Gov. Martin O?Malley talked about homeland security goals for state and local governments before a national audience in Nashville Monday, and at the same time issued what aides said was the first set of specific goals for local first responders in Maryland.

“Maryland can be ? and should be ? nothing less than the best prepared state in America,” O?Malley said in a message to local officials. “A critical first step towards achieving this goal is to identify the basic core capacities which every region in our state should have, and to assess our current level of preparedness in these critical areas so that we are investing our resources first and foremost to meet any capability gaps in these areas.”