GANGING UP ON A JUDGE
A Brooklyn federal judge was on a mob hit list, prosecutors revealed yesterday. Convicted racketeer Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano apparently targeted Judge Nicholas Garaufis from prison and has since been placed in solitary confinement. The judge was “new” to the list, which apparently had long included Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres. The best line from the Daily News story: “A source familiar with the probe said Basciano is denying that he intended to hurt the people on the list.” More on Garaufis and the Basciano case at the ever-helpful Gangland News.

THE TERROR OF WRITER'S CRAMP 
Brendan Lyons writes in the Albany Times Union on the terrorism trial in Albany federal court. Shahed “Malik” Hussain delivered testimony in the “trial’s most tumultuous moments." The Pakistani immigrant went undercover to help the FBI build the charges against the two Albany men on trial and was in hiding until his court appearance. Hussain argued with defense attorneys, Lyons reports and was scolded by U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy, who managed a moment of levity when he told a garrulous Hussain, who had been on the stand five hours, “what you’re going to do is kill my stenographer.”

TRASH TALK 
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Stallman ruled yesterday that plans for a garbage storage facility on the upper East Side could go forward. The Bloomberg administration has fought for the creation of the site, which is at 91st Street and the East River, near the mayor’s ceremonial mansion. The site is viewed by some as a triumph against environmental racism, the Sun reports, since it helps to spread out the burden of storing the city’s trash.
 

THROUGH THE EEOC'S HOOPS
Knicks lawyers were busy yesterday trying to downplay the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s letter to Anucha Browne Sanders, which found she had a viable complaint against coach Isaiah Thomas and Knicks managers, who she’s suing in federal court in Manhattan. An NBA executive, Browne Sanders was fired after she alleges Thomas asked her for sex. There’s no trial date, and the Knicks want the case out of court.  Thomas's lawyers, Peter Parcher and Sue Ellen Eisenberg, noted in a statement quoted in the Daily News that EEOC's administrative finding "does not reflect any conclusion as to the merits of this case."