This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

It was a big week for Council Members Tiffany Cabán, Shahana Hanif, Carlina Rivera and other members of the New York City Women’s Caucus. When the Supreme Court rolled back Roe v. Wade last month they responded with urgency and on Thursday, a package of bills to safeguard abortion access in the city was passed by the legislative body. Bonus points for Rivera who is also currently the lead contender in the 10th Congressional District race. 

After years of planning and numerous delays – most recently the pandemic – the Shinnecock Nation on Long Island has finally broken ground on its cannabis dispensary. It’ll be the first indigenous-owned dispensary in the region – and could get up and running before state-licensed dispensaries pop up. The nation’s chair Bryan Polite said the tribal government just needs to finalize recreational pot regulations and they’ll be ready to see the green.

This week, assistant attorney general Jorge Alberto Rodriguez was nominated by President Biden to serve on the federal bench. Rodriguez’s judgeship would  be in the Albany based Northern District of New York. The nomination would fill the spot of retiring Judge David N. Hurd. Currently, Rodriguez works in the Litigation Bureau for the state Attorney General’s office. In that role he focuses on a variety of issues ranging from civil rights to taxation. 

The state’s top judge shocked the legal community when she announced her resignation from the Court of Appeals on Monday, eight years before her term ends. A day later, news surfaced that the state’s judicial watchdog is probing DiFiore over allegations she advocated for the longtime president of the court officers union, Dennis Quirk, to be punished for allegedly threatening her. The ethics investigation is new, but Quirk’s feud with DiFiore is not. He called her a “miserable bitch” in a Daily News interview in September.

There are a lot of ways to attack New York City’s housing crisis – none of them easy – but the Adams administration took a step this week that may pan out to be just a little bit faster than building new housing units. The city is cracking down on an alleged illegal short-term rental operation in Manhattan, suing real estate broker Arron Latimer, building owner Apex Management and managing member Esther Yip over what officials said was an unlawful renting scheme that took would-be residential units off the market in favor of tourists and visitors.

Another week, another opportunity for Carl Paladino to be a loser. The controversial congressional candidate this time made headlines for employing a sex offender convicted of owning child porn. His campaign denied the man’s involvement in the campaign, calling a filing with his name “an oversight.” But far from denying an association, Paladino spoke proudly of giving his long-time employee Joel Sartori a second chance after his conviction. Seems unlikely he’d do the same for other ex-convicts based on his policy positions.