Five years after the tragedy in the Gulf, The Nation continues to follow the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Our cover story this week is a powerful essay about history, memory and loss by Rebecca Solnit, "Reconstructing the Story of the Storm." John Atlas looks at the role ACORN played in the city’s recovery efforts, and we’re featuring video highlights from this week’s "Law and Disorder" FRONTLINE investigation on PBS, which focuses heavily on the death of Henry Glover – a story reported by Pro Publica’s A.C. Thompson in 2008 for The Nation and The Nation Institute. Thompson’s reporting won a host of major awards, but as the FRONTLINE investigation shows, it accomplished something even more important: justice for the family of Henry Glover. Read more here.

Also this week…

Welcoming The Nation Institute’s New President

The Nation Institute, named a new President last week. Andrew Breslau joined the Institute after a long and distinguished career spanning journalism, politics and social justice. Although the Institute and The Nation magazine are separate organizations, we have a long and historic partnership, sharing the mission of promoting independent journalism. Andrew, who served most recently as the Executive Director of City Futures, knows first-hand what a catalyst good journalism can be for change in our communities. We welcome him to The Nation Institute, and encourage you to visit their website or follow them on Twitter to learn more about their important work.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Van Jones at Facing Race 2010

The indispensable Facing Race Conference (organized by the Applied Research Center) is back again this year, at the end of September in Chicago. Our "Sister Citizen" columnist Melissa Harris-Lacewell delivers the keynote address; The Nation Institute’s 2008 Puffin Prize Winner Van Jones speaks as well. Find out more information and register here.

Student Nation: America’s Greenest Colleges

Our StudentNation section has been more active than ever this summer, as The Nation and our "Extra Credit" bloggers get ready to head back to school. The latest is from Carrie Battan about the "greenest" Colleges and Universities in America, as determined by a special Sierra Club project. My alma mater is #29; See the top twenty here.

Slide Show: You Know You’re On a Nation Cruise When …

From the archives, if you’re considering setting sail with us for Bermuda next month, here’s a slideshow from February: eleven ways to spot a Nation cruise from a Nautical mile away.

Podcast: The Breakdown with Chris Hayes

With mid-term elections fast approaching in November, the harsh political climate has left many incumbents vulnerable. This has caused a string of retirements in contentious states (Chris Dodd, Evan Bayh, Patrick Kennedy) and a number of hotly contested primary races for seats once considered safe. This week’s election results were rough for incumbents like Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. If incumbents are running scared, what does that mean for the phenomena the incumbency effect? How does holding office really affect reelection? To answer these questions, this week’s The Breakdown with Christopher Hayes invited Professor Walter Stone from the University of California-Davis to discuss the intricacies of the incumbency effect. Listen here.

– – – – – –

Thanks for reading. As always you can keep up by following The Nation on Facebook here, or follow me on Twitter—I’m@KatrinaNation.