This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Talk about a Flashback Friday. It’s been a hot minute since we have given thought to disgraced former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota – and even longer since he’s graced the winner’s section of this weekly feature. Yet here we are, with federal investigators dropping a probe into the office’s use of asset forfeiture funds that started with Spota’s administration. Sure, he still went to prison for three years for trying to cover up a police beating, but at least he’s now in the free and clear.

Come on, come all. New Yorkers’ access to the city’s popular municipal photo ID program is about to get a whole lot smoother due to legislation recently passed by the City Council. This measure, sponsored by Council Member Shahana Hanif, will restart same-day walk-in appointments for individuals seeking the ID card, which is available to all New Yorkers regardless of immigration status.

Mets owner Steve Cohen got one step closer to getting his long sought-after casino next to Citi Field. Zoning changes needed for the Metropolitan Park project were approved by the City Council in a 41-2 vote this week.. Who knew spending millions on lobbying city officials would do the trick? It’s not a done deal, though. He still needs the state Gaming Commission to award him one of three downstate casino licenses, and he needs state Sen. Jessica Ramos to introduce – and get passed – legislation to alienate the land in question, which is legally considered parkland.

The interim Columbia University president has had to deal with Trump pulling $400 million in federal grants to the university for its alleged “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The cuts, which will affect the university’s “research and other critical functions,” are happening not even a year into Armstrong’s term as president. And on top of that, one of the school’s recent graduates living in Columbia housing was just arrested and detained by ICE despite being a green card holder.

Janno Lieber, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, needs a cool $35 billion to fund the agency’s capital plan – but the state Legislature’s one-house budget proposals did not include any specific ideas for how to fund the MTA capital plan. Lieber’s had an emotional rollercoaster of a year – having worked to get congestion pricing in place, only for the governor to yank it out from under him, only for her to reinstate it, only for the president to say he wouldn’t allow the tolls after all. The poor guy is just trying to keep the transit system that 5 million people use every day running.

The striking corrections may have bit off more than they could chew, or maybe they just hate the idea of a state job. Under an executive order from Gov. Kathy Hochul, the more than 2,000 prison guards who didn’t return to work after a deal was brokered with the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision can never hold a government job in New York again. And the final deal that resolved that strike was only reached by everyone going over the head of Chris Summers, the president of the New York State Corrections Officer and Police Benevolent Association.