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.

Having insurance doesn't guarantee good health outcomes, but it is a critical factor.

Poverty-fighting programs are not handouts - they are investments.

Seven million ship cargo containers come into the United States every year. Five to seven percent only are inspected - five to seven percent.

Police officers and firemen are so visible in their daily work, there's no mistaking they're there - and that presence makes people feel secure.

There isn't a single American city, in my estimation, that has sufficient plans for a nuclear terrorist event.

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.