Auto/Economy

While many states in the South and West passed restrictive laws against illegal immigrants last year, officials in Dayton, Ohio were putting out the welcome mat.

And they’re not alone in the Midwest.

In the second part of our look at immigrants and the Midwest, we’ve found many local governments are trying to attract immigrants as an economic development strategy.

Dayton got attention from all over the world last fall when its city commission unanimously approved a plan called Welcome Dayton to make it an “immigrant-friendly city.” Since then, the town has been inundated.

DETROIT (AP) - Federal safety regulators are trying to determine if more automakers used defective side air bags that have caused recalls of some Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Subaru vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says on its website that it started investigating last week because the air bags may not inflate in a crash.

The problem has caused recalls of more than 2,700 vehicles, but that could grow if more automakers used the bad parts.

Recalled vehicles include 427 Toyota RAV-4s; 974 Honda Accords, Civics, Crosstours and Acura MDXs; 381 Subaru Legacys and Outbacks; and 976 Nissan Altimas and Versas.

Safety regulators say the vehicles may have an incorrect mixture of the gas that inflates the side curtain air bags in a crash. So far no one has been hurt.

State officials are looking into how Congress’s changes Friday to jobless benefits will affect unemployed people in Michigan. 

The maximum length of federal unemployment benefits in Michigan will gradually fall from 99 weeks  to 77 weeks by September.

Chawn Greene-Farmer is with the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency.

“The agency, along with our federal partners, are in the process of determining what the impact of those changes will be to Michigan’s unemployment insurance benefit system," Greene-Farmer says. "We’re committed at this point to keeping our claimants informed of all developments that may impact them.

UAW President Bob King referred last week to a “new movement for social justice” this spring, and now we know what he’s talking about. The UAW’s Facebook page on Thursday features a big photo promoting the 99% Spring, sending its readers to a new Web site called The99Spring.com.

General Motors posted a record profit of $7.6 billion in 2011, although its losses in Europe were very high -- $700 million.

In a conference call with analysts, GM CEO Dan Akerson  called Europe a "rather challenging market, not only for GM and Opel, but also for our competition."

GM also lost $100 million in South America.

Most of the money GM made came from sales in North America.  GM made $7.2 billion before taxes in the region.

GM plans to make major structural changes in Europe to reduce its persistent losses there.  

The company also announced it will freeze its existing "defined benefit" pension plan for U.S. salaried workers, who instead will receive contributions to a 401(k) plan.

Home foreclosure filings in Michigan continued to slide last month.   

Realty Trac reports one in every 354 Michigan homes were in the foreclosure process in January.     That’s a 23% improvement over January, 2011.

Daren Bloomquist is with Realty Trac.   He’s been expecting Michigan’s foreclosure numbers to get worse for more than a year, but instead the numbers have been getting better each of the last 15 months.

“You can’t complain about that trend," says Bloomquist,  "we’re headed in the right direction.”

Still, Bloomquist insists another jump in home foreclosures is coming.

There is a growing shortage of new homes in southeast Michigan.     That could be good news to the region’s home builders who have been struggling since before the recession began.

New home construction bottomed out in southeast Michigan in 2009 when few people were in the market for a home, new or not.

Last year, the number of home construction permits tripled, but still demand for new homes outstripped the supply.

Edsel Charles is the chairman of Market Graphics, a Tennessee firm that follows the new housing market in southeast Michigan.   He says it will soon be difficult to find a new home in the eight county region. 

"We’re seeing that probably eight months from today…some 28% of this market…will have no more new homes left," says Charles.