City National Bank of Florida and its Spanish parent have four years to evaluate the Miami bank’s future ownership

City National Bank of Florida, the Miami bank purchased by Bankia (formerly Caja Madrid) of Spain in November 2008, said Wednesday that its parent has a “four-year window to evaluate alternatives” for the bank’s future ownership and will work closely with management in Miami during the process.

The Spanish government has reached and agreement with the European Union related to Spain’s financial system problems, which will result in a recapitalization of Bankia and other institutions, the bank said. The agreement calls for Bankia to sell non-core assets and its holdings outside of Spain so that Bankia will emerge with a solid capital position and be more focused on its core domestic business.

“Because City National Bank is so well capitalized, profitable and well positioned in the marketplace, we are going to take our time to fully evaluate all of our strategic alternatives,” City National Bank President and CEO Jorge Gonzalez said in a statement. “This does not impact our ongoing strategy of profitable growth and diversification or our commitment to the markets we serve. Our focus continues to be taking excellent care of our clients and employees. ”

City National, founded 65 years ago, has $4.32 billion in assets and 26 branches from Miami-Dade County to the greater Orlando area.

INA PAIVA CORDLE

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Weatherman conned by SoBe “Bar Girls” now has Twitter account hijacked by Playboy fiancée

A former TV weatherman who testified 12 days ago in a Miami federal courtroom that Latvian “Bar Girls” swindled him out of $43,000 on Miami Beach was back in the spotlight Tuesday over suggestive photos and tweets sent from his Twitter account.

John Bolaris, who was suspended from his job as a weather anchor for Fox affiliate WTXF in Philadelphia last year amid his allegations that as a tourist in South Florida in 2010 he was drugged and robbed, apparently was asleep Sunday when his fiancée Erica Smitheman drunkenly took over his Twitter account and promised to send out nude photos of herself, the New York Daily News is reporting.

The former Playboy model started her Twitter binge by writing: “Hello this is Erica…love John, he loves you all, I guess it’s ok if I send you all a naked photo or two…don’t tell my love.”

She continued to write suggestive tweets referring to her modeling past and hinting that she’d taken over Bolaris’ account while he slept, the newspaper reported.

“This is Erica, I did pose in Playboy…so what,” she wrote. “I will post my naked pictures…John has no clue... I am tweeting, he’s sleeping.”

Bolaris, who now appears on the Howard Stern radio show, has nearly 13,000 followers.

Smitheman did not post nude photos, only one suggestive one, but her offer caused a stir in the Twitterverse.

To read the New York Daily News story click here.

Bolaris last made headlines earlier this month in Miami when he testified about his misadventures in the hands of a Latvian crime ring, which used two beautiful women to lure him from a club and back to his hotel and in the process ran up his credit card, he said.

Here’s the story that ran in MiamiHerald.com on Nov. 16, the day after Bolaris testified in court:

More than two years after his “nightmare on South Beach,” former TV weatherman John Bolaris remains a little foggy about his close encounter with a couple of Latvian “Bar Girls” who swindled him for $43,000 in bogus booze charges billed to his AMEX card.

On Friday, Bolaris testified in Miami federal court that he didn’t have sex with them, though the thought crossed his mind after meeting the duo at the Delano Hotel in late March 2010. Bolaris, 55, was asked whether the B-girls suggested they go to his room at the Fontainebleau Hotel for a “threesome.”

“No, sir,” Bolaris told defense attorney Roderick Vereen. “In my right state of mind, I would not do that.” Vereen shot back: “What about in your intoxicated state of mind?”

Bolaris, who was fired last year from his job as a weatherman for FOX TV in Philadelphia, regaled a Miami jury with his tale of woe in the federal trial of four men who ran a ring of Russian-style clubs that fleeced Miami Beach tourists by deploying B-girls to seduce them.

The puppet master behind the alleged scam: admitted Russian mafioso Alec Simchuk, 46, a naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to fraud and testified last month in the trial of his partners and associates.

In 2010, Miami Beach police and the FBI launched an undercover investigation into the B-girl network after Bolaris and other customers complained to their credit card companies about the outlandish bar tabs. A total of 18 defendants were charged in the fraud conspiracy.

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Exclusive: Banks offer to help Sony offload battery unit – sources

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp has been approached by at least three investment banks offering to sell its battery business as the struggling Japanese group looks to offload non-core assets and focus on reviving its consumer electronics business, banking sources said.

Selling the unit, which employs 2,700 people and had sales last year of $ 1.74 billion, would help Sony cut costs and generate cash as it restructures its operations, three people involved in the preliminary discussions told Reuters.

The company, a byword for innovative gadgetry in the 1970s and 80s, has been battered by weak demand for its TVs in a fiercely competitive market. The TV business has racked up huge losses; Sony’s market value has slumped to below $ 10 billion and ratings agency Fitch last week downgraded the company’s debt to “junk” status – a move likely to push up borrowing costs and make asset sales more attractive.

CEO Kazuo Hirai has pledged to rebuild Sony around gaming, digital imaging and mobile devices, while nurturing new businesses such as medical devices. He is axing 10,000 jobs, closing facilities and selling assets. Any disposals would be part of a broader “garage sale” by Japan’s leading electronics groups that are hurting in weak markets and tight financing.

Potential buyers for Sony Energy Devices Corp – founded in 1975 as Sony-Eveready, a joint venture with Union Carbide Corp – could include Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry and BYD Co Ltd, a Chinese carmaker backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, said one of the sources. Hon Hai is also in negotiations to become rival TV maker Sharp Corp’s biggest shareholder.

FOREIGN INTEREST

Despite a strong yen, interest is likely to come mainly from potential foreign buyers, said the sources, who did not want to be named as the talks are private.

Selling the business overseas may not go down well with a Japanese government that in the past has kept technology at home by promoting alliances between local producers. Panasonic Corp, NEC Corp and Hitachi Ltd also make lithium-ion batteries, though the firms’ fabrication technology differs.

Sony declined to comment on the possible sale of the business, which makes lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones, tablets and PCs. “At our corporate strategy announcement in April, (Hirai) said we would explore possible alliances in E-vehicle batteries and battery storage,” said spokesman George Boyd.

As with TVs, Sony has struggled to compete against South Korean rivals in a battery business that is worth $ 18 billion a year. The small cells that power mobile devices now account for around 60 percent of the market, ahead of those used in cars and electrical tools, according to research company IHS iSuppli.

While lithium-ion battery demand has steadily expanded with the boom in mobile consumer electronics, severe price competition has resulted in razor thin margins that favor large-scale manufacturers with weak local currencies.

“The battery business is a prime example of the company’s loss-making and unwanted assets. It doesn’t make sense for them to keep it,” said one of the banking sources.

FALLING MARKET SHARE

As Hirai doubles down on Sony’s strength in consumer electronics, the company has sold a chemicals company, with 2,900 workers, and may also let go its U.S. headquarters building in New York go. At the same time, it has spent close to $ 2 billion on a U.S. game clouding company and a stake in medical equipment maker Olympus Corp.

Sony produced 74 million lithium-ion battery cells in July-September – almost 40 percent fewer than in the first quarter of 2008, when its output topped Samsung SDI Co Ltd’s 110 million and LG Chem Ltd’s 54 million, according to Techno System Research in Tokyo. Sony’s market share is now 7 percent, dwarfed by Samsung SDI’s 27 percent, Panasonic’s 21 percent and LG Chem’s 17 percent.

Sony’s battery unit, which also makes button batteries for watches and smaller appliances and optical devices, has three factories in Japan and two overseas assembly plants in China and Singapore. It has yet to enter the more lucrative business for automotive batteries.

In its most recent filing, Sony valued the battery unit’s fixed assets, including production sites and machinery, at 52 billion yen ($ 633 million). Under Sony’s accounting rules, asset sales are typically booked as operating profit.

The cost to protect $ 10 million of Sony debt against default for five years has edged higher this week to almost $ 400,000. The CDS spreads had tumbled earlier this month – from above 480 basis points – after Sony said it would raise 150 billion yen ($ 1.9 billion) through a sale of convertible bonds.

($ 1 = 82.1200 Japanese yen)

(Additional reporting by Reiji Murai; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Complete List: 'Dancing with the Stars' Winners

The Complete List: 'Dancing with the Stars' Winners

On Tuesday night, TV personality and former Bachelor contestant Melissa Rycroft became the latest Dancing with the Stars victor! Click through the gallery for a look back at all the previous mirror ball winners.

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‘Half Men’ teen apologizes to co-stars

The teen star of “Two and a Half Men” spoke out for the first time last night since a video of his religious rant against the show went viral.

Angus T. Jones, 19, released a statement apologizing “if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed.”

“I am grateful to and have the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people on ‘Two and Half Men’ with whom I have worked over the past 10 years and who have become an extension of my family.”

CBS/Warner Bros.

OUT OF TUNE: Angus T. Jones (left), with his “Two and a Half Men” co-stars Ashton Kutcher (center) and Jon Cryer, last night released a statement insisting he respects them — even if does think their sitcom is “filth.”

Jones shocked his colleagues by blasting as “filth” the CBS sitcom, which is making him nearly $8 million per season — and urging viewers to turn it off before they go to hell.

Now, his fate is in the hands of producer Chuck Lorre after other executives headed for the hills.

“This is going to be up to Lorre, what to do,” said a Hollywood insider. “[Jones] works for Chuck.”

Another source told The Post, “There are two problems with this. First, he’s still a kid. No one wants to ruin his life.

“And two, this about religion. It’s not like Lindsay Lohan or something . . . No one questions the sincerity of his beliefs.

“Everyone wants to stay quiet and just hope it goes away.”

Another source said simply, “There’s just no way to win here.’’

Last year, Lorre had to deal with the crazed behavior of Charlie Sheen, whose diatribes and show-bashing got him fired.

Sheen yesterday sympathized with his former co-star, and blamed more mysterious forces.

“With Anguss Hale-Bopp-like meltdown, it is radically clear to me that the show is cursed,” Sheen told People magazine.

Jones’ 20-minute rant, posted on YouTube by Internet preacher Christopher Hudson, took his colleagues by surprise.

Jones had never spoken to them about religion or his sudden distaste for the raunchy show.

“I’ve been talking to people all day and, from what I can tell, they were all like me — not a clue this was coming,” said an insider.

Most are trying to downplay the controversy.

“He’s not the first actor to say, ‘My show stinks,’ ” said one executive, who added that Jones is not in violation of his contract.

Lorre had nothing to say.

Jones was hiding at his father Kelly’s LA home yesterday. Nobody answered the door, although people could be seen inside.

Jones’ mother, Carey, said she fears that her son’s new congregation, the Valley Crossroads church, which says it’s associated with the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination, is really a cult.

“I’m concerned he’s being exploited by the church,” she told the Daily Mail.

Hudson, the teen’s spiritual mentor, has made bizarre claims, saying President Obama’s health- care policy “embodies the policies that were found within Adolf Hitler’s health-care plan.”

Hudson also said that Jay Z released his latest album on 9/11 because of the number 11, which “represents . . . the eternal kingdom of the anti-Christ.”

Jones’ family has a troubled history. His mom, Carey, 42, had his dad, Kelly, arrested in 1997 after he allegedly pushed her out of a car. And she herself was busted in 1992 for allegedly ripping the meter out of a taxi and punching a cop.

Kelly, 50, also has been arrested for gun and pot possession.

“Two and a Half Men’’ has shot about half its episodes for this season. Jones won’t be on set for the next two weeks of filming before the holiday break because he’s not featured in the episodes.

If a decision is made to get rid of him, it won’t be hard, because his character, Jake Harper, has already enlisted in the military and can easily be shipped out.

m.shain@nypost.com

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Survivor of flea-market police shooting is charged

Two Miami men shot Sunday by Miami-Dade police outside a flea market were identified Monday, and the survivor was charged with battery.

Michael Nathaniel Parks, 21, faces charges of battery on a law-enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. The second man, who had been driving the van the pair had been in, and who died at the scene, was identified as LeBron Warren, 23.

The shooting took place shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday at Flea Market USA, near Northwest 79th Street and 30th Avenue. Police said the victim of a nearby home-invasion robbery followed the robbers’ vehicle to the flea market and told police about it.

Officers found a van matching the description there, with Parks and Warren inside.

When officers approached, Warren put the van in reverse and accelerated toward them, hitting a police vehicle. Officers fired, and the van tried to get away, hitting other parked cars before it came to a stop, police said.

No officers were hurt.

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HTC confirms 5-inch ‘Deluxe’ smartphone won’t launch in Europe

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How Zero Dark Thirty Copied Bin Laden's Compound

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow reteams with her Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty, a chronicling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the two opened up to Nightline about how they recreated bin Laden's compound.

VIDEO: Zero Dark Thirty Trailer

The filmmakers built a full-scale version of the compound in Jordan, and Bigelow says that everything from the carpet to the marks on the walls were taken from ABC News footage that she studied frame by frame.

"Everything we could find from that video we replicated," Bigelow said. "Every conceivable piece of information that we could find we replicated."

As to the controversy over whether or not the filmmakers received classified information to make the movie, Mark Boal says, "I certainly did a lot of homework, but I never asked for classified materials. To my knowledge I never received any."

Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Ehle, hits theaters January 11.

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Schools make grade strides

The city’s public high schools earned higher marks from the Department of Education compared with last year — with 7 percent more earning “A’s” or “B’s” and 4 percent fewer earning “D” or “F” grades, officials said yesterday.

This includes prestigious Stuyvesant HS in Battery Park City — which held onto its “A” despite widespread test cheating uncovered in June that involved more than 70 students.

Hs Grades 2012

“We basically saw folks who are on the edges between ‘D’ and ‘C’ and ‘C’ and ‘B’ moving a little bit, and you can get 5 or 6 percent shift [upward] like that,” said DOE Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky. “I would characterize it as a modest increase in terms of the overall scores.”

He credited much of the gains to roughly 5,000 more students graduating with Regents diplomas in 2012 than in 2011, based on preliminary city calculations.

The DOE could not provide the total number of grads in each of those years who earned Regents diplomas — which this year for the first time required scores of at least 65 out of 100 on five exams.

Just 10 schools earned an “F” this year, down from 14 last year, and 21 earned a “D” grade. In 2011, 32 schools got “D’s.”

Schools with “D’s” or “F’s” are automatically considered for closure or overhauls, as are those that get “C’s” for three straight years.

Among those, DOE officials identified two dozen they are considering closing or overhauling — based largely on the grades they earned yesterday and in recent years.

Among the schools facing possible closure are the last two remaining large high schools in The Bronx — DeWitt Clinton and Herbert Lehman — as well as four schools the city gave “C” grades this year.

Of the remainder of the 420 rated schools, 142 got an “A,” 159 got a “B” and 88 received a “C.”

For the first time this year, measures of whether schools are preparing kids to succeed after graduation counted toward 10 percent of a school’s mark.

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Shoppers welcome holiday sales by buying early, often — and online

Shoppers swooped into stores in droves on Thanksgiving weekend, topping last year’s sales, as more retailers opened their doors earlier than ever on Thursday, luring bargain hunters away from eating another plate of turkey.

And now Cyber Monday is expected to set a record for online shopping this year, for those who prefer the Internet to the mall.

Spending per shopper nationwide averaged $423 — $25 more than last year — from Thursday to Sunday, while total spending increased nearly 13 percent, to an estimated $59.1 billion, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

“I think the only way to describe the Thanksgiving openings is to call it a huge win,” said Matthew Shay, the trade group’s president and chief executive. Shopping, he said, “has really become an extension of the day’s festivities.”

South Florida was no exception, as a flurry of stores, as well as several malls, opened on Thanksgiving. Thursday has seemingly become the new Black Thursday, taking a bite out of the old-fashioned kickoff day of the holiday, Black Friday.

“We had an excellent weekend,” said Humberto Maldonado, director of marketing for Dadeland Mall, which opened at midnight on Thursday. Sales figures are not yet in, but the overall trend was up from last year, he said Monday.

“It was really busy from midnight to 5 a.m., then it slowed, and picked up again at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., and stayed busy all day on Friday,” Maldonado said.

Nationwide, about 35 million people visited stores and shopping websites Thursday, up from 29 million last year. More than double that number — 89 million, up from 86 million — shopped on Black Friday.

“There were more people shopping every single day of the weekend,” Shay said.

Topping off the weekend, Cyber Monday’s early results, tabulated at 3 p.m. Monday, showed that online shopping was up a whopping 25.6 percent compared with the same time period a year ago, according to figures by IBM Benchmark.

Nationwide, most of the weekend’s shoppers — roughly 58 percent — bought clothing and accessories. Another 38 percent bought electronics and 35 percent shelled out for toys, National Retail Federation figures show.

Retailers made an effort to lure people in, with updated mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanded shipping and layaway options.

Still, it remains to be seen whether increased sales over the Thanksgiving weekend will translate to higher sales throughout the holiday shopping season. Analysts have been predicting mediocre sales this year, nationwide, as shoppers remain uncertain about the broader economy. Overall holiday sales are expected to increase 4.1 percent from 2011, compared with sales growth of 5.6 percent last year, the National Retail Federation said.

However, Florida is expected to beat those figures. Buoyed in large part by tourists and snowbirds, the Florida Retail Federation is forecasting a 5.3 percent gain this year over last, to $58 billion, marking the highest percentage growth predicted since the recession. Pre-recession, retail sales peaked at $54.3 billion in 2006.

Christian Cutillo, 26, of Weston, hit Walmart, then Sears, Target and Old Navy after eating Thanksgiving dinner.

She began at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and by 3 a.m. Friday she had finished shopping for all 15 people on her list, mostly buying clothing and toys.

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