through a weak spot in the ice. on the broadcast tonight, the rough road for toyota. the car maker remains in crisis. now there's a new worry about another problem with their cars, and today the obama administration briefly made things worse. decision time for those americans arrested in haiti. they get their day in court, but what happens to the children? security blanket. counting down to the olympic games in vancouver where they are putting safety first. and a force of nature who sees green where others simply see mean streets. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

good evening. today the u.s. secretary of transportation told americans they should stop driving their toyotas until the gas pedal problem gets fixed. he then about 90 minutes later thought better of it, perhaps realizing a lot of americans haveo choice and were at the moment on the road in their toyotas. the secretary of transportation then dialed back his remarks. toyota, however, remains mired in a big problem. car sales are still frozen. there's skepticism regarding their suggested fix of the problem and there has never been a bigger gift to u.s. car makers. phil lebeau covers the car business for cnbc and for us and is back in our studio with us. the story continues to unravel. >> reporter: it got worse for toyota today. the big question is whether toyota knows everything that may be wrong with its cars and trucks. today the secretary of

transportation says his office is investigating the electronics in toyota gas pedals. toyota facing more questions about the safety of its vehicles. already struggling with a massive recall, toyota took hit today when the man in charge of making sure americans drive safe cars issued this blunt warning for toyota owners. >> if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it. take it to the toyota dealer because they believe they have the fix for it. >> reporter: secretary lahood backtracked and said those with recalled toyotas should contact their dealers. toyota told owners if they have problems with their gas pedals, to please contact your dealer without delay. if you are not experiencing any issues with your pedal, we a confident that your vehicle is safe to drive. frustrated toyota dealers are still days from beginning to fix any cars. >> we've got people fearful, but in the end i believe toyota did the right thing. >> reporter: adding to toyota's problems, the new prius. news today the japanese

government has warned toyota to investigate possible problems with the anti-lock braking system for the 2010 prius. fuelling questions about whether toyota took action on safety concerns quickly enough. toyota says it first learned of sticking gas pedals in u.s. cars in october, and launched an investigation. so did the department of transportation. in december, d.o.t. officials flew to japan to urge toyota executives to move quickly on the issue, a message u.s. officials repeated in a meeting withoyota executives last month. leading to the recall of 2.3 million cars and trucks two weeks ago. despite full-page ads and top executives saying they have the problem under control, not everyone is convinced. >> we can't make this stuff up. we can't -- we don't know what's wrong. we don't know if they know what's wrong. >> reporter: we may get more answers overnight when toyota reports quarterly earnings and executives talk with reporters in japan.

the impact of this investigation will be huge for toyota. >> the problem is she had it right. we don't know what's wrong. we don't know if they know what's wrong. that's the problem. phil lebeau, thanks. always a pleasure to have you here. toyota's handling of this situation has gotten some bad grades as we just saw from automotive experts. as we've seen, it's caused anxiety among owners, and as we learned tonight, the ripple effects are being felt all the way at the home office in japan. nbc's ian williams with us from tokyo. >> reporter: the problems are mounting for the company last week known as the most valuable and best-known global brand. a two-hour ride by bullet train tokyo brings you to the heart of toyota country. e company and its suppliers employ tens of thousands of people around nagoya.

the region boomed as the company controlled the world. the car maker was a source of enormous pride and awe here, but recently a source of growing unease. "the region is totally dependent," this man told me. like most others here he drives a toyota. a taxi driver keeping a wary eye on the snowboarding quality problems. "i'm afraid toyota may take a big hit globally," he said. for many people here the worldwide recall is a distant problem. after all, it hasn't affected the domestic production, but they do know a reputation for quality has brought growth and prosperity to this region. if that goes, the future is far less rosy for a company that last year reported its first operating loss in 70 years. "it's not a good thing," this worker told me, at the end of a shift at a plant making luxury cars. the company is run by akio toyoda, the grandson of the

founder. there has been no sighting of him in his home region since the crisis began. nearby, there is a toyota museum, a monument to the glory days where thousands come to be entertained by musical robots and wooed by the company's cutting-edge design and technology. but today, you won't find such a confident note outside in the town that toyota built. just hours from now, toyota will announce its latest financial results. top japanese executives here will have another chance to address the quality issues, which so far they've been slow to do, brian. >> ian williams in tokyo for us tonight. thanks. also overseas, three u.s. military advisors killed in an attack in pakistan today while on their way to the inauguration of a girls' school. ambassador richard holbrooke said the men were part of a military advisory group out of islamabad that was training the

pakistanis. he does not thinthey were specifically targeted. now we turn our focus back to haiti and the group of americans arrested after being accused of trying to leave that country illegally with almost three dozen children. all ten of the accused have finally had their hearing before a judge. it's not clear what happens next, but tonight nbc's michelle kosinksi is at the main police station there in port-au-prince with more about their mission and how they went about it. michelle, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this will be the fifth night in jail for these american missionaries. now a judge may decide tomorrow, even if they say they were trying to save children and even if they had permission from parents, whether they will be charged with trafficking in children. along remote mountain trails and in the capital, the americans came on a mission, to find and ther children. >> we're hanging in there. >> reporter: this ill-fated trip

that landed them in jail after trying to take 33 undocumented children across the border was only theeginning. according to the haitian american pastor who, after a chance meeting on a bus, became their guide and gatherer, group leader laura silsby planned to return to haiti february 13th to find more children the same way, about 100 more. not everyone embraced their plan. this school sent them away. one orphanage director said their advertisement of their facility rubbed him the wrong way. they showed it to this woman and her family, too, then they gave the americans their children. 8-year-old carl, 7-year-old valentina. to them it was a shot at a future. today haiti's prime minister told kerry sanders this is all a distraction, but the issue is serious. >> you're talking to me as if there was no people trafficking organs of people, there is no

people taking children to bring them having sex with adults. >> reporter: you said that does happen here on a regular basis? >> that exists. >> reporter: but to this woman, even adoption to strangers was okay with her as long as she could contact them. now she says she can't eat or sleep while the government is keeping the children from their parents. their future even more uncertain than before. brian, tonight the attorney for these americans says they were victims, duped by locals into thinking they had all the documentation they needed. >> michelle kosinksi, part of our team in port-au-prince, thanks. another disturbing part of this story, a growing worry in haiti, particularly in the city of port-au-prince, that we are nearing the time when diseases start to spread. right now in just that one city, about a million people are living in about 200 outdoor camps that have become

unbelievably crowded and dirty. our chief science correspondent robert bazell traveled back to haiti to report on this health threat. >> reporter: they are called tent cities, but there are few tents. most people live under sheets or rags thrown over ropes and trees. sanitary facilities are nonexistent. fetted water breeds flies and mosquitos that carries malaria. at a u.s. clinic, these patients have drug-resistant tuberculosis. this 18-year-old is living on a respirator because of tetanus he got from an unsterile amputation. doctors thought this 2-week-old would die from tetanus from his mother at birth. >> he came in the early days. he's been on the respirator and been in icu. we finally moved him out there. he made it. >> reporter: the infectious disease specialists here have never seen tetanus. >> i've been reading about it for 30 years.

i've seen pictures in text books and tell people to get their tetanus shot regularly. >> reporter: the director of a local clinicunning one of the camps says there is enormous danger these diseases, already common in haiti, will become huge epidemics in the camps. >> we are concerned about measles, we are concerned about water bug diseases. malaria, in particular. we are concerned with typhoid. >> reporter: some are taking preventive steps. unicef started a huge vaccination program to try to reach the half of haitian children who are inadequately vaccinated. one clinic divided its camp of 7,000 into 35 sectors. dr. paul legere has a team that visits every sector every day. they interview people abt their heal. if anyone complains of illness they get a ticket to see a doctor on the edge of camp. the goal is to identify any clusters of infection and stop the spread. the one piece of good luck is

that it hasn't rained since the earthquake. everyone fears what will happen to this horrible environment as soon as it gets wet. the forecast says it could rain tomorrow. robert bazell, nbc news, port-au-prince. more to tell you about as our broadcast continues along the way here on a wednesday night, including the countdown to the olympic games and the olympian task of keeping the events safe. >> and later, what it takes to make a city prettier. ity prettier. asthma forever. i never knew why my asthma symptoms kept coming back... ...kept coming back... ...or that i could help prevent them in the first place. the problem was that my controller medicine... ...was treating only 1 main cause of asthma symptoms. but there are 2. airway constriction. and inflammation. unlike most controllers, advair treats both main causes. advair treats both main causes. and that helps prevent symptoms in the first place. (announcer) advair contains salmeterol. salmeterol may increase the chance of asthma-related death.

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with campbell's soups. go to campbellskitchens.com for a valuable coupon and hundreds of mouthwatering, family pleasing dinner ideas. ♪ so many, many reasons ♪ ♪ it's so m'm! m'm! good! ♪ you are looking at what happens when a winter olympic venue has one of the warmest winters in memory. they are trucking in snow in vancouver, british columbia. canada is warm and rainy right now. it has left cypress mountain home to the snow boarding and freestyle events short of snow, with the opening of the games a little over a week away. we should add theris plenty of snow where the alpine events are

to be held. now to securing the games. securing the event against possible attack was the subject of a cabinet level meeting in the white house situation room today. the olympics are, of course, a big high-profile potential target and nbc's jim maceda is in vancouver looking at how they are trying to keep all of this safe. jim, good evening. >> reporter: with nine days to go before the games begin and almost $1 billion security blanket is being put in place with more canadian military and police forces deployed here than any time since world war ii. royal canadian mounted police are locking down whole neighborhoods, closed-circuit cameras are hot and on the lookout. divers sweep the harbor foot by foot. so far they say there is no specific threat targeting these games. >> certainly a terrorist attack, a threat, a seismic event, those

are all terrible and those would call for a lot of resources and a lot of deployment. >> reporter: for added safety, metal detectors and x-ray machines, as well as dozens of sniffer dogs trained to find explosives will be used at all olympic venues, but these olympics will be spread over 4,000 square miles, from the tourist-friendly vancouver, city of more than 2 million, to the resort of whistler, venue for alpine events. >> the real problem is not the olympic facilities, it's potential soft targets, transportation, hotels. any area where large numbers of people are going to gather. >> this is not a soft target? >> no. we are well postured here. >> reporter: here is the new $5 million olympic coordination center, 35iles away in bellingham, washington, where mark beaty, u.s. department of homeland security federal coordinator and 40 other american agents will monitor with canadians traffic, crowds and the gamethemselves to the north, ready to move forces or equipment if asked, on a moment's notice.

>> we are here to secure the borders, protect the country, make sure that the visitors have a safe visit and come home. safely. >> reporter: one of their big concerns, the maze of low-flying sea planes, helicopters and ferries, all ideal terrorist targets. canadian officials say security here will be serious, but as low profile as possible. the challenge, they say, is making these games safe without suffocating them in that security blanket. >> jim maceda in vancouver. thanks for that. when we come back, a move toward religious freedom at the air force academy. toward religious freedom at the air force academy. [ robin ] my name is robin. i am a wife. i am a mom... and i was a pack a day smoker for 25 years. i do remember sitting down with my boys, and i'm like, "oh, promise mommy you'll never ever pick up a cigarette." and brian looked at me at eight years old and said, "promise me you'll quit." i had to quit.

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now the white house chief of staff is under fire for saying the word in that same way. this week sarah palin, the mother of a son with down syndrome called for his resignation. today rahm emanuel met with tim shriver who runs the special olympics. shriver thanked emanuel for the meeting and said his goal is to remove the word from everyday speech in this country. a big boost in the obama's administration plans to allow gays to serve openly in the military. it came from retired general colin powell. during the clinton years powell backed the don't ask, don't tell policy. he now says, "attitudes and circumstances have changed since those years." the u.s. air force academy in colorado springs has now set aside a new outdoor worship area for followers of earth-centered religions, that includes pagans, druids, witches and wiccans.

it's a double circle oones on a hilltop. one of the chaplains there calls it, quote, another example of celebrating the freedom we enjoy as well as the freedom we as airmen have pledged to defend. there's been one desecration incident since its opening. officials are repeating that message of tolerance on campus. money i tight these days, but apparently not at sotheby's and london where an anonymous bidder set a big record today, $104.3 million for something called "walking man one," a 60-year-old six foot tall bronze sculpture by alberto giacometti. it is the largest amount ever paid at an auction for any work of art, narrowly edging out the work paid for six years ago for picasso's "boy with a pipe." when we come back, a woman who had an idea how to make the world a better place. pipe."

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a project we are conducting with our partner website the grio.com which put together a list of 100 remarkable people. tonight the story of a woman who had an idea for going green long before it was fashionable or even called that. her work is all the more notable considering where she's doing it, in the single poorest congressional district in the united states. her story from our chief environmental affairs correspoent anne thompson. >> people need to start thinking more about that. >> reporter: majora carter is a force of nature. >> there is enough space. >> reporter: of people whose access to nature is all too often polluted or paved over. >> environmental justice is a principle no community should have to bear the brunt of lots of environmental burdens and not enjoy benefits. >> reporter: carter says the crusade to greener american cities is the 21st century civil rights movement, and in it she

is a multimedia activist, taking her meage from coast to coast. >> people will go, you're not white, you're not male, you're not old. no, i'm not. like everybody else on the planet, i'm part of this environment and i want to do great things that can be supportive of everybody in it. >> reporter: it began by accident. dragged to the bronx river by her dog, she saw promise in an industrial wasteland. >> when you said, "i see a park here," did people think you were crazy? >> yes, in a word, they did. >> reporter: she got a grant, organized the community, and together they built a park. the first step in what she hopes will be an 11-mile greenway. what difference has this park made? >> the difference the park made is it's shown people we can see ourselves in a different way. >> reporter: carter's vision spread to nearby streets. >> she has brought a lot of respect into our community. i love her for that. i really do. >> reporter: and carter's brought green jobs and a training program. wayne lee is a graduate and now an instructor. >> i heard about this woman that founded this amazing

orgazation. i was like, how can i be a part of that? >> reporter: the south bronx where carter grew up and got married is the spring board for her national consulting firm. i read 70,000 vacant lots in detroit. >> yeah. i understand 50 square miles and growing. >> reporter: in the barren lots, carter sees potential for bounty. she is working to create a national brand of locally-grown urban produce. >> the better your food is, the better quality is, the healthier you're going to be and the healthier everything around you will be. >> reporter: an idea that can sprout fresh food, jobs and hope. >> think beyond whatever they thought they could possibly do and understand they always had the power to do it. >> reporter: majora carter, a big thinker tapping the most sustainable power of all, the human spirit. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >> tomorrow night, another name. our profile of the mayor of newark corey booker, in our attempt to keep up with him

today. we'll look at what he is trying to do in a city that's been down on its luck for years and lately showing signs of an upturn. that's our broadcast this wednesday night. thank you, as always for being here with us. i'm brian williams. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com