How to Remove Menu, Sub-Menu, Sub-Sub-Menu From URLs?

[newslancers]

I'm not using a SEF module (such as sh404sef) because it interferes with my template. So, I'm using the built-in SEF, which is nearly okay for my purposes. However, I use nested sections and categories. For instance, a "local" section might contain three categories. With menu items, I get URLs that appear like this:

http://www.site.com/local/local-news/co ... rticlename

What I want is http://www.site.com/local/articlename

How can I accomplish this, and please describe the steps. I was following a thread on hidden menus, but it did nothing to get rid of the menu aliases in my URLs.

Thanks.