$1 mil or bust

He took a $1 million roll of the dice — and wound up rolling in Benjamins.

The German man who returned cheapskate rapper Ryan Leslie’s laptop said yesterday he knew there was a good chance the jury in his suit against the hip-hopper might rule against him — but settling the case was not an option.

“I understood the risk,” said Armin Augstein, 54. “One never knows how a matter will be decided by a jury, but I was prepared to take that risk.”

The gamble paid off.

The Manhattan federal jury on Wednesday awarded Augstein the $1 million reward Leslie had promised to whomever returned his laptop. But during the panel’s deliberations, victory for the German auto-shop owner did not seem so sure.

Steven Hirsch

Armin Augstein

At one point, the jurors asked the judge if they could give Augstein less than the promised amount.

“We feel the $1 million is too high,” the jurors said in a note to Judge Harold Baer Jr. The judge told them that they had to choose to give the million — or nothing.

That inspired Leslie’s camp to make a desperate 11th-hour settlement bid. Augstein’s lawyers flatly turned it down, trusting the panel would side with them.

“There had never been a negotiation. I wasn’t present and [my attorney] was not authorized to discuss anything other than my million-dollar claim,” Augstein said during a conference call from Germany with attorney Steven Thal translating.

Augstein found the computer in November 2010 while walking his dog outside Cologne, and turned it over to local police.

He had taken Leslie’s promise of $1 million in reward money for his missing MacBook Pro at face value and pursued it over two years.

“He never told me a ‘thank you’ or, ‘Super, you really found this for me and I’m happy.’ He could have said, ‘I will check on the facts and get back to you,’ but he didn’t do anything, so I decided to stay with [my claim],” said Augstein, adding he has no plans yet to spend his windfall.

Leslie — an acclaimed songwriter who tried to weasel out of his promise because he couldn’t retrieve some songs on the hard drive — will apparently keep fighting.

“Don’t believe everything you read in the f--kin news. Even though it’s very entertaining,” he tweeted yesterday along with a photo of the day’s Post.

His attorney David DeStefano added, “We have very serious grounds for appeal.”

chuck.bennett@nypost.com

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Artwork of young Miami-Dade artist will be showcased during Art Basel week

A week into his 18th birthday, Rey “Rson” Jaffet is already a promising local artist - and he’s still attending high school in the Miami-Dade public school system.

And this period in his life is what his art tries to capture, said the Miami Palmetto High senior. “It’s that point when you’re a teen but are maturing into adulthood,’’ he said.

Fittingly, many of his artwork is done with children’s colored pencils and spray paint.

Jaffet might be young but he’s an old hand at art. He sold his first piece in 10th grade for $5,000. It was a colorful three-panel African-themed work called New Horizon.

Next week, Jaffet will join thousands of older local and international artists who will have their artwork on display in Miami Beach and Wynwood as part of Art Basel week.

Several Jaffet pieces will hang at the 50 Shades of Art Show at the 1004 Gallery in Wynwood at 175 NW 23rd St.

Meet and greet with the artists will be from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and next Wednesday. His works sells for between $1,000 to $5,000.

Among the pieces showcased at the gallery is Jaffet’s award-winning self-portrait called Split Decision Within, which reveals inner struggle. “Through my art, I try to portray hardships, achievements and misunderstanding as it relates to the modern teenage lifestyle,” he said.

The Kendall resident recently won the prestigious 2012 National Scholastic American Visions Drawing Award, which honors outstanding pieces in the nation which are then displayed in Carnegie Hall in New York. He won for his self-portrait.

Jaffet’s work is also part of the 2012-2013 Art.Write.Now Tour that will visit Detroit, Virginia Beach, Kansas City and Fort Worth.

And it’s not his first time in the big art arena. His work was on display in Wynwood/South Beach during Art Basel 2011.

Jaffet's artistic style is described as “encompassing modern realism along with urban influences.”

Jaffet’s says he also works with oils, acrylics, mixed media, graffiti and designs sneakers.

Jaffet, who lives in Kendall, is the son of physical therapist parents; his father is an athletic trainer for the Miami Heat. Jaffet has the support of his family and two respected local artists — Miguel Paredes and Enrique "Sero" Cruz — who have taken Jaffet under their wing. “They’ve been wonderful to me,” he said.

Jaffet’s goal now is to win a scholarship to a prestigious art school.

“Then I want to be a full-time artist for the rest of my life,’’ he said.

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California Pizza Kitchen brings prototype to Sawgrass Mills

The restaurant chain that took barbecued chicken pizza mainstream is ready to push the culinary envelope again. How about a pizza topped with roasted Brussels sprouts and applewood smoked bacon or a Korean barbecue pizza with pork loin and spicy kimchee salad?

Innovative menu items are just one piece of what’s unique about California Pizza Kitchen’s new flagship restaurant unveiled Thursday at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. The first of its kind, the Sawgrass location aims to reinvigorate the brand that started in 1985 in Beverly Hills.

“The whole idea is about taking the best of what put us on the map and making it relevant for 2012 and beyond,” said G.J. Hart, who took over as chief executive officer of the chain just over a year ago. “Over the years the brand morphed from being a leader and it became a follower of food trends. We want to bring back the hip, cool feel.”

The changes are obvious from the moment you walk into the restaurant, which opens to the public Monday. The new look is all about focusing on the chain’s California roots. Very little of the bright yellow and chrome remains. The design is California-casual with earth tones and reclaimed wood everywhere from the walls to the floor and tables. An outdoor terrace with couches and fire pits is designed to encourage lingering. Large windows and glass doors let in lots of natural light and fold open to enjoy the weather.

Pizza is center stage with the kitchen designed so diners can watch the pizza makers at work. At the Sawgrass location — and by mid-2013 at all restaurants — pizzas will once again by hand-tossed. Currently the chain uses a pizza press to make the dough more uniform.

The new focus is on upping the culinary quotient across the board with dishes like a roasted beets and whipped goat cheese salad, plus a sweet pea carbonara featuring pea-filled pasta purses tossed with Italian pancetta and a Romano cream sauce. These are some of the unique items only on the Sawgrass menu, which also features a specialty menu of hand-crafted cocktails.

Chain-wide the company has actually slimmed the menu from more than 100 items to 74 in order to improve execution. But there are also more healthy choices like quinoa and arugula salad or a fire-roasted chile relleno stuffed with chicken, cheese, mushrooms, spinach and eggplant that dishes up at only 380 calories.

“As we grew, we didn’t keep up with the creativity on the menu and we tried to be all things to all people,” said Brian Sullivan, senior vice president of culinary innovation, who has been with the company for 24 years. “We’re always going to be pizza-centric. But we’ll continue to push the envelope with these specialty items that resonate with who we are. We don’t want items that you are going to see in other restaurants.”

The chain chose Sawgrass to unveil its new flagship location because of a combination of the area’s diverse demographic base and the influx of international visitors. South Florida has already been a strong market for the brand, which has seven locations in the tri-county area stretching from Coral Gables to Palm Beach Gardens.

The opening is the culmination of a new vision that began to take shape when Golden Gate Capital purchased California Pizza Kitchen in July 2011 for $470 million, taking the company private and bringing in Hart as the new chief executive.

“They saw a brand that was undervalued,” said Hart, who has an ownership stake in the chain. “This is an iconic brand with so much brand equity. If we can bring the excitement and enthusiasm back we’re only going to see it go up.”

Industry experts say the changes make sense because the brand still has a loyal following, although it has not kept pace with the competition.

“It’s a good time for them to go back to what were the fundamental things that made the brand so intriguing,” said Dennis Lombardi of WD Partners, a restaurant industry consultant. “The difficulty is going to be getting the word out to consumers that this is different. The devil is always in the details in these kind of evolutions.”

Based on consumer reaction, the plan is to take pieces of the Sunrise concept and introduce it into the chain’s other 268 existing restaurants. Some restaurants could be completely remodeled, but most will only get elements of the new prototype, which cost $2 million in Sunrise, Hart said. The company’s Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton locations could be strong candidates for remodeling next year or early 2014, he said.

Community and business leaders, who got a first look at the restaurant on Thursday, were impressed.

“This is phenomenal,” said Luanne Lenberg, general manager of Sawgrass Mills. “We’re so excited to have this caliber of restaurant and to be their test for the rest of the world.”

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Phoning in homework

When your kids say they’re doing homework on the phone, they may be telling the truth.

More than a third of US tweens and young teens are using smartphones to do homework, with Hispanic students using them at a higher rate than African-Americans or whites, according to a survey released yesterday by the research firm TRU. Smartphones were used for homework by 39 percent of 11-to-14-year-olds.

“These middle school students are using mobile devices for more than entertainment purposes,” said Kristi Sarmiento, research director at TRU, in an interview. “They have grown up with this technology.”

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Miami-Dade ethics board rebukes two city of Miami commissioners

The county ethics commission dinged Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo this week for phoning the police chief after Carollo was pulled over for a traffic stop.

Separately, Miami Commission Vice Chairman Marc Sarnoff was reprimanded for not filing a gift disclosure when the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau paid his way to Brazil.

Sarnoff said his travels did not constitute a gift because he carried out public business. “I did everything I could do, including getting legal advice, to determine that the trip was not a gift,” he said.

Carollo denied wrongdoing in a response to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust written by his attorney. He declined comment Wednesday.

The grievance against Carollo said that he called Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa during a traffic stop in Coconut Grove in August. Carollo was pulled over after attempting to drive his black Lexus around a stopped recycling truck. He called the chief, who called the district commander, who reached out to the officer making the traffic stop.

The officer let Carollo go with a warning.

In the written response to the ethics commission, Carollo’s attorney said the commissioner had never asked Orosa for special treatment. Rather, Carollo called the chief “to inquire ‘what the problem was’ since the circumstances seemed odd.”

The “odd circumstances” included another car stop in the area.

“Commissioner Carollo’s request for a status [report] was well within his authority to communicate with the police chief, and was not accompanied by any request to obtain any resolution of the vehicle stop,” attorney Benedict Kuehne wrote.

Kuehne added: “The officer made the very reasonable decision to issue no traffic citation because the circumstances did not warrant the issuance of a ticket.”

Orosa also told investigators that Carollo had not asked for any favors.

But the ethics commission concluded that Carollo “clearly intended to use his influence with the police chief to avoid a traffic citation.”

“There was no legitimate reason for Carollo to call the chief of police other than to put into motion a chain of events that Carollo hoped would extricate him from a traffic situation that ordinary citizens find themselves in every day,” the ethics commission wrote.

The complaint against Sarnoff involved a trip he and his wife took to Brazil in April.

The pair went to watch the yachts in the Volvo Ocean Race depart Itajai for Miami, the next port of call. Sarnoff also travelled to Rio and Sao Paulo, with the Convention & Visitors Bureau footing the bill for his travel, lodging and meals.

Sarnoff did not disclose the trip as a gift, nor did he disclose that the Volvo Ocean Race had reimbursed him for his wife’s roundtrip airfare.

Sarnoff said he was acting on advice from Miami City Attorney Julie O. Bru. In a legal opinion, Bru said disclosure was unnecessary because the trip did not constitute a gift, but rather city business.

“I never held this secret,” Sarnoff said. “I did everything I was supposed to do. I talked about it openly.” He described the trip as “105 percent work.”

As for Teresa Sarnoff’s travel expenses, Marc Sarnoff said they, too, were incurred during “official” city business.

“The commissioner was unquestionably assisted in his official duties by Ms. Sarnoff and he quite honestly believed that Ms. Sarnoff was conducting city business,” Sarnoff’s attorney, John Dellagloria, wrote in a response to the ethics commission’s findings.

The ethics commission has said that elected officials don’t have to declare tickets to local events they attend for professional reasons. But according to the final report on the Sarnoff case, “all-expense paid trips to distant and exotic locales deserve different consideration since the grandiose scale of the gift creates a larger appearance of impropriety.”

The ethics commission will send a letter to Sarnoff suggesting he report his wife’s travel expenses as a gift. Another letter will be sent to the Miami city attorney to clarify when business trips must be reported as gifts.

The two complaints were filed last month by blogger Al Crespo.

Sarnoff also took a trip to China this year, where he watched the Miami Heat play a preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers. In October, Sarnoff said the Heat paid for his flight and hotel. On Wednesday, he said the Shanghai Sports Bureau paid for him and his wife.

He now plans to declare that trip as a gift, he said.

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Facebook exec says company is reducing spam despite clogging your feed with brands you don’t like

Recent changes to Facebook’s (FB) Edgerank, the algorithm that’s responsible for displaying items on a user’s Newsfeed, have angered privacy groups who say the new policy will actually produce more spam than reducing it. According to Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici, Facebook’s VP of global marketing solutions Carol Everson said on Tuesday that the social network is reducing spam by using “Suggests Posts” – “non-connected page posts” that show a brand’s ads even if a user and their friends don’t “like” or support them. Bercovici argues that Facebook’s new approach to targeting brands at users contradicts its claims of reducing spam by doling out spam that users don’t connect with. 

As expected, Everson’s response to clogging the Newsfeed with brand ads that users don’t support was: “You may not be a fan of a brand, but maybe everyone in your network is talking about it, so we think you might be interested in it,” and she said there are “literally more than a thousand signals” that go into displaying “relevant” brand ads.

Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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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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‘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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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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Nintendo: more than 400,000 Wii Us sold in US

NEW YORK (AP) — Nintendo says it has sold more than 400,000 of its new video game console, the Wii U, in its first week on sale in the U.S.

The Wii U launched on Nov. 18 in the U.S. at a starting price of $ 300. Nintendo says the sales figure, based on internal estimates, is through Nov. 24.

Six years ago, Nintendo Co. sold 475,000 of the original Wii in that console’s first seven days in stores. The original Wii remains available, and Nintendo says it sold more than 300,000 of them last week, along with roughly 250,000 handheld Nintendo 3DS units and about 275,000 of the Nintendo DS.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Nintendo will ship 1 million to 1.5 million Wii Us in the U.S. through the end of January.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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