From Black Enterprise:

Black Enterprise took the conversation about diversity beyond race and procurement spend this year. Here are our top 40 companies, including whether they rate on the Human Rights Campaign's Best Places to Work list with regard to the LGBT community.

Read more here.

Apparently the "Oprah effect" doesn't transcend U.S. lines. Winfrey's audience went into typical pandemonium when she announced that she'd be footing the bill for a trip to Australia last December, but the resulting TV series, titled Ultimate Australian Adventure, underwhelmed viewers and failed to boost Australia's tourism efforts as planned.

As we reported previously, it was actually Australian taxpayers who shelled out money to fund Oprah's adventure, some $3 million to be exact, including expenses for 300 of her fans. Updated estimates put the cost closer to $5 million. The return, which was valued at over $300 million in global publicity according to Tourism Australia, didn't quite hit the mark. But just how far off it is has yet to be determined as Tourism Australia chief, Andrew McEvoy told the Sydney Morning Herald, "the full impact will be seen over many years to come."

From The Grio:

Just by talking to her, you wouldn't know that Vivian Nixon is an ex convict.

Confident, articulate, and now pursuing a Master's Degree in Theology, Nixon seems more likely to have spent time in a church worship hall rather than a prison hall.

But it wasn't always that way.

Rule number one of musical stardom: pay your taxes. Ja Rule, who's already been off the rap radar while serving a two-year gun-possession bid, was sentenced Monday to another 28 months behind bars for failing to file income tax returns.

The offense, which took place between 2004 and 2006, is the result of youth and lack of guidance, Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, explained during a court appearance in New Jersey yesterday. "I was a young man who made a lot of money. I didn't know how to deal with these finances, and I didn't have people to guide me," he said.

As we reported earlier this week, Mathew Knowles, the father and former manager of megastar Beyoncé Knowles, has filed court papers against Live Nation Entertainment over claims he stole funds from this daughter.

After lots of speculation on the details of the case, Knowles finally responded in an interview with the Associated Press yesterday.

"We absolutely have not taken any money from Beyoncé, and all dollars will be accounted for," he said. "In no way have we stole money. Again, this about the people who have made these claims - they have to come into the light."

Knowles said that while he has not specifically addressed these claims with Beyoncé herself, he did tell her that the "the only way [they] will be able to understand this is through a court of law."

For now, Foxy Brown 's long-running rap sheet won't get any longer, following the dismissal of charges that she violated her probation in a 2010 incident with a neighbor.

But the Brooklyn MC, born Inga Marchand, apparently felt violated that prosecutors pressed charges against her after she allegedly mooned her neighbor last July, and is planning on filing a $100 million-dollar lawsuit against the city of New York.

According to the New York Post, Brown's lawyer, Salvatore Strazzullo, is also filing a claim against the Assistant District Attorney's office for "malicious" treatment of his client. "With school budgets cut, they had the audacity" to file charges, he said to the Post. "Do we want our tax dollars going for this?"

Luckily for the controversial rapper, her accuser, Arlene Raymond, refused to testify against her resulting in Wednesday's dismissal. Raymond, who has an order of protection against the 32-year-old rapper, was also involved in a 2007 encounter where Brown struck her in the face with a BlackBerry. The altercation sent the rapper to Rikers Island prison for violating a probation order that was in place, stemming from another heated altercation where she beat up two manicurists back in 2004.

At press time, a rep for the city's Corporation Counsel told the Post that they "have not seen any legal papers" from Brown's team, before adding that the assistant district attorneys have "absolute immunity" from being prosecuted, and that the city would likely move for immediate dismissal.

Beyonce's from Texas, where everything bigger is better, and it seems like she took that mantra with her all the way across the pond spending big in London. At a couple retailers Beyonce spent 9,000 euro, the equivalent of $14,000 in 90 minutes!

From The Grio: "Don't get mad, UPS is hiring"

What was once a comic line in a lyric from "Flava In Ya Ear", a song from Craig Mack, has become just one of the many revenue streams people are turning to in an attempt to stay afloat in what many are now referring to as "The Great Recession".

Unlike previous economic downturns, the amount of Americans using a source of government aid to assist them has never been higher. About one in six Americans are now on some form of government-funded anti-poverty program and citizens are still receiving other help, through student loans, Medicaid and unemployment benefits.

Yet when these government measures are still not enough to break-even on the monthly budget, many citizens have gotten creative. Gone are the days of hunting loan sharks or searching for the nearest pawnbroker to sell your mother's prized necklace. Household incomes nationwide are not only flat, but have declined, especially for African-Americans. So the question is no longer what job do you have, but how many?

Read More Here.

From The Atlanta Post: The end of an almost 70-year legacy is upon us as the last bastion of black-owned media space known as the Johnson Publishing Company, owner of Ebony and Jet magazines, will now only be partly black-owned.

Johnson Publishing announced last week that JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s special investments group has acquired a "substantial" minority stake in the company. It is the first time in the company's history that it will not be fully family-owned.

Find out what that means for the black audience here.

As previously reported, multi-platinum singer Beyoncé Knowles ended her management relationship with her father, Mathew Knowles and his Music World Entertainment company earlier this year. At the time both parties stated that their decision to part was "mutual." However, recent reports claim that Beyonce dismissed her father due to stolen money.

According to Mr. Knowles, who filed court papers against tour promotion company, Live Nation Entertainment, the claim is false.

TMZ managed to get their hands on the legal documents which outlined how the company allegedly lied on the former Xeox executive in order to helm her 2011 world tour. Knowles claims in the document that Live Nation befriended the international Pop star and told her that he "had stolen money from Beyonce on her most recent tour or otherwise taken funds that [he] was not entitled to." Adding that the 'Single Ladies' singer ordered her law firm to conduct an audit, which in fact proved that Knowles had swindled a lump sum of money for her.

The documents also claim that following Mathew Knowles' termination Beyonce hired a replacement who previously worked as an executive at Live Nation.

Knowles is reportedly seeking the right to take depositions of various people at Live Nation, to determine just how they concluded he was a thief.

Shortly after she ended her professional relationship with her father, Beyonce released a statement stating that she is; "grateful for everything he has taught me. I grew up watching both he and my mother manage and own their own businesses. They were hardworking, and I will continue to follow in their footsteps."