The week at a glance...United States

Compton, Calif.

Bankruptcy looming: The list of California municipalities facing bankruptcy lengthened this week as officials in Compton, a city of 93,000 near Los Angeles, said it had accrued $43 million in debts and wouldn’t be able to meet payroll on Sept. 1. City treasurer Doug Sanders said the city would either have to default on outstanding bonds “or have a serious talk about bankruptcy.” Earlier this month, the city council of San Bernardino voted to seek bankruptcy protection, following formal filings in recent weeks by Stockton in the Central Valley and Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada. Investor Warren Buffett said the trend could take hold in other states. “Once people find that the city works the next day,” he said, “it makes it easier for the city council next time they have a problem with pensions—or whatever it is—just to say, ‘Well, we’ll declare bankruptcy.’”

Midwest, South, Southwest

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Historic drought: Broiling heat baked much of the U.S. heartland this week, as the nation’s worst drought in more than 50 years devastated corn, soy, and other vital crops. More than 1,000 counties in 26 states have been declared natural disaster areas, and 38 percent of the nation’s corn crop is in danger of withering in the field, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week. Corn prices have jumped 50 percent in just two months, raising the specter of higher consumer prices for beef, pork, and poultry in the coming months. With pastureland parched and feed prices on the rise, many ranchers have begun liquidating their herds early, which could mean higher prices for meat through next year. “I have never seen this type of weather before,” said Kansas cattleman Brian Baalman. “I just think we are seeing history in the making.”

Hampton Falls, N.H.

Sununu counterattack: After days of bruising political attacks on his tax returns and his record at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney this week turned to former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu to strike back at President Obama. “I wish this president would learn how to be an American,” Sununu said, explaining that Obama “spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia.” Sununu then criticized Obama for “demonizing” success, after the president said all businesses owed a measure of their success to government investment. In a gaffe that delighted conservatives, Obama then explained, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.” Sununu labeled the president’s ill-chosen words “a gift” to the Romney campaign, but apologized for calling the president un-American. He said he meant to say the president “has to learn the American formula for creating business,’’ which doesn’t depend on government.

New York City

Boys Scouts reject gays: After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America this week emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays as members or adult leaders. The 11-member committee, whose names were not released, voted unanimously to continue the long-standing policy, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. “The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to address issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual advisers, and at the appropriate time and in the right setting,” said the BSA’s chief executive, Bob Mazzuca. Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay-rights group, called the Scouts’ decision “a missed opportunity of colossal proportions.”

New York City

Falling child saved: A veteran New York City bus driver found himself hailed as a hero this week after he caught a 7-year-old girl who fell three stories from an air-conditioning unit outside a Brooklyn building. Steve St. Bernard, 52, said the girl, whom neighbors described as a “special needs child,” was apparently standing and dancing on the air conditioner for close to seven minutes before she lost her balance and fell into his arms. Witnesses said the girl crawled out by pulling aside one of the unit’s accordion-like plastic partitions that kept it secured in the window. An amateur video shows St. Bernard yelling up to the girl, telling her to go back inside, when she suddenly tumbles off the air conditioner. “We went down,” St. Bernard said. “She touched the floor, but the impact wasn’t on her.” St. Bernard and the girl were treated at a hospital and released.

Sanford, Fla.

Zimmerman sex-abuse charges: George Zimmerman’s attorney scrambled this week to prevent the public release of recorded statements from a woman who said he sexually molested her for 10 years, beginning when she was 6 years old. “Witness 9,” identified only as Zimmerman’s cousin, is now 26 and lives in central Florida. She told investigators that Zimmerman and his family were racists who disliked blacks, according to The Miami Herald, and also provided explicit details of a decade of alleged sexual abuse. “He would reach under the blankets,” she said, groping and fondling her during family visits. “He was bigger and stronger and older. I was a kid.” Attorney Mark O’Mara said his client, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of teenager Trayvon Martin, denies the charges. “It’s completely irrelevant, and now we will have to waste 50 hours on something that will never make it to a courtroom.”