New York Briefs

Mob defendant says lunch is an injustice

Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano is still facing the death penalty, but he's out from under the lunch penalty.

The former Bonnano family acting boss, on trial in Brooklyn federal court for murder, complained through his lawyer yesterday that he wasn't getting adequate "sustenance" in the meals provided at lunch time by the U.S. Marshals.

"You mean he wants a sandwich from the Carnegie deli?" cracked U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis.

Basciano lawyer George Goltzer said the government-approved sandwiches had a single slice of baloney, and his client wanted his legal team to bring him something a little more filling from the third-floor cafeteria.

The judge said he was willing to take the matter of a "more fulsome lunch" up with Basciano's guard detail "so he can have more energy in the afternoon." But prosecutors objected, asking whether taxpayer funds - which are paying for Basciano's legal defense - would finance his special fare.

"That's offensive," responded Goltzer, who then offered to pay for the sandwich himself.

By the end of the day, the marshals had approved. Beginning today, Basciano will get his pick of cold cuts -- or even tuna salad -- while he watches a parade of government informants try to bury him. Goltzer said he hasn't placed his first order yet.New chancellor visits school that's set to close

On his first school day as head of New York City's public school system, Chancellor Dennis Walcott visited a school that is slated to be closed and promised students he would not forget about them.

"Just because a school is going through a transition doesn't mean that we're going to forget about our students at all," Walcott said at Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn, to be phased out starting in September.

He said he would create a network to support schools while they are being closed.

Walcott, a onetime kindergarten teacher and former head of the Urban League who spent the last eight years as a deputy mayor under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has said he hopes to calm the rhetoric on contentious issues like closing schools and forcing traditional public schools to share space with charter schools.

"We have to focus the debate on what is in the best interests of our children," he said on yesterday's radio show. -- John Riley

Jury in hedge fund case still undecided

A New York City jury in the biggest insider trading case in the hedge fund world has ended its third day of deliberations without a verdict.

For the second day in a row, jurors asked yesterday to listen to secretly recorded phone calls of hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam and other Wall Street insiders talking about a deal involving the Clearwire wireless company.

Prosecutors at the Manhattan trial say the wiretaps prove the Galleon Group chief made tens of millions of dollars by trading on inside tips about earnings and mergers.

Lawyers for the Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam argue he relied on open sources for his decisions. He's the only defendant to go to trial so far; 21 others have pleaded guilty. The jury resumes deliberating today.

'Knockoff' buyers face fine under billBargain hunting shoppers looking for cheap knockoffs on pricey designer bags are the target of a bill proposed by Manhattan City Councilwoman Margaret Chin that she plans to introduce at today's council meeting.

If passed, Chin said, the bill would fine anyone buying a counterfeit designer bag in the five boroughs $1,000 on a misdemeanor charge.

She said the bill would help to increase sales taxes lost to street sales by encouraging tourists and shoppers to buy handbags in one of many city boutique stores. "We have many local designers in lower Manhattan who offer unique bags at affordable prices that pay sales taxes," she said.-- Maria Alvarez

Compiled with wire reports