GEOFF BENNETT: Forecasters are calling for a cold front that should start cleansing the skies by tomorrow.
The heat in the South could begin easing this weekend.
In the day's other headlines: A new wave of flight delays and cancellations hit air travelers nationwide for a second day, as the July 4 holiday weekend approaches.
Airports in Newark, Washington, and elsewhere were full of frustrated passengers.
The tracking company FlightAware reported more than 900 flights canceled and 4,700 delayed today.
TIA HUDSON, Air Traveler: I am trying to get to New Orleans right now, New Orleans or Dallas, Texas.
I just want to get away from this airport.
It's been since Sunday.
And they lost my luggage.
They told me my luggage was in Dallas, Texas.
My mom went to go pick it up.
They said it's here and that it will be eight hours to get my luggage.
GEOFF BENNETT: Thunderstorms along the East Coast caused the biggest disruptions, and the problem could worsen tomorrow, as holiday air travel peaks.
A U.S. Marine veteran, Daniel Penny, pleaded not guilty today in the choke hold killing of a Black man on a New York subway train.
Penny arrived in court this morning after being indicted for second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
He remains free on bond.
The victim, Jordan Neely, had been shouting and begging for money when Penny used the choke hold on him.
Neely's family says he struggled with mental illness.
In France, authorities have tightened security in major cities after police killed a teenager during a traffic stop last night, touching off violence in a Paris suburb.
Video on social media showed an officer firing into a car before it drove off and crashed.
That triggered unrest, with cars burned and dozens arrested, and left locals to wonder why.
AMADOU DAGNOKO, Paris Resident (through translator): It's a bit of society's misfortune, and I think we're all responsible.
Maybe the police officer was in a furious state.
I can't talk about what really happened.
But it's tragic.
We're talking about human life here, and I'm saddened for the family.
GEOFF BENNETT: Today, French President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting inexcusable, in a rare rebuke of law enforcement.
The police officer is being investigated for voluntary homicide for shooting the teen, who was of North African origin.
Back in this country, one of the so-called Central Park 5 in New York, Yusef Salaam, has a commanding lead in a city council primary, with votes still being counted.
He was convicted of raping a jogger as a teenager, but ultimately exonerated.
And, in Buffalo, Zeneta Everhart won the Democratic nomination for a council seat.
Her son was wounded in a white racist attack that killed 10 people at a grocery store last year.
On Wall Street, stocks mostly drifted on a quiet day of trading.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 74 points to close at 33852.
The Nasdaq rose 36 points.
The S&P 500 was down a point.
And former Republican Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut died today after a short illness.
He first gained national notice on the Senate Watergate Committee back in 1973.
At times, he criticized then-President Richard Nixon and urged candor among fellow Republicans.
FMR.
SEN. LOWELL WEICKER (R-CT): At this point in time, if we try to play coy or to be less than extremely forceful at getting the truth out, people are going to impute to us this rather sordid succession of events.
GEOFF BENNETT: Weicker also championed the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act and later served as Connecticut's governor.
Lowell Weicker was 92 years old.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": Russia conducts a deadly missile strike in Eastern Ukraine, as the sluggish counteroffensive continues; Black women face disproportionately higher rates of maternal mortality; former Congressman Will Hurd discusses his run for the White House; and the parents of a deceased child campaign for more patient rights in the health care system.
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