Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, flanked by police and firefighters, pushed Congress on Thursday to keep dollars flowing to a health program for first responders and others who got sick working in the rubble of the Sept. 11 attacks. More.

Three years after the Sandy Hook mass shooting prompted public demands for mental health care reform, an increasing number of states have cut funding for mental health services, according to a report released Tuesday by a mental health advocacy group. More.

On Sunday, December 6, at 8:00 pm ET, President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office about the steps our government is taking to fulfill his highest priority: keeping the American people safe. The President laid out the key elements of our strategy that are needed to combat the threat of terrorism abroad and here at home. More.

President Obama sought on Sunday to calm jittery Americans after the terrorist attack last week in California, delivering a prime-time address designed to underscore the government’s campaign against an evolving threat. Speaking from a lectern in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama acknowledged the heightened fears that followed an attack by a married couple last week in San Bernardino, Calif. More.

The day before Thanksgiving, President Obama reassured Americans there was “no specific and credible intelligence indicating a plot on the homeland.” Seven days later came an explosion of gunfire and the deadliest terrorist attack in America since Sept. 11, 2001. More.

Comedian Jon Stewart, firefighters, policemen and other 9/11 first responders confronted lawmakers Thursday as they pressured Congress to extend health care benefits before they run out. After a rally on the Capitol lawn, Stewart and several first responders — many sick or dying — personally sought support for legislation to extend medical monitoring, treatment and compensation dollars for those exposed to toxic dust while cleaning up after the 2001 attacks in New York.

As of Thursday morning, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) was among just 34 senators who had not signed on as a sponsor of a new 9/11 health and compensation bill. But by nighttime that had changed, and the Ohio Republican and former Bush administration budget director became the 67th senator to back a bill that would make permanent the health and compensation program for 9/11 responders, which began to expire this year. More.

In a letter that paid tribute to the sacrifice of a woman who spent weeks after the Sept. 11 attack rescuing pets from lower Manhattan apartments and who died of cancer earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan has written to each of his 434 House colleagues to urge them to approve a permanent extension of the World Trade Center Health Program. More.