The Department of Transportation ordered a Michigan bus company to cease operations after it was caught transporting passengers in the cargo compartments of its buses.

Another company in North Carolina was also shut down for using non-qualified drivers and failing to keep safety records.

The announcements come as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is set to convene a hearing Monday following a deadly crash recently in northern Virginia. The North Carolina company was United Tours Inc. and the Michigan company was Haines Tours.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said both companies posed a threat to public safety.

"People's lives were needlessly placed at risk,” LaHood said in a statement. “Safety is everyone’s responsibility and it begins with practicing common sense. That means not putting human beings in cargo holds.

The Transportation Security Administration said Friday it was removing more than 30 of its employees at Hawaii International Airport for improperly screening checked baggage.

The TSA had been conducting what it called an "extensive investigation" of the workers at the Hawaii, and it said Friday the firings were the result of the review.

"TSA holds its workforce to the highest ethical standards and we will not tolerate employees who in any way compromise the security of the traveling public,” TSA Administrator John Pistole said in a written statement.

A video by a passenger at the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix of his mother's reaction to being patted down by the Transportation Security Administration has led to a review of whether filming and taking pictures of such events is a constitutional right.

On May 28, a female passenger in Phoenix reacted angrily to being patted down by TSA officers at the airport security checkpoint, claiming she was sexually assaulted during the search. TSA has defended the legality of the pat-down, but the woman's son recorded her reaction, over the objections of the TSA officers, and uploaded it to YouTube.

"I think he molested me," the woman says in the clip. "I want a police officer now. Now, I want a police officer ... For God's sake, somebody help me."

"I'm going to need you to leave," a TSA agent is heard in the video telling the woman's son. "Are you going through the screening process?"

"You are not allowed to film," another agent says in the video.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on the issue of bus safety, the panel announced Friday afternoon.

The committee, chaired by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), will look into the issue following a series of bus crashes that have raised concerns about the safety of discounter charter bus carriers. Similar hearings were held in the Senate after crashes in the Northeast in March resulted in 17 people being killed.

A recent crash in Northern Virginia resulted in another four people dying, bringing the issue back to the forefront.

Boeing celebrated the opening of its 787 plant in South Carolina Friday despite the ongoing lawsuit with the NLRB.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood went to the groundbreaking of a streetcar in New Orleans.

A bill in the Texas State Legislature to ban Transportation Security Administration pat-downs there is up for a second vote.

California lawmakers are trying to take over control of a proposed high-speed rail.

Oakland's international airport has been authorized for flights to Cuba.

Democrats and liberal groups are fighting back against criticism of the National Labor Relations Board.

A little-noticed nugget in Republican president candidate Tim Pawlenty's big economic speech this week is that the GOP hopeful supports efforts in Congress to privatize railway service presently provided by Amtrak.

Pawlenty, who is among several Republicans off and running for the nomination to challenge Obama, included the national passenger rail service in a list of programs he suggested because they did not meet what he called "The Google Test." Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, suggested services that could be found on the internet should not be provided by the government.

"The post office, the government printing office, Amtrak, Fannie and Freddie, were all built for a time in our country when the private sector did not adequately provide those products," he said in his speech in Chicago. "That’s no longer the case."

The merger of United and Continental Airlines is on track to be completed by the end of the year, United CEO Jeff Smisek told shareholders Thursday according to reports.

Reuters is reporting that Smisek said Thursday that United and Continental should receive a single operator designation from the Federal Aviation Administration by year's end. The companies have already begun combining their operations and repainting planes with the United name on Continental's colors, but they have temporarily remained separate airlines.

United agreed to buy Continental in 2010 for $3.17 billion.