The week at a glance...United States

Simi Valley, Calif.

Christie teases the GOP: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sparked a new round of pleas that he enter the Republican presidential race this week with a speech that electrified a crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Mounting a sharp attack on President Obama, Christie said America had become a nation that “places comfortable lies ahead of difficult truths,’’ and called the president “a bystander’’ who was now trying to divide the country by demonizing the wealthy. “This is not a leadership style, this is a re-election strategy,’’ Christie said. But the 49-year-old Republican again denied rumors that he was considering a run for president, saying he was moved by the pleas of fellow Republicans, but hadn’t changed his mind. Christie’s brother, Todd Christie, said that the first-term governor has assured his family he won’t be a candidate. “If he’s lying to me, I’ll be as stunned as I’ve ever been in my life.”

Los Angeles

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Michael Jackson’s doctor on trial: More than two years after Michael Jackson’s death from a powerful surgical anesthetic, his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, went on trial this week, charged with involuntary manslaughter in administering the fatal dose of propofol. Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, alleges that Jackson, desperate for sleep, caused his own death by taking a handful of sedatives and drinking propofol while the doctor was out of the room talking on the phone to his girlfriend. The pop legend then died so rapidly “he didn’t have time to close his eyes,” said defense attorney Edward Chernoff. Among the evidence accompanying the prosecution’s opening statement was a grim deathbed photo of a pallid Jackson lying on a hospital gurney with his mouth open juxtaposed with a shot of him rehearsing the day before. Printed on the grainy picture of the dead King of Pop was a single word: Homicide.

Holly, Colo.

Cantaloupe deaths rising: At least 14 people have died from suspected listeria infections traced to tainted Colorado cantaloupes, the deadliest outbreak of a food-borne illness since 1998, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More deaths are expected, officials said, because of the lengthy incubation period for the illness. “People who ate a contaminated food two weeks ago or even a week ago could still be falling sick weeks later,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe of the CDC. The tainted cantaloupes are from Jensen Farms, and have been shipped to 25 states. Some 72 people in 18 states have become ill with listeriosis, caused by a bacterium that can trigger diarrhea, muscle aches, and fever, and can kill older people and those with compromised immune systems.

New York City

Wall Street protests: The ongoing Wall Street protests, in which several hundred young demonstrators have occupied a park in downtown Manhattan to call attention to corporate greed, turned confrontational this week. Police made more than 80 arrests after protesters staged a march to Manhattan’s Union Square. An officer used pepper spray on several women, a tactic the department defended as “appropriate.” Turnout for the sleep-in near Wall Street has been smaller than anticipated, but stalwarts say they plan to stick it out for the cause, variously cited by protesters as fighting corporate profits, protecting the earth, and abolishing the Federal Reserve. We’ll be here “until Wall Street crumbles,” said a 20-year-old protester.

Great Neck, N.Y.

Alleged SAT cheaters busted: Seven Long Island teenagers were arrested this week, charged with participating in an SAT cheating scam that took in thousands of dollars and netted customers near-perfect scores on the standardized college entrance exam. Police say six students from prestigious Great Neck North High School paid between $1,500 and $2,500 to Emory University sophomore Sam Eshaghoff, 19, who took the test for them using fake ID. Eshaghoff, a 2010 graduate of Great Neck North, posted scores of 2220, 2210, 2140, 2180, 2180, and 2170, out of a possible top score of 2400. He was charged with scheming to defraud, falsifying business records, and criminal impersonation, and if convicted he faces up to four years in jail. The defendants “tried to cheat the system and may have kept honest and qualified students from getting into their dream school,” said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Washington, D.C.

Government shutdown averted: For the third time this year, congressional deadlock—this time over disaster-relief funding—nearly led to a government shutdown this week. Congressional Republicans had demanded that any spending overruns for disaster aid at the Federal Emergency Management Agency be offset with budget cuts elsewhere, a proposal opposed by Democrats. The disagreement threatened to derail a larger budget extension for cash-strapped federal agencies, but the shutdown was narrowly averted when FEMA determined it could carry on through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, without additional funds. Even that small victory appeared to be just a budget Band-Aid, critics said. When the House returns from recess next week, it must pass a Senate bill that keeps the government funded through Nov. 18. If that passes as expected, bruising battles are nearly guaranteed in the next seven weeks because the entire federal budget will be up for negotiation.