This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

It’s one small step for Chinatown’s David, one giant leap against the Goliath that is New York City government. A state judge ruled that the city must cease overnight construction of the new Manhattan borough jail in Chinatown, at least for the time being. That’s a victory for Jan Lee of Neighbors United Below Canal, who said residents are “over the moon” about the ruling and can’t wait to get a good night’s sleep. 

Linda Tigani’s term as chair of the city's Commission on Racial Equity is being extended through next summer. She’s has been an outspoken critic of the mayor’s handling of the city’s racial equity report, and the mayor had hoped to replace her this year with the NAACP’s Christopher Alexander – but that plan was postponed following resistance from City Council Speaker Julie Menin and an outpouring of support for Tigani from community advocates.

A judge ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when they fired Maurene Comey, former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. Comey is best known for prosecuting Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean Combs – and for being the daughter of former FBI director James Comey. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and Trump is going after both Comeys.

She’s keeping her job, but clearly NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch hasn’t forgotten who the big boss really is. The police department had tentatively planned to award a no-bid contract to the Israeli surveillance company Cognyte – a decision that drew swift and intense backlash. Enter Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom the Daily News reported met personally with Tisch about it. Not long after that, the contract was kaput. The NYPD obviously didn’t manage to get its surveillance tech approved under the radar.

Canandaigua Town Court Justice Walter Jones just couldn’t stop repeating a racial slur when talking to a defendant about his grandfather’s Texas cotton fields, and now the state’s highest court has removed him from the bench. The state Court of Appeals dismissed Jones and said his comments that a defendant “played the race card” were offensive.

A physical brawl between campaigns days ahead of an election isn’t a great look – even if the candidates themselves were nowhere near the scene of the crime. That was the case in southern Brooklyn, where a 73-year-old campaign worker for Republican state Sen. Steve Chan was arrested and charged with assault in the third degree for allegedly hitting a volunteer for Democratic challenger Larry He. While Chan said his aide shouldn’t have confronted He’s volunteer, he claimed the ensuing fall was staged.