This week's biggest Winners & Losers

If civil rights lawyer Frederick K. Brewington had a nickel for every time he’s won a lawsuit to help integrate a Long Island town board, he would have two nickels. That’s not a lot, but it’s impressive that he’s done it twice. Brewington successfully argued for the Town of Islip to replace its at-large council system with council districts to help ensure Latinos are represented on the board after local residents sued. He won a similar victory in the Town of Hempstead 20 years ago for Black residents after over a decade of fighting. This most recent victory is yet another addition to the long and distinguished career of a man who has been called the Thurgood Marshall of Long Island.

Statues of Christopher Columbus may be rapidly falling out of favor, but another Italian Catholic with a less bloody history is on the rise: Francesca Xavier Cabrini, more commonly known as “Mother Cabrini.” Following a disagreement between New York City and state about whether the patron saint of immigrants would be included in a city project to erect more monuments of female leaders, Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a statue of Mother Cabrini in Manhattan this week. Next up on Cuomo’s list? RBG.

Sure, it’s not an easy time to become a commissioner with the New York City Board of Elections, which after making mistakes like sending Brooklynites the wrong ballot may be the least-trusted office in city government. But it wasn’t easy for Brooklyn lawyer Rodney Pepe-Souvenir to GET this job either, after City Council Member Antonio Reynoso slowed down the nomination process in order to fully vet her. But the council cast its votes in Pepe-Souvenir’s favor, and now she can be a new voice on a board in need of change.

The upstate judge landed on the wrong side of the law last week when a police body cam that recorded him arguing with officers outside his Buffalo home went public. An attorney for the former GOP state senator claims he was just understandably upset when police handcuffed his profanity-spewing wife. Neither the visibly intoxicated judge or his wife were arrested in the end, but next time Grisanti appears on screen, he ought to don a robe so he looks more Judge Judy and less like the always shirtless Randy from “Trailer Park Boys.”

As of last week, it seemed that Julie Menin and New York City’s network of census partners had until the end of the month to get New Yorkers counted. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration could end the census earlier. Outreach efforts that were expected to go on for another two weeks were now crammed into just two days. More New Yorkers will be omitted in the final tallies that determine congressional seats and billions in federal dollars for New York. And now fears abound that data produced from the census will be inaccurate or even politically manipulated. 

The infamous organizer behind last Wednesday’s violent protests against the state’s enforcement of COVID-19 safety guidelines, Heshy Tischler, was arrested outside of his home in Borough Park on Sunday. The City Council candidate and amateur radio host was charged with unlawful imprisonment and inciting a riot, a response to his directing a mob to attack a Jewish journalist present at the protest. However, just days after being released from jail without bail, Tischler showed that he’s moving full steam ahead, posting a video of another protest on Twitter.