AP exists for English teachers to be able to quantify their largely unquantifiable profession in some way. In order to keep cashing in on the sham, they continue to rewrite their rules yearly to be more bizarre and unintuitive every time.
You might be thinking of the APA style guide. I think the parent was talking about the AP Stylebook, which is the style guide used by the Associated Press.
Yes, Associated Press. And to clarify, that style (at least back when I was doing this) was typically followed by print publications, as the “standard.”
A notable exception being the New York Times, but now we are at the edge of my knowledge about this.