It's long been known that the best parking spaces at the State Capitol are the ones assigned to legislators. And from now on we know just how much they're worth. A new plan to take effect in January requires $17 to be deducted from each House member’s paycheck for their parking spaces. Up until now lawmakers have always gotten the parking space at no extra cost. Lansing-based MIRS News Service confirmed the new deduction with the Office of House Speaker-elect Jase Bolger. No word on whether the Senate will charge their members for parking spaces. (MRN)

Michigan has seven of the smartest cities in the nation. That's according to a portfolio.com survey which ranks Ann Arbor and its 114,000 residents at number two in the nation in brainpower. The national business news website used U.S. Census Bureau data to analyze the levels of educational attainment in 200 metropolitan areas, ranging in size from New York City to Burlington, Vermont. Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan, is second to Boulder, Colorado in the concentration of adults who attended college at 77.4% and the share who hold advanced degrees at 25.5%.

A dozen billboards are going up on major highways around Lansing urging lawmakers on their way to the capitol to pump more money into the state’s Pure Michigan advertising campaign this year. The tourism industry is launching a full court press on the legislature to approve another $25 million for the national advertising campaign. The Pure Michigan campaign has just under $5.5 million, which is inadequate according to tourism officials, and is far less what was spent in earlier years.

General Motors plans to announce Thursday that it will build a compact-sized Cadillac at its Grand River assembly plant in Lansing. Mayor Virg Bernero's office issued a statement today saying the plant will produce the new Cadillac ATS. According to reports, the automaker will make a $190 million investment that will create more than 600 jobs. GM CEO Daniel Akerson will make the announcement at the plant, joined by Governor Granholm, United Auto Workers President Bob King and three members of Michigan’s congressional delegation.