I know that's probably the excuse, but when you publish an article online, your audience isn't necessarily local anymore.

Even in local, physical papers it can be problematic if you are a small state or bordering several nearby states.

All they need to do is mention the city and state once at the very beginning of the article, and that would completely solve the problem.

And it goes without saying that acronyms should never be used without spelling out the full name/phrase first. Someone who writes for a living should know better.