Who's up and who's down this week?

This week, the mayor got to have it both ways. Publicly, he was a champion of a free and independent press, responding to the severe editorial staff cutbacks at the Daily News by saying it’s “really disturbing what this huge corporation has done to the people of New York City and what they are doing to journalism.” Privately, he was presumably thrilled about having fewer pesky reporters poking into his business. As he wrote in an email not so long ago, “Would rather a liberal News to no News, but given that’s probably wishful thinking I think it’s good if it cuts back.” Good news for the mayor, indeed.

A judge dropped the criminal charges against Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove in June, but there’s only so many times your name can appear in negative headlines before voters get suspicious. So the Republican Abelove is sputtering along on his reelection campaign with $4,000 in contributions. His Democratic challenger Donnelly – who will also face him in an Independence Party primary – is looking strong, raising six times the dough.

A gaggle of conservative pundits came out of the woodwork this week to clumsily vent about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her response: smile and wave as haters humiliate themselves publicly. First, Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis referred to “this girl … or whatever she is.” She responded, “I am a Puerto Rican woman,” like many of Desantis’ constituents. And when Conservative Review TV released a fake interview with her without labeling it such, Ocasio-Cortez reflected on how this tactic makes Republicans looks scared.

Zephyr Teachout can finally put critics to rest – she is going to be sworn into the New York Bar next month. And unlike the line of unlucky law students taking their bar exams now, the AG candidate, a law professor who was licensed to practice law in North Carolina, just needed to fill out some paperwork, take an online "orientation" course and sit for an interview to get admitted. The admittance finally quells complaints about her qualifications leading up to election day. And in a coincidence, just a day after Teachout said Facebook should broken up, the company seemed to be breaking up all by itself, with its stock falling by $119 billion.

This delivery man has a tip for ICE: Next time you want to deport a hardworking pizza guy, don’t mess with Pablo. The government’s attempt to detain and eject this “model citizen” – as a judge described the man who entered the country illegally, just before releasing him – turned out to be nothing more than pie in the sky. The Long Island resident was reunited with his two daughters and wife, who is a U.S. citizen – a status he could hold himself if he succeeds in getting a waiver to nix the order of removal.

The former New York City mayor is sure to get his legal chops tested after a newly aggressive Michael Cohen released secret tapes he made of himself and President Donald Trump. Giuliani is taking the lead in defending the president and so far, it’s unclear whether he’s helping the president very much. He has already been caught in a lie about the nature of Trump’s conversations with Cohen once the tapes were released. And Giuliani can’t even seem to keep his foot out of his mouth when in friendly territory like Fox News.

New York City’s school zone speed cameras have finally come to a screeching stop, while Marty Golden's Cadillac has presumably not, now that he is free of the cameras that have given him 14 tickets in the past four years. Though the GOP state senator has sort of backed up on his opposition to the life-saving program, the damage to his image has been done. Not that his image has been in tip-top shape, considering he’s also run over and killed a senior citizen and yells at law-abiding cyclists. The failure to continue the program has mostly been pinned to state Senate Republicans, which could bode poorly for Golden, who is only one of two Republican senators in New York City.

Behold Jeffrey’s D.-Klein-ing fortunes. After his Independent Democratic Conference’s fundraising operation was ruled illegal, the elections enforcement chief is now demanding the return of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, which could leave Klein’s erstwhile IDC allies short of funding weeks before they face their insurgent primary challengers. If all that isn’t bad enough, Gov. Andrew Cuomo now claims – or not? – that he had no love for Klein’s now-defunct IDC.

What is one to do when one learns that a handful of ballot petition signatures were gathered fraudulently? When state Senate hopeful Jasmine Robinson learned that about 300 of her 2,900 signatures were forged by a paid canvasser, she immediately wanted off the ballot. That is, until she changed her mind the next day and realized she did, in fact, still want to run. When City & State named Robinson as an up and comer on Staten Island to watch, this is not exactly what we had in mind, but boy are we watching.

The Tronc executive didn’t do himself any favors while addressing the crestfallen Daily News editorial staff after abruptly firing half of them. When asked whether he had a strategy prepared to justify the cuts, he reportedly responded, “That’s not the way that we did it.” Several outlets even spilled the beans on Whitmore’s expensive wedding plans. Behold the stainless steel cutlery on his wedding registry! Hey Grant, need a new knife set to stab your staff in the back?