States and Cities

When the name of a state stands alone in a sentence, spell it out. When the name of a city and state are used together, the name of the state should be abbreviated (except for Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah). States should also be abbreviated when used as part of a short-form political affiliation. Examples: He came from Lafayette, Ind. The peace accord was signed in Dayton, Ohio. The wildfire began in California and moved east toward Carson City, Nev.

State abbreviations in AP style differ from the two-letter ZIP code abbreviations. Here is how each state is abbreviated in AP style:

State Abbreviations
Ala.	Neb.
Ariz.	Nev.
Ark.	N.H.
Calif.	N.J.
Colo.	N.M.
Conn.	N.Y.
Del.	N.C.
Fla.	N.D.
Ga.	Okla.
Ill.	Ore.
Ind.	Pa.
Kan.	R.I.
Ky.	S.C.
La.	S.D.
Md.	Tenn.
Mass.	Vt.
Mich.	Va.
Minn.	Wash.
Miss.	W.Va.
Mo.	Wis.
Mont.	Wyo.

AP style does not require the name of a state to accompany the names of the following 30 cities:

Cities Not Requiring State Names
Atlanta	Phoenix
Baltimore	Pittsburgh
Boston	St. Louis
Chicago	Salt Lake City
Cincinnati	San Antonio
Cleveland	San Diego
Dallas	San Francisco
Denver	Seattle
Detroit	Washington
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia

Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/02/

Michelle Huang
Editor, Three Penny Press