With Hurricane Sandy moving over the Atlantic, this is the time where we all become amateur hurricane experts, talking about wind speed and storm surges. But because Sandy is on a path to hit an area not normally affected by storms, it could create more widespread damage, similar to what Hurricane Irene caused throughout the Northeast. And with the Northeast region already gripped by an economic slowdown, a destructive weather event could only collapse the economy further. And Sandy looks much more disruptive than Irene.

Hurricane Isaac has made landfall in Louisiana, but it is basically hovering over the Gulf Coast, moving very slowly. The slowness of the storm and the circulation of much of it over water means that it will probably continue for some time, which means days of rain and more flooding over a broad coastal region. Wind speeds have weakened to 75mph, but this is still a big, wet storm.

The President spoke about an hour ago about the preparations for Hurricane Isaac (it has now graduated to hurricane force), asking residents to listen to their local officials and follow calls for evacuation should they arise. President Obama also signed a state of emergency declaration for Louisiana, which makes federal funding available for emergency efforts to deal with the storm. This isn’t good enough for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who wants more emergency federal funding now.

Tampa has been given the all-clear signal for Isaac, the tropical storm expected to grow in strength to a hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, but Isaac is not out in the Gulf headed for Gulf shore areas as a Category 1 hurricane.

it turns out that Tropical Storm Isaac, currently in the Atlantic, should become a hurricane by Thursday, and by some estimates could get on a course to hit Tampa next week, when the conventioneers come to town.

In a speech in Detroit tailored to the union audience, President Obama paid respect to the need for a strong American labor movement as a lever to move families into the middle class. He also previewed his jobs address coming on Thursday to a joint session of Congress, highlighting steps like “rebuilding roads and bridges,” which could put 1 million unemployed construction workers back on the job.

The fight over whether to offset emergency spending on disaster relief, as Eric Cantor wants, could end up being the most interesting upcoming battle in Congress. The lines aren’t drawn in an entirely partisan way on this one. In particular, Republican Governors in the states affected want to see that disaster relief, and don’t care about offsets.

That’s also true of the unexpected DC earthquake last week. The picture of the overturned lawn chair is funny and all, but because the region doesn’t get a lot of earthquakes, some of the infrastructure was unprepared. And while disaster has hopefully been avoided, this should raise caution, especially with respect to one nuclear plant in Virginia, North Anna Nuclear Generating Station.

Eric Cantor is trending on Twitter right now, and it’s for a comment he made about the tornado that killed at least 116 people in Joplin, Missouri. Cantor, merely following established conservative ideology, made the statement that no emergency relief for Joplin would pass the House without corresponding cuts elsewhere.

This is the first time I’ve seen Japanese officials admit that any radiation existed above recommended levels, if only for infants. Older children and adults are supposedly OK. In fact, they’re still trying to say that any water consumed prior to this point by babies is fine. But they are cautioning against it now because of the presence of cancer-causing radioactive iodine. And that’s in Tokyo – 150 miles from Fukushima.