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choose ABC's words.
• The product is bought and sold by the government for use in school lunches. But a furious online campaign to rid school cafeterias of the product in 2012 prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to offer schools choices in ground beef purchases.
• In addition to ABC and Sawyer, the lawsuit names ABC correspondents Jim Avila and David Kerley; Gerald Zirnstein, the U.S. Department of Agriculture microbiologist who named the product pink slime; former federal food scientist Carl Custer; and Kit Foshee, a former BPI quality assurance manager who was interviewed by ABC.
• Attorneys for Zirnstein, Custer and Foshee could not be reached Thursday night.
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South Dakota couples challenge gay marriage ban
CARSON WALKER, Associated Press
KEVIN BURBACH, Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) Six couples filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking to block South Dakota's gay marriage ban, leaving North Dakota as the only state in the country with an unchallenged law prohibiting same-sex weddings.
• The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls, challenges a 1996 law passed by the Legislature and a voter-approved 2006 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which means such cases are now pending in 30 states with gay marriage bans. The lawsuit also challenges a U.S. provision allowing states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
• In 19 states and the District of Columbia, gay couples already can wed, with Oregon and Pennsylvania becoming the latest to join the list this week when federal judges struck down their bans and officials decided not to appeal.
• South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said he's obligated by law to defend the ban and that he believes that voters should decide whether same-sex couples should be able to marry. It's possible that the U.S. Supreme Court or another federal court could hear another state's lawsuit first, which would put South Dakota's case on hold, he said.
• "We would be behind several other states," Jackley said.
• He's among the defendants that also include Gov. Dennis Daugaard, Health Secretary Doneen Hollingsworth, Public Safety Secretary Trevor Jones, Pennington County Register of Deeds Donna Mayer and Brown County Register of Deeds Carol Sherman.
• Five of the couples already got married in Iowa, Connecticut and Minnesota. The (Continued on page 17)
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