this is fios. on the broadcast tonight, car trouble. the bad news doesn't stop for toyota. first it was gas pedals, now the's brakes, and owners are wondering what's next? was it fraud? the market tanks as the government goes after the man who used to be in charge of one of america's biggest banks. serious trouble tonight for those american missionaries in haiti who say they want to help children. what happens there now? man on a mission. some say his job is a lost cause. he's out to prove them wrong by making his job his life. and one of the biggest changes in fast food in this country in generations. "nightly news" begins now.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. for decades in this country it was the automaker that stood for quality, the car company that could do no wrong, but these days nothing is going right for toyota. the once-mighty automaker has been paralyzed by an accelerator scare, what may be a botched response to it and a safety question involving brakes on some of its cars. our own government seems to be trying out how to handle it. u.s. automakers are trying to take advantage of it, and owners are bearing the brunt of it. we begin tonight at a toyota dealership in canton, michigan, with phil lebeau who covers the car business for cnbc. phil, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. with the prius under investigation, the star car is taking a hit. you have a company reeling from two massive recalls, now dealing with more questions about safety and reliability.

toyota's announcement that it will look into what may cause the brakes on 2010 prius hybrids to pause before slowing down is the latest in company's problems. bob becker owns a 2010 prius. he says he bought it for safety because he has a new baby and he had brake problems and told toyota as far back as last august. >> it's been frustrating and i'm angry. again, within two weeks of bringing the car in i knew there was something wrong and they were in denial about the problem. >> reporter: this morning in japan, toyota executives admitted the prius problem while announcing a quarterly profit for the company. the federal government's formal investigation into the brakes on the 2010 prius hybrid sedans comes after 124 complaints, including four accidents reported to washington. toyota says it will cooperate fully, adding, "we are making every effort to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible."

in fact, starting last month, toyota fixed the prius brake software for new models being built this year which makes this journalist wonder why the company waited until now to warn owners of other 2010 prius models that their brakes may have a problem? >> the big questions are what did they know and when did they know it? the timelines they are laying out don't work. >> reporter: the issue comes as toyota dealers around the country start repairing millions of gas pedals in some of their most popular cars, a job that could wind of costing $2 billion. mel johnson with the local toyota dealership is making house calls in florida, fixing gas pedals on recalled cars. >> so far i've done about 40 of them. that number is going up quite a bit. >> reporter: but now the prius, toyota's star car, often the car of choice for the stars, is the latest model to be hit with

questions about safety. as toyota dealers like this one work extended hours to repair recalled cars, another automakers, ford, is checking out the brakes on more than 17,000 mercury milan and ford fusion hybrid cars. apparently as people are driving those cars, brian, when they hit the brakes, they may get the feeling the brakes have failed even though they are completely working. so ford checking out brakes on hybrid cars. >> phil lebeau in michigan for us tonight. thanks. for more on this david champion is with us tonight. he is the senior director of the "consumer reports" auto test division. he is at their facility in connecticut. a lot of the advice and government warning seem to leave out one thing, and that is that the american roads are full of toyotas. people have no other choice. they are driving them right now. what's the practical advice and are these cars, in your view, unsafe? >> this event of the throttle

pedal sticking is a very rare occasion that this should happen on toyota vehicles. there's been something like 2,000 complaints of unintended acceleration. in that same period toyota sold something like 20 million vehicles. it's a 1 in 10,000 chance you would have it. if you have one of these vehicles, make sure you remove all the floor mats out of the driver's side footwell. be aware if the throttle does stick, push it into neutral, pull the car over to the side of the road and turn the engine off. >> and david, toyota has taken such a huge hit here. what do they have to do for the sake of their brand name? >> what they need to do is fix all these cars really quickly. they need to jump on this toyota prius brake issues that's going on, and really reach out to the customer. really make sure their cars are right for them. if they do that, in the long run i think toyota may get their reputation back. they've always built very, very

good cars with very good safety records. and their reliability is second to none. >> david champion with the "consumer reports" organization on one of the biggest consumer products crisis to come along in some time. thank you for your time tonight. here in new york, this was a bad day for the stock market. the dow was down more than 268 points, closing just two points above the 10,000 mark. david favre is here from cnbc to tell us what set this off. i understand this is a problem far from our shores. >> it is. the u.s. is not the only country in the world that has huge deficits as it spends a lot more than it collects in tax revenues. there are many countries throughout europe that have done the same thing we have, trying to spend to revive their morabund economies and racking up huge deficits. a lot worse than we are in terms their interest costs may be 30% or 40% of their tax revenues in

places like spain, italy, portugal and greece and ireland. the so-called pigs. that is worrying investors. some say if you're paying 40% of your tax revenues just to pay your interest, we may not want to lend to you any longer. that might send rates up or lead to an unlikely outcome, default, which would clearly be bad for the economy worldwide and set off implications many of us don't know what they would be. >> this word of left us here with tonight, a term of art from your business? >> yes, and you'll hear more about sovereign risks. >> terrific. david favre, thanks. with all this going on on wall street, new york attorney general was filing civil fraud charges against the ceo of bank of america, former ceo ken lewis and the bank's former chief financial officer. they are the first senior

managers to face charges in the wake of the financial meltdown. our own senior investigative correspondent lisa myers reports on the fallout. >> reporter: the civil fraud charges against bank of america and former ceo ken lewis stem from the bank's takeover of merrill lynch in 2008. >> certainly the merrill lynch acquisition, in particular, came with risk. >> reporter: lewis and the bank are accused of misleading investors by hiding massive losses at merrill lynch even as shareholders voted on the deal and manipulating the federal government into providing a $20 billion bailout to help deal with the losses. the complaint calls this an enormous fraud on taxpayers. and claims the bank and top management were motivated by greed, hub brings and a palable sense that the normal rules of fair play don't apply to them. legal experts called this a significant development. >> i think the american public wants accountability. this is the first time that

anyone is seeking to hold responsible senior executives at a major bank. >> reporter: it came as the securities and exchange commission moved to set federal charges for concealing losses and bonuses. the bank agreed to pay a $150 million penalty to shareholders. this still must be aprfbed by a judgment the tougher fraud charges were brought by new york attorney general andrew cuomo who was joined by the federal top cop for the bailout program, neil baroski. they think the s.e.c. didn't go far enough. >> this does read as an implied criticism of the s.e.c. >> reporter: a spokesman for bank of america called the fraud charges totally without merit, and said all involveds acted in good faith under difficult conditions. lewis' lawyer says there is not a shred of objective evidence to support the charges against him, and that lewis has been unfairly vilified in the political search to assign blame for the financial meltdown.

lisa myers, nbc news, washington. political news late this afternoon, scott brown was sworn in and seated as the newest united states senator. now that brown a republican has been seated, the democrats lost their 60 vote so-called super majority. brown fills the massachusetts seat held by the late senator ted kennedy for almost a half a century. for now, brown will have kennedy's old office as a temporary office, but not his desk. senator kennedy's desk is going to the new senior senator from the bay state john kerry. also today, speaking at the national prayer breakfast, president obama criticized what he called the erosion of civility in america. by way of example, he made clear reference to the whisper campaign that he is a muslim or was born outside the u.s. >> i am the first to confess i'm not always right. michelle will testify to that.

but surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith. or for that matter my citizenship. >> every president since eisenhower has participated in the annual prayer breakfast, but this year's event drew some controversy after an ethnics group asked the president and congressional leaders to boycott it, saying the sponsor, the fellowship foundation, is linked to harsh anti-gay laws in uganda. when "nightly news" continue once a thursday night, those ten american whose tried to take haitian children out of the country are formally charged. what happens now? later, our conversation with a man working to turn around a city. to strike. a heart attack caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone,

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back now with the latest numbers of the impact from the haiti earthquake. the death toll as close as they can get to a new number, 200,000 according to the prime minister of haiti. he also says 300,000 injured have been treated so far. 250,000 homes destroyed. 30,000 businesses lost. today was a crucial day for those ten american church members who were accused of trying to take children out of haiti illegally. nbc's michelle kosinksi is with us tonight, again from port-au-prince. good evening. >> reporter: brian, it was a scene here today. these american missionaries so hopeful they would be let go that they had a chartered plane waiting. instead, they are right back here in jail. the only one left standing in

the capital after the quake, and indicted on serious charges of child trafficking [ inaudible ] what's next is an investigation that could take three months to determine whether there is enough evidence to take these americans to trial. and next police say they will try to have them brought before a judge. there will be a hearing. in the meantime their attorney will ask to have them released. we are told even if they are released, they will not be allowed to leave haiti. their charges face potential sentences up to nine years for child abduction and up to 15 for the criminal association, brian. >> michelle kosinksi in

port-au-prince, haiti, for us tonight. thanks. a new and potentially massive weekend snowstorm on the move taking shape and taking aim mostly along the interstate 80 and 95 corridors from indianapolis to pittsburgh, then all the way east to new york, philly, washington, d.c., richmond, virginia. several major airlines including united and southwest have already canceled a lot of their flights to and from the east coast over the next three days. amtrak has already canceled several trains. something you never want to see anywhere near the state of florida or anywhere, blood in the water in stuart, florida. the first deadly shark attack in that state in five years. 38-year-old man seen here was killed when sharks apparently swarmed around him. he had been kite boarding about 1/4 mile offshore. when we come back, what some are calling the biggest change when we come back, what some are calling the biggest change in the fast food business. also dispenses wisdom...s t

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bruce springsteen played the last event there. wrote a song as an anthem to the place. the old stadium, the second largest arena in the nfl was home to 1,600 events over 13 year hosting over 70 million visitors. played host to the pope, bono, the beach boys. they are going to pave paradise and put up a parking lot. you see the new stadium stands at the ready next door. melancholy today in suburban, virginia. two pandas boarded a special fedex cargo plane today and took off from dulles airport to their new home in china. all part of their arrangement made years ago. the old panda raised in washington and 3-year-old raised in atlanta returned to china where they'll be part of a special program to breed more pandas there. both american cities took these departures hard, as you might imagine. when we mentioned the top of the broadcast the biggest development in the fast food business in generations, we weren't fooling around.

meet the new heinz ketchup packet. the days of squeezing out the con in any event of 29 separate ketchup packs will come to an end starting this fall. up next tonight, our talk with a man who just might be making a difference. if you have high blood pressure, like me,

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finally tonight, we continue our reporting on black history month by looking at the list of 100 current history makers as compiled by our partner website the grio.com. tonight we look at a place most americans know by three letters, ewr, the airport code for newark, new jersey. it's considered one of the new york airports. newark is not considered a destination in itself for most travelers. newark, new jersey, has a young mayor named corey booker who is trying to change that city's image and its future. he's turned down a job offer in washington, says he prefers to stay home and do his job. when you meet anybody as single-minded as corey booker, these days you're conditioned to assume they're on the make.

they are either out to get rich or famous. but the 40-year-old mayor of newark says he has no need for wealth and while he is getting more famous as a politician on the rise, what he says he really wants is for newark to be great again. >> newark, new jersey, is one of the front lines of the fight for the american dream. >> reporter: corey booker grew up in the new jersey suburbs, played high school football, went to stamford, oxford as a rode scholar and yale law school. while a lot of his class mates with those same degrees went out and made a fortune, corey booker moved into public housing in newark. worked with the poor and pledged himself trying to save the 56th largest city in america. the phrase "too good to be true," is something he is used to hearing. >> there is a determination in this city that goes back before i was born of people who never gave up, who kept believing. and so i land here and i'm sort of adopted by a community of

people. >> and perhaps you know the newark story. it was once a teaming beacon of american city life. then came the bad years. white flight, the riots, the flames, the blight, but so much worse was the murder raid. about a decade ago it was the most dangerous city in america. considering the years of corruption before him and the fact that the last mayor went to jail, booker remains surrounded by skeptics. >> the jury is out right now. anyone that lives and works in newark is waiting to see what he is going to do. >> there has been real progress, a 20% drop in crime since his election. and a big increase in investment in the city. the mayor uses his suv as a mobile office and nightmarate as tour of the city as if it's the magic kingdom. he says he's inspired, which he says he got from his parents, both trail blazers. they were two of ibm's first

african-american executives. active in the community, they raised corey with a devout baptist faith. >> you can realize your dreams. and if not, there's always honorable work and honorable men and women who are doing that work. >> he knows all the regulars at the diner, and he says he knows progress downtown when he sees it. >> there are people in my city right now who are entrepreneurs who are doing it because they are employing people and creating value. >> he is obsessed enough to call out anybody he sees littering and shovel an occasional walk for a senior citizen. and if his dream of a reborn city doesn't ever come true, it probably won't be because cory booker didn't work hardness. he has nothing else in his life right now. he lives where he works, and he works every day. he's aware that his life story as a young democrat with a new governing style and a decent jump shot has a parallel in national politics. he seems to have little patience

for process or for the theory that his generation of african-american leaders is somehow post racial, to quote the phrase of the moment. what makes you yell back at your tv? >> i don't want to hear anymore people step up and say let's create a post racial america, that we are not concerned about race anymore. that's ridiculous. i'm from jersey. let's celebrate that and thot get away from that. >> it's impossible to have a resume and story like cory bookers and not get asked about higher aspirations. he says he can't think about newark beyond right now. in may, newark's voters get to decide if cory booker's story is indeed too good to be true or if he should stay right where he is. for now, that is our broadcast for a thursday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com