Tough times for Toyota—after last week’s massive recall and eventual halt of sales and manufacturing of several popular Toyota models due to accelerator concerns, now there are reports of brake problems in Toyota’s Prius hybrid model. While the number of reported incidences are low so far—about 100 brake malfunctions reported in the 2010 Prius both here and in Japan—this only adds to what is a growing perception of quality crisis for Toyota. Piling on are angry U.S. regulators who accuse Toyota of dragging its feet on fixing defective gas pedals and are promising further reviews of Toyota products. Can you trust the Toyota in your driveway?

Surgeon-in-Chief and Department Head of Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Henri Ford, returned back from Haiti this week. A native Haitian, Dr. Ford has been working in his homeland for the past several weeks to save the lives of children injured in last month’s devastating earthquake. Patt talks with Dr. Ford about his work there, and how to begin rebuilding.

The attempted terrorist attack that occurred Christmas Day revealed some issues in our transportation security infrastructure, issues that are magnified because the Transportation Security Administration does not have an active lead administrator. Erroll Southers, a former FBI Special Agent and counterterrorism expert, was President Obama’s man for the job, but Republicans didn’t want him. Under political pressure Southers withdrew his name. The man who had plans to improve the TSA’s operations and enhance passenger screening was out of the picture before he even got a chance. We talk to Erroll Southers about his plans for the TSA and the decision to withdraw his name, and how this could be an example of political ideology endangering us all.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. Under normal circumstances, it takes a special individual to be the Controller of the City of Los Angeles. But with nearly a $200 million deficit, it might take a miracle worker. Enter Wendy Greuel. The former city councilwoman is now heading into her seventh month in office and has been hard at work sifting through the city’s numbers. Patt sits down with Controller Wendy Greuel on the current state of Los Angeles’ spending, her plans for getting the city out of the red, and how we can avoid getting in this quagmire in the future.

In 2003, during the earliest days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Shoshana Johnson was captured when the 507th maintenance company was attacked. In I’m Still Standing Shoshana chronicles her capture, the 22 days she was held as a POW, her rescue and recovery. Patt sits down with the first female POW from Operation Iraqi Freedom to discuss her story and the attention that the media did and did not pay her.