OP here, I am not an US native but it still is inexcusable. I cannot edit the post anymore, so thank You for posting the correct abbreviation.

Funny, based on the context I read “AK” as Arkansas. If headline had mentioned oil drilling I probably would have read it as Alaska.

So many readers know neither of those abbrevs that I think we should just take a prefix of the title (since it's too long to make HN's 80 char limit). I've done so now.