The risks are far greater to your child of not getting immunized than any kind of speculative potential relationship between the vaccine and the development of autism.

Kids get a lot of lip service in disaster planning, but they tend to get far fewer resources than they need. The mantra of 'children are our most valuable resource' is almost never matched by actual funding.

There has been a transition from a nuclear-annihilation scenario to an isolated-terrorist-nuclear-bomb scenario. But we're still locked into a mind-set that nuclear war would be so overwhelming that any kind of preparedness would be futile.

The best way to get a sense of what kinds of emergencies might present themselves in your community is by contacting local chapters of the American Red Cross or offices of emergency management in the region or state. Most large cities will have their own offices of emergency management.

If a severe pandemic materializes, all of society could pay a heavy price for decades of failing to create a rational system of health care that works for all of us.

Immigrant children are highly vulnerable. Their level of disadvantage and fragility has consistently grown due to factors outside their control.

There's detailed information on how to assemble a nuclear weapon from parts. There's books about how to build a nuclear bomb.