Have you seen the Fiat 500? Pretty neat looking little roadster coming soon to the US from the Italian carmaker. As a result, Fiat will be planting some “management centers” throughout the globe. One in Turin, one in Brazil, one “possibly” in Asia, and hey, you guessed it, another one in DETROIT. Hopefully this will mean some jobs concentrated in the city, though there have been few specifics mentioned with regard to the exact location.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is pumping sizable investment in to an East Jefferson Neighborhood Project that will involve a chunk of jobs locally, health care and affordable green living for seniors. “Henry Ford Health System, Presbyterian Villages of Michigan and United Methodist Retirement Communities plan to break ground in May 2011 on Phase I of the East Jefferson Neighborhood Project, which is scheduled to open in July 2012.” Once opened it will provide affordable housing for seniors and healthy living options. In the end, “the investment expects to create approximately 183 ongoing, new economy health care jobs and more than 350 construction jobs, while providing an expected positive economic investment of $35 million in the next three years. The ripple effect across the economy of the Phase I investment will be approximately $250 million over 10 years.”

Finally, the Pure Michigan ad campaign that we have come to know, love and occasionally make fun of, is inches away from getting another $10M in funding to keep the campaign moving along smoothly. As it stands now, the campaign is one of the lightest funded state tourism campaigns in the country ranking 42nd among the fifty states. Despite that, “the summer 2009 Pure Michigan national ad campaign motivated 680,000 new trips to Michigan from outside the Great Lakes region, reported Longwoods International, a research firm specializing in assessment of tourism advertising. Those visitors spent $250 million at Michigan businesses and paid $17.5 million in state taxes.” All of which makes a strong case for securing more funding. The bill for the increased investment will go through the House and if approved on to the Senate. Fingers crossed.

75 arts organizations have benefited from $4.8 million being paid out by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. A list of who got what is available, but the Detroit Symphony Orchestra topped out the charts receiving $596,054. Donors had one day to contribute, and the Commmunity Foundation, in the end, matched each and every dollar one to one to make up the total $4.8M.

Dwarfing that figure was last night’s MegaMillions drawing for $333 million smackers. Eight states were involved in the drawing, one of which was Michigan, but sadly, the winnners who are now splitting the earnings were in New York and California.