Des inspecteurs du travail se sont présentés jeudi au ranch, dans la région de Santa Barbara (centre de la Californie), après que 30 des employés de la propriété se furent plaints à l'administration de ne pas avoir été payés depuis décembre.
En conséquence, l'administration a interdit à Michael Jackson de "faire travailler tout employé" à Neverland jusqu'à régularisation de sa situation, et l'a condamné à 1.000 dollars d'amende par employé, soit 69.000 dollars.
Mardi, Michael Jackson s'était déjà vu remettre par l'inspection du travail une injonction à payer 300.000 dollars de salaires en retard à ses employés. Pour cette violation du code du travail, la star s'est également vue imposer une amende de 100.000 dollars.
Le chanteur a quitté Neverland pour Bahreïn, dans le Golfe, peu après avoir été acquitté d'attouchements sexuels sur mineurs par un tribunal californien en juin 2005. Contactée vendredi par l'AFP pour une réaction, la porte-parole de Michael Jackson, Raymone Bain, n'a pas rappelé dans l'immédiat.
Source : Le Monde
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| The Center Parcs holiday village in Thetford Forest, one of four in England. |
The Blackstone Group has made the 80p-a-share takeover bid for the firm, which operates a holiday village at Elveden Forest in Suffolk, as well as sites in Nottinghamshire, Wiltshire and Cumbria.
Blackstone, a US-based private equity firm, already has interests in East Anglia following the acquisition of Merlin Entertainments for £102.5m last year.
Merlin Entertainments operates the Sea Life Centre at Yarmouth and the Sea Life Sanctuary at Hunstanton as well as Sea Life sites across the UK and Europe.
Blackstone also owns the London Dungeon and the Legoland theme parks which it bought for £255m last year and is looking to increase its portfolio of leisure investments.
The £205.4m offer is being backed by the Center Parcs board, which said the company had "a number of material and financial operational constraints" which made accepting the deal a prudent move.
About 1.5 million visitors stayed at the four Center Parcs villages in 2005, and the company is currently seeking planning permission for a fifth site in Warren Wood, near Woburn, Bedfordshire.
Center Parcs said its prospects in the long term were good, but it faces a number of challenges, with no guarantee it would be able to gain planning permission for the fifth park.
It said the market remained challenging, with increased competition and rising energy costs hitting business.
Center Parcs also faces "significant constraints" as a result of its debt burden, which costs it £1.6m a year in interest rate repayments.
The company has been trying to negotiate a debt refinancing with its banks ahead of a loan repayment deadline of April 2009.
Each Center Parcs holiday village is about 400 acres, set in a forest environment with approximately 800 villas, apartments and lodges.
The sites are famed for their swimming areas - a transparent dome which houses pools, jacuzzis and slides - and sports facilities.
Blackstone said Center Parcs would provide a platform for further acquisitions and it would continue to invest in the existing sites, it said.
A Blackstone spokeswoman said that no agreement was in place about the make up of the Center Parcs management team. The proposals still need to be approved by Center Parcs shareholders.
The private equity group's 80p-a-share offer represents a premium of 26pc to the 63.3p average closing price of Center Parc shares over the past six months. Shares closed at 81p.
Source : The Business
2006 is last season for MB amusement park
The beach's landmark symbol, which has greeted tourists every summer since 1948, will close after this season, park owner Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. announced today.
"A great deal of careful, painstaking thought has gone into making this decision. The Pavilion has been one of the central landmarks of Myrtle Beach tourism for more than 50 years, and no one has a stronger or deeper emotional attachment than the people at Burroughs & Chapin," said Doug Wendel, president of the company.
The announcement was made at the Grande Dunes Ocean Club.
It's an emotional move some visitors, and locals, had feared for years, ever since the city's Downtown Redevelopment Corp. suggested that the park leave the area a few years ago.
The Pavilion has not been a viable venture for B&C for many years, Wendel said, with operational costs growing as revenues decline.
The goal is to replace the rides and funnel cake booths, which only operate during warm weather, with a mix of lodging, shops and attractions that would lure people to the Pavilion area year-round.
Charleston firm LS3P is working on details, but they won't be ready for another two months.
Board Chairman Egerton Burroughs said today that the company is holding off on announcements about the Pavilion site and about the rides at the park.
"We don't want to take away from today with what will happen when the park closes," he said.
The company plans to announce those details after LS3P's study, Wendel said.
Wendel said the fate of the Pavilion building on the oceanfront is clearer: "My best guess is it will not be there."
The Pavilion opens on weekends starting March 17 and every day starting April 7. The complex includes an oceanfront arcade, Attic teen nightclub and 49 rides. It stretches from the oceanfront to Kings Highway in the heart of the city.
"We've known this is coming for quite some time," said hotelier Bert Anderson, who is a member of the Downtown Redevelopment Corp."
Source : The Sun News
Design : Hitmaaan
