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Although he faces a much-publicised recall effort, Wisconsin voters aren’t negative on Gov. Scott Walker,

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a new survey shows.

A poll by Marquette University shows that Walker’s approval rating is above his disapproval rating for the first time since he took office, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Voters approve of Walker’s performance 51 percent to 46 percent disapproval. Fifty percent believe the state is headed in the right direction, versus 46 percent who do not.

Walker also has single-digit leads over Democrats who might face him in a recall election.

The governor’s performance ratings bounce around a bit, depend on which organization is conducting the poll, the Journal-Sentinel says.

The most recent nonpartisan public polls on Walker were done last fall. Walker’s approval rating was 38% in a November survey by Wisconsin Public Radio/St. Norbert College; it was 47% in an October survey by Public Policy Polling; 49% in an October survey by Rasmussen; and 42% in an October survey by Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. These polls all have different methodologies, so some variation is normal.

Earlier today, we brought you the story of Buy Here-Pay Here dealerships in the Midwest. These are places where the dealer finances car loans himself (BHPH is sometimes called in-house financing.).

Basically, he is the bank and he takes on all the risk. That’s especially true because BHPH dealers cater to people with bad credit – deep subprime customers who typically have credit scores less than 550.

It’s not hard to find people who are out of luck, out of work, and grateful for the opportunity to finance a car at all. But that opportunity comes at a steep price, which is either folded in or added on in the form of interest rates up to 25%.

So here are six tips to consider if you’re thinking about Buy Here-Pay Here:

1. Can you wait? This is Philip Reed’s big question. He gives consumer advice on the car site Edmunds.com. Say you’re going to spend $300 a month on BHPH car payments. Can you put off your purchase by a few months and save that money? Reed says if you grow your down payment, you may be able to find a friendlier loan, or even buy a used car outright.

2. How much is the down payment? A bigger down payment reduces the balance on which you pay interest, and that’s good. But how much is too much? If you put $3,000 down on an older car, you may be handing the dealer enough to cover its actual value. The rest is profit. Again, that money might be better spent on a friendlier loan or a private purchase.

3. Where’s the nearest computer? This relates to another good question: Where’s the nearest door? Go home; think it over; don’t rush. Try to go online and comparison shop. Philip Reed recommends looking up a vehicle’s history on CARFAX.com. You can appraise a vehicle and calculate maintenance costs on Edmunds.com. See what other deals are available in your area.

4. Take a test drive. Preferably to a mechanic. This is one of Matt Ghazal’s tips, over at Express Auto. Do you have the option to get an independent inspection before signing? Take it. Take it now. A lot can happen in the 100,000 miles that many used vehicles rack up. Get advice from a third party.

5. Do you feel like the dealer is doing you a favor? This one is from Phil Reed. I like it because it speaks to the emotional aspects of A) needing mobility and B) needing money. Reed says when people feel vulnerable they are less likely to negotiate. And you should negotiate.

6. Does the dealer report to the credit bureau? These days, it’s easy to wreck your credit, but you want to be able to build it too. Make sure a successful track record of payments can, theoretically, count in your favor.

That’s six tips from here.  What would you add?

Name: Andrew Reed
Midwest Home: Kalamazoo, MI
New Home: Atlanta, GA

I left because there were no jobs in Michigan, and the Sun Belt seemed to be thriving by comparison. A secondary reason had to do with long, cold, snowy winters. Is it better here? Yes, I think so, although nowhere is good in this depressed economy.

I have two sons who were born and raised in Georgia, and I bought a small farm here almost three years ago. I have two sisters back in Michigan, as well as many friends, and I go to visit every few years, but I will not move back there.

Read more Midwest Migration stories on our dedicated page. If you or someone you know has left the Midwest add your own story.

Kate Davidson

Matt Ghazal runs a Buy Here-Pay Here business in West Michigan. He's trying to change the sector's reputation.

In the Midwest, it’s hard to get around without a car.  These days, people are holding onto them longer.  The average vehicle is almost 11 years old and used cars prices are on the rise.  All this adds to the pressure on the bottom rung of consumers: people with bad credit.  For many, the only way to finance a car is at a Buy Here-Pay Here lot.  Here, dealers loan to deep subprime customers at interest rates up to 25%.

Buy Here-Pay Here makes up more than 15% of used vehicle financing in states like Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  That financing goes to people like Willie.  That’s her nickname.  We’re driving around Toledo in her ’99 Chevy Express.  It’s got 130,000 miles on it.

“You’re gonna hear it really well,” she says.  “It’s gonna be a pop pop.  And then you’re gonna hear my belt.”

Honestly, Willie, Toledo and the van have all seen better days.  Willie got laid off a few years ago. Now she lives on child support and she scraps.  Literally.

“I’m a scrapping scrapper.  I’m garbage picking basically just to feed my kids and taking whatever little job I can find,” she says.

No conventional lender wants to touch that.  But when Willie’s dad was diagnosed with brain cancer, she needed a car to care for him.  So she agreed to pay six thousand dollars for a van worth, maybe, half that.  She keeps a tool kit handy in case it breaks down.

“Now I don’t even need it cause my dad passed away in August,” she says.

Philip Reed is Senior Consumer Advice Editor at the car site Edmunds.com.  His take on the Buy Here-Pay Here market?

“It’s not one that we recommend.”

In fact, he uses the word predatory.

“Because people are taking advantage of people that are in a bad situation,” he says.  “And they know they’re between a rock and a hard place.  And they know the lure of having a car.”

The average Buy Here-Pay Here customer has a credit score less than 550.  That’s considered deep subprime.  They may have experienced foreclosure, bankruptcy, or a prior repossession.  What makes Buy Here-Pay Here different is the dealer finances their loans himself.  He is the bank, he takes a lot of risk, and he charges for it.

Melinda Zabritski is Director of Automotive Credit for Experian Automotive.  She says Buy Here-Pay Here offers a valuable service to consumers who might otherwise be shut out of the market.

“You typically will see higher rates,” she says.  “However, there’s also a much higher frequency of delinquency.  People who work in this space might end up repossessing 60% of the vehicles that they’re financing.”

Now, critics see high repo rates as evidence of loans that are designed to fail.  Matt Ghazal is trying to fight that shady reputation.  He runs a Buy Here-Pay Here chain called Express Auto in West Michigan.

“The biggest misconception is we’re loan sharks and we gouge on payment and we gouge on price,” he says.  “Although there are some that do, the vast majority of dealers out there are fulfilling a niche.  And making an honest profit and providing an honest service.”

In the office, Ghazal posts tips on test driving, building credit, and not committing to more than you can pay.  (Here’s a longer version of those tips, from the Federal Trade Commission.)  He says about one in five of his customers don’t complete their payments.  But the other four do, or they trade up.

“We try so hard to keep them in the vehicle,” he says.  “We win when they stay in the vehicle.”

And come back to do business again and again.  Still, it’s striking just how much it costs to have no money.  Grace Diaz is 19, works three jobs and goes to school.  Every other dealer turned her down.  No credit.

“I’ve been trying for so long,” she says.  “This is really nice to be finally done.”

She settles on a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix.  Team leader Paul Lucas breaks down the cost.

“The price of your vehicle is $8,995,” he starts.

Add in taxes, fees and a service contract:

“$11,010.10.”

Plus almost 20% interest over three and a half years:

“The total estimated amount of your payments comes to $15,375 and 30 cents,” he says.

$15,375 for a 2002 sedan.  With the money she’s paying in interest alone, Diaz could buy a car outright.  But she doesn’t have a lump sum, she has enough to pay the bills this week.  When she drives off, Grace Diaz is excited and very grateful.  She has to be at work in an hour.

Layoffs at Abbott North-Chicago based Abbott Laboratories is laying off 700 workers in the U.S. and Canada. The Chicago Tribune reports 200 layoffs will be at the company’s campus in Lake County, Ill.

Don’t call it a comeback One analyst predicts the auto industry will add 15,000 jobs this year. But the Detroit Free Press reports that still won’t come anywhere close to replacing the jobs that were lost.

Job training, streamlined Ohio governor, John Kasich says this year, job training is “going to be, probably my seminal issue.” The Columbus Dispatch says streamlining Ohio’s current job training programs is at the top of the governor’s to-do list. Right now, Kasich says the state has 77 training programs across 13 agencies.

Radically local consumerism Residents in Chagrin Falls, Ohio decided to “occupy” their locally-owned hardware store over the weekend to help generate some business. USA Today says by 10 a.m., the store was jammed with a “cash mob.”

This is where we used to live It’s official, the former site of one of the country’s most violent and infamous public housing projects has been bought by Target. Crain’s Chicago Business reports Target bought the former Cabrini-Green property for $8.8 million.

Last year, it seemed unlikely. Now, Indiana looks bound to get a Right to Work law.

On Wednesday, the Indiana House followed the state Senate by approving Right to Work legislation. The action came just a day after Indiana’s governor, Mitch Daniels, delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.

Both houses have to approve the same bill before it can go to Daniels for his signature. The Indianapolis Star says it’s likely that the Senate will consider the House version, because Republicans are in tighter control in the Senate. After that, Daniels can sign it into law — which he could do before the Super Bowl is played in Indianapolis on Feb. 5.

Right to Work laws prohibit unions from collecting mandatory dues. Labor unions say the laws make it much harder for them to organize, since workers don’t have to support them. Some political analysts say that weakens the unions’ political clout, too.

Indiana would be the 23rd state to approve Right to Work, and the first since Oklahoma approved a Right to Work law in 2011. Indiana also would be the first Right to Work state in the industrial Great Lakes. And, with Republican governors in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, it probably won’t be long before the issue comes up for a vote in at least one of those states.

Earlier this week, we told you why Daniels decided to push for the bill this year. He says he was tired of seeing Indiana lose out on projects just because it wasn’t a Right to Work state. One of the projects the state lost, said Daniels, was the Volkswagen plant that went to Chattanooga, Tenn.

Do you think Right to Work legislation is now likely in other Great Lakes states? What’s your thinking on the issue?

In 2011, Michigan certified 7,980 teachers. According to the Michigan Education Association, about 5,000 of those newly-certified teachers left Michigan to find work. That’s because the job market is shrinking—the number of public school teachers in the state has dropped by 9 percent since 2005.

Matthew Corum is one of the teachers who left after graduating. Find out why he left, where he went, and how he ended up with so many job offers in so few days.

Read more stories about the Midwest Migration, or share your own story about leaving the region.

When you think of Austin, Texas, the first things that come to mind are probably food, music, and the South by Southwest festival. Perhaps you know it for its high technology focus. But now, Austin wants you to think of it as an automotive capital.

Austin wants to be thought of as an automotive capital

Isn’t Austin too deep in the heart of Texas? How can it compete with the Great Lakes, let alone other places in the South like Lexington, Ky, Nashville, Tenn., Jackson and Tupelo, Miss., that have already crafted their identities?

Austin’s tactic is to hone in on companies that are developing advanced technology, explains Adrianna Cruz, vice president of global corporate recruitment for the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

It’s using the Formula One race in November, which will be held in Austin, to draw attention to its bid to be included in the nation’s automotive centers. It’s the first F1 race in the U.S. since 2007, when the circuit came to Indianapolis.

“The auto industry is going through a change and a shift. There’s a focus on battery technology and making things cleaner and safer,” Cruz says. “If there’s a location to look at as we discuss how to do things differently – how do we make cars smarter, safer, better for environment – Austin wants to be on the leading edge of those discussions.”

Cruz says a series of companies have already invested in automotive technology projects there, including US Farathane, a leading source of plastics manufacturing for the auto industry. It announced in December that it is opening a 250,000 square foot facility in Austin, creating an additional 228 jobs.

Austin also has operations by Freescale Semiconductor, of Novi, Mich., a leading supplier of semiconductors, whose technology is used in a number of vehicles including hybrids produced at General Motors’ plant in Arlington, Texas; ActaCell, started as a spinoff from the University of Texas, which is developing the next generation of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles; SMSC, a multi-media networking company that supplies European carmakers including Audi, BMW, Land Rover and Volvo; and TASUS, an injection-molding company.

In addition to all that, SXSW will feature a series of speakers on electric vehicles and other automotive topics this year.

Cruz says her office often asks representatives from these companies to meet with firms that are considering investments in Austin. “What we hear over and over again is that companies come with an expectation, and what they find in Austin exceeds their expectation,” Cruz says.

To be sure, Austin has a lot of competition in marketing its automotive leadership. Louisville and Lexington recently teamed up to establish an advanced manufacturing cluster, and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce has launched MICHAuto, an effort to stress the state’s automotive prowess.

But Toyota’s San Antonio assembly plant, 74 miles southwest of Austin, showed the state can be an active player on the automotive scene, said Cruz. She maintains the city is a good way station between Detroit and car companies’ operations in Mexico, as well as Latin America.

It also doesn’t hurt that Austin is already seen as one of the country’s most attractive cities. “Austin has a lot of wonderful things going for it: a great place to live raise a family, the school system is very good, people are comfortable and happy in their work, at night they may go play in a band,” Cruz says.

whitehouse.gov

You might have heard something about a speech last night. From his claim that GM is back on top (rated “half-true” by PolitiFact.com), to his mention of a battery plant worker from Holland, Mich. (which, by the way, we’ve covered before), the Midwest got plenty of attention from the President during his State of the Union address.

And he’s not done with us. This afternoon, the President is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to talk manufacturing jobs. He’ll also be traveling to Arizona and Nevada. This Friday, the President returns to the Midwest for a stop in Ann Arbor, Mich. This time, he’ll be talking about higher education.

During the State of the Union speech, President Obama said higher education shouldn’t be a luxury, and he’s committed to funding it. That was the carrot for colleges and universities. This was the stick:

“Let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down,”

The idea is similar to a law passed in Michigan last year for the state’s public universities. They raised tuition anyway.