This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

The once-and-future mayoral candidate scored a legal win this week when an appellate court unanimously ruled that he could continue a defamation case against Jean Kim, a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her two decades ago. Stringer, who denies the allegation, can now proceed to discovery in the defamation case. He’s hoping to find a smoking gun showing that Kim worked with his political opponents and made up the allegation to derail his 2021 run for mayor.

When you’re running for office, your top goal is to get your name out there and win over voters. Well, saving a woman from drowning her car is one way to make yourself known. State Senate candidate Tom Drumm made the news after witnessing a woman drive her car into a pond in Central New York and jumping in to save her. Drumm just happened to witness the accident before hopping into action before it was too late. And action always speaks louder than words on the campaign trail.

Two upstate New York residents were included in President Joe Biden’s latest batch of pardons and sentence commutations. Stacy Lynn Wilder and Margaret Ann Vandyke, who were both sentenced for drug-related offenses, are among a relatively small group of people who have been granted clemency; so far, the Biden administration has only granted 24 pardons and 129 commutations.

It’s fitting that Columbia University’s president is a crossbench baroness in the House of Lords, given how her actions regarding the campus protest have angered everyone. A motley crew of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Reps. Dan Goldman, Elise Stefanik, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mike Lawler, Ritchie Torres, Virginia Foxx and Jared Moskowitz have all criticized Columbia, just for different reasons. Maybe Shafik can call her British parliamentary colleague, Liz Truss, for advice on being in the eye of a political storm.

It’s been a rough week for the state’s renewable energy goals. NYSERDA, which Doreen Harris heads, announced that three major offshore wind projects aren’t moving forward, and now the agency is trying hard to speed up the bidding process in the hopes of replacing them. What’s more, the state comptroller just came out with an audit concluding that delays in getting siting permits for renewable energy projects are threatening the state’s ability to meet its quickly approaching climate goal deadlines.

Harvey Weinstein is Cy Vance’s albatross. The former Manhattan DA was crucified for declining to pursue charges against Weinstein in 2015. Later, he finally did go after the disgraced movie producer, but the state Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s 2020 sexual assault conviction this week. New York’s highest court did so on the grounds that the judge in the case wrongly allowed testimony from women who had accused Weinstein of assault, but whose cases were not directly linked. Vance said he was “shocked” by the decision.