This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

An in-school suspension for coffee in class? That’s insane! For the Beaver Creek Schools, it wasn’t just a case of a school board gone wild, it was illegal. The school board banned outside drinks, but never held the required public hearing, thus voiding the ban. High school senior Julie Kaputa peacefully protested the procedural violation by bringing coffee to class and got tossed in school lock-up. Kaputa was freed – and got her coffee back.

New Yorkers may still have air conditioners in their windows, but for New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson, winter is coming. After this year’s onslaught of arctic weather, the Mamdani administration is raising the hourly rate for paid snow shovelers from $19.14 an hour to $30 an hour – and up to $45 an hour after working 40 hours in one week. Hopefully, unlike the mayor, those shovelers will have hats on. 

The president of the state teachers union is sitting pretty after the state Board of Regents voted this week to officially axe Regents exams as a graduation requirement starting with the class of 2028. Melinda Person has long advocated for moving away from high-stakes testing and offering multiple pathways to graduation. It’s a win–win for the union, as students’ low scores and performance data have been troubling since the pandemic, and influence teachers’ annual evaluations.

Less than a month after being promoted to associate commissioner, Selwyn Fergus’ time with the New York City Department of Correction looks to be coming to an abrupt end. The agency suspended him and is reportedly looking to fire him over allegations that he made inappropriate remarks to a female subordinate and boasted about being close with Commissioner Stanley Richards.

In a big win for the reformist district leaders looking to take the party leader down, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled against Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, striking down a series of controversial rules that would have likely helped her maintain her grip on the party. It’s complicated – she’s not going down without a fight. After appealing, the rules are technically still in effect, but may not be for long.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is seen as one of the bigger proponents of the cryptocurrency industry in Congress. But she’s apparently quite conflicted about the industry-favored bill known as the Clarity Act. She voted no on advancing it in Congress after reportedly urging fellow Democrats to support the bill in private. Gillibrand’s son Theodore, who is launching a startup funded by one of his mom’s biggest supporters in cryptocurrency, may be having his own private conversation with Gillibrand to voice his displeasure.

Correction: This article has been updated to describe the connection between a company started by Gillibrand’s son and the cryptocurrency industry.