This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a host of other progressive power players – and environmental activist groups including Sunrise Movement – fought hard against the approval of two new natural gas power plants in Queens and Orange County, and now the state has (metaphorically) pulled the plug on those projects. The state Department of Environmental Conservation denied permits for the plants, saying they would not comply with the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Two years after it was passed, it appears the CLCPA has finally got some juice.

 After spending 40 years in prison for his involvement in the 1981 Brinks robbery that took place in Rockland County and resulted in the death of three people, Gilbert has been granted parole. One of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s last acts, before leaving office, was commuting Gilbert’s sentence, due to his work in AIDS education and prevention while in prison, in addition to his work as a teacher and law library clerk. While surviving family members of the people killed in the robbery are displeased about Gilbert’s parole and impending release from prison, Chesa Boudin, Gilbert’s son and district attorney of San Francisco is “overcome with emotion.”

Buffalo’s mayoral race remains as tight as ever, with no clear winners emerging from the debate between Democratic nominee India Walton and incumbent Mayor Byron Brown. Well, aside from the other dark horse candidate who got to make his name known in the debate: Ben Carlisle. The attorney is also pursuing a write-in campaign, touting his lack of partisan affiliation and distaste for both candidates. And given that Brown is also running on a write-in campaign, debate organizers had no excuse to exclude the slim-to-no-shot candidate. It’s a little taste of fame for the otherwise unknown Carlisle, who was featured in numerous articles on the debate and got to publicly slam the two people who actually have a shot in the election.

Whatever happened to home field advantage? Hoping to halt New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s looming vaccine mandate, the Police Benevolent Association’s president filed suit in court on cop-loving Staten Island. The judge denied it – which isn’t much of a surprise given the ever-growing legal precedent around the mandates. More than a quarter of police department employees still aren’t vaccinated, so Lynch might find himself with a lot fewer dues-paying members by next week.

Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill this week that would have made it easier for the married horse jockeys to compete in the same races. A state wagering rule currently requires gamblers to bet on married couples as a single item, which made it harder for McCarthy and Davis when they moved to New York from Maryland, which has no such rules. The governor says she wants more input from the racing industry and the betting public, which means advocates for updating this archaic part of state law will have to do another lap around the legislative track next year. 

The sanctity of voting is very sacred — just ask former Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant. Grant took to Facebook to do some live-from-the-polls reporting and record a person telling a voter who she should be casting her vote for, a scandalous and illegal activity. Except it was just a good Samaritan helping an elderly woman vote. And Grant’s dogged citizen policing caught the eye of the Attorney General’s office. Now Grant is banned from all polling places for the rest of the election, and the incident was referred to the Erie County DA’s office. Just another non-incident of voter fraud.