NATIONAL BRIEFS

NATIONWIDE: Furor over 'pink slime'

In less than a week earlier this month, "pink slime," a stomach-turning epithet for ammonia-treated ground beef filler, suddenly became a rallying cry for activists fighting to ban it from supermarket shelves and school lunch trays as social media exploded with worry. It is "lean finely textured beef," a low-cost ingredient made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. Made by South Dakota-based Beef Products Inc., it is exposed to "a puff of ammonium hydroxide gas" to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella. Federal regulators say it meets food safety standards. Advocates for wholesome food denounce it as an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

WASHINGTON STATE: Dad's gun kills boy, 3

A 3-year-old scrambled out of his child seat after his parents stopped for gas early Wednesday, found a gun left in the car by his father and fatally shot himself in the head. Tacoma police said the father had put his pistol under a seat. The boy's infant sister was in the car, but was unhurt. The Pierce County medical examiner identified the boy as Julio Segura-McIntosh. The father has a concealed-weapons permit. Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said he is considering possible manslaughter charges.

NEW JERSEY: Dad and grandmother slain

A man stabbed his father and grandmother to death in the family's home last weekend, then threw a house party with the bodies still there, prosecutors said Wednesday. Dwayne Flourney, 26, of Maplewood faces two counts of murder. Acting county Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said Flourney repeatedly stabbed his grandmother, Sandra Flourney, 76, Saturday and stuffed the body into a car trunk outside. When Brian Flourney, 52, came home later, Murray said, his son stabbed him to death and put the body in a chair on a sun porch in the back of the house. Hours after the killings, he invited several friends to the house for drinks. Murray said the guests seemed not to know about the bodies. Flourney was arrested Tuesday night in Phillipsburg.