Here’s Some Change I Can Get Behind

The Associated Press is adopting a universal style for referring to all heads of state, including the United States. Effective Thursday at 3 a.m. EST, the AP will use the title and first and family names on first reference: President George W. Bush, not just President Bush; President-elect Barack Obama, not just President-elect Obama; President Nicolas Sarkozy, not just President Sarkozy.

There’s several awesome things about this note from the AP, but my favorite one is that this changeover has a middle-of-the-night start time. Oh, how will President Barack Obama deal with this 3 a.m. crisis?!

But, really, who can get excited about changes like this when papers still use “Web site” as their style? There are still major changes to fight for, people. [via Romenesko]

West Virginia Votes Today! (For Clinton)

Today is yet another presidential primary, this time in West Virginia, and this Associated Press is in-freaking-credible. From the reporter’s “hillbillies” line to the woman who doesn’t like his middle name to the woman who is 100 percent honest and says she’s not voting for Obama because he’s black, this report is a grand slam.

Thanks, John

‘Twin Tickets’ Upsets ‘Online Pedophiles’

Hot on the heels of Jill Porter’s crack candy story going national, fellow Daily News columnist Ronnie Polaneczky’s story of the man who the city hounded for 17 years about his twin’s parking ticketshas hit CNN.

Hey, it’s #10 on the most-read list. Of course it’s below Facebook rocks the vote, but it has just begun. It’s just a shame I had pedophiles stealing your wireless in the pool.

75-Year-Old To Finally Be Thrown Back In Jail

Hey, so today authorities got an extremely dangerous criminal off the streets! Was it a murderer? Nah. Was it a rapist? Duh, of course not. It was a 75-year-old man who escaped from prison 28 years ago!

He served about four months of a 4- to 10-year prison sentence on a drug charge. He’s being held in Philadelphia before being extradited to Jersey, where he escaped from the since-closed Camp Marlboro in 1979. (I assume it was constructed out of cigarettes, making it rather easy to escape.)

And, look who hung around with the authorities who were capturing this dangerous crook!

Journalists from The Associated Press rode along with authorities when they arrested Jurado on Wednesday. He said that he managed to avoid being caught for all these years because he avoided breaking the law while, and moved around frequently.

Woo-hoo! Way to do, everybody involved. Clearly, we are all safer today with this law-breaking citizen off our streets.

Also, his name is Maximo Jurado. Awesome. Maximo Jurado! It sounds like a brand of tequila.

Fugitive caught after 28 years [AP/Daily Record]

Leftovers: Journalism, Redefined

• Whoo! New era of Philadelphia journalism! Local ownership! Somebody go cover that City Hall fire! What, you’re all too busy writing a piece on the future of journalism? Oh, just leave it to the AP then. [AP/Philly.com]

• The best comment on the five pages of random accusations of liberal/conservative bias on Philly.com: “brian, just get rid of the popup ads on philly.com and i’ll consider your reign a success. they’re so 1997, yuck!” Seriously, guys. [Philly.com]

• Hooray for the power of blogging! Or, at least, the power of free Blogspot accounts. [Free Tony Smyrski]

• And, hey, if an organization dedicated to civil liberties can’t consider blocking its board from critiquing its work, then who can? [NYT]