NYC to end mass transit service at noon Saturday for duration of Irene.

My kids are experiencing their first earthquake and first hurricane in the same week. My son thinks it might signal the end of the world, which would be “Awesome!” He’s 8.

While the Virginia quake doesn’t really qualify as a disaster, it did get me to thinking about one-two-punch disasters. Let’s exclude volcano-earthquake and earthquake-tsunami combos because they arise from the same underlying processes and event.

The best example of an apocalyptic combination of natural disasters that I can recall in modern times is one that never quite seemed to get the attention it deserved then and is often forgotten now, 20 years later: the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines at the same time as a powerful Pacific typhoon was sweeping ashore. Read More

New report shows who has donated millions to Islamophobic groups since 2001.

You may have noticed we’ve been beefing up the TPM Livewire with a lot more iterative minute-to-minute coverage of late. We’ve got some exciting plans for it that we’ll share with you in the near future, so stay tuned.

But in the meantime, we’ll be covering all the Hurricane Irene news there throughout the weekend. So check it out.

Also, we welcome your reports, video, and photos from wherever you are within the cone of uncertainty. Just be safe.