This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Don’t blame her! The New York City Council speaker kept up the lackadaisical pressure campaign on Mayor Eric Adams to boost the school budget by passing a formal resolution asking for the additional funds, three months after ending negotiations early and agreeing to the budget. Credit is due though: the unanimous vote proves the speaker – who, under her watch, saw the first bill fail to pass  – can still whip votes. And can still work with the mayor too – Eric Adams signed the Council’s maternal health package into law with great fanfare.

Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou is officially out of the picture. Dan Goldman will save some coins (and avoid a headache) while cruising to victory in the 10th Congressional race. The Democratic nominee fended off a potential challenge from Niou, who announced on Twitter she won’t be running on the Working Families Party line in November. It's great news for Goldman considering the Levi Strauss heir already gave $4 million to fund his campaign and just narrowly beat Niou less than two weeks ago.

State Sen. Jessica Ramos has long advocated for farm workers and pushed legislation to bring more equitable conditions to farms. This week? She helped usher in what would be another significant change for the New Yorkers working in often grueling conditions after the Farm Laborers Wage Board voted in favor of recommending that the state overtime threshold for farm workers be lowered from 60 hours to 40. Farm workers aren’t fully out of the weeds just yet though – the final decision is up to state Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon.

City officials have told the 2,600 residents at the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village not to drink the water there for the better part of a week after arsenic was reportedly discovered in the water supply. Conflicting test results have enraged residents who said the city has left them in the dark about the water conditions for over a month. The toxin was reportedly detected late Thursday, but subsequent tests conducted over the weekend allegedly came back negative. Whatever response the mayor and NYCHA’s chair have appears to be all wet.

The former Trump aide was led into Manhattan Supreme Court in handcuffs on Thursday after being indicted on money laundering, conspiracy and fraud charges related to a fundraiser to build a wall along the nation’s southern border with Mexico. Bannon pleaded not guilty to the charges that he used the money – which he promised donors would be used solely to construct the wall – to pay himself and his associates.

A comeback isn’t in the cards for Gary Lavine, who found himself out of a position with the end of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The state Senate minority leader decided to stick with what he knew and nominated Lavine for the new state ethics commission a few months ago. But a panel of law school deans concluded he wasn’t up to snuff, despite his previous service. In fact, all 15 members of the panel voted to reject him, which wasn’t the case for the other two rejected nominees. Unless a court challenge proves successful, Lavine won’t find himself overseeing ethics of any sorts anymore.