Chicago got nine inches of rain. Canada’s wildfire smoke has cleared out of the East Coast, but this is going to be a problem until snowfall. Wildfires are rarely put out, they burn out.

  In Ukraine, the counteroffensive against Russia is making agonizingly slow progress. For the most part, Russia’s in-depth defense of minefields, trenches, and booby traps is holding.

  The protest violence in France appears to be easing now, a week after the fatal police shooting of a teenage motorist. 

  Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, hitting what they call a militant “operational command center” in what is believed to be a hub of armed Palestinian resistance.

THE OBIT PAGE: Frank Fields, the first actual meteorologist to forecast the weather on New York television, has died at 100. He began at WNBC in 1958. He knew the weather but was also known for, among other things, promoting fire safety and publicizing the Heimlich Maneuver, the chest grip used to save choking victims. — David Gilmour, a Canadian-born entrepreneur who in the 1990s built a luxury resort on a tiny island in Fiji, and then created Fiji Natural Artesian Water, which became one of the world’s leading bottled water brands, died last month in Manhattan at age 91. — Joseph Pedott,who made the novelty item Chia Pet into a national phenomenon, has died at 91.  The terra cotta container that comes in the shape of anything from a smiley face to a bust of exercise guru Richard Simmons includes chia seeds that grow into hairlike plants. The Chia Pet was already on the market as a drugstore item when Pedott bought the rights and made his advertising jingle into a case of national tinnitus … “Cha, cha, cha chia.”

THE SPIN RACK: Two people were killed and 28 injured in a mass shooting Saturday night during a Baltimore block party. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott described the incident as a “reckless, cowardly act.” The cops are hunting for two possible shooters. — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is jetting to Beijing this week in as part of President Biden’s effort to improve relations with China while also trying to reduce the reliance of American companies on Chinese factories. — On the brink of July 4th and a crush of visitors, thousands of hotel workers in Southern California have walked off the job demanding higher pay and better benefits. — After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law, Florida is moving ahead with plans to pave its roads with phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste material from the fertilizer industry. This still has to pass review by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Following recent Supreme Court rulings, actor Michael Imperioli declared that, “I’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching The Sopranos, The White Lotus, Goodfellas or any movie or TV show I’ve been in.”  He said, “Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don’t agree with and am opposed to. USA! USA!”

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