Argh! How could the Associated Press do this?!
I am lamenting that AP has decreed it acceptable to use over to mean more than.
I’m sorry but that is wrong. That message was drilled into me in all of my journalism and English classes. The professors taught me that over is a preposition and that more than has a numerical value.
And, okay, I admit a certain smugness years later when as an editor I could point out that the writer was using over incorrectly.
I know exactly what happened. The AP conceded that it could no longer stop others from using over.
Just because everyone uses a word incorrectly or dumbs it down doesn’t mean that we need to change it.
I’m not giving up the good fight. Not more than my dead body!
Cynthia's Communique 
I agree than “more than” and “over” are not interchangeable. Stick to your guns, and I will continue to tell my students to use the correct word.
And while we are cringing… What about dropping the second half of “not only, but also?” I think that grammar battle was lost 30 years ago.
My fist is raised in solidarity.
(The first time I looked at that sentence, I had made a typo: fish for fist. It’s not nearly as strong a statment that way.)
Hooray! I am with you in this battle for correct grammar and word usage!
Right there with you, Cynthia! I will continue to use MORE THAN correctly. Unfortunately, my sons will now argue with me when I correct them!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! I,TOO,CRINGE WHEN I READ OVER FOR MORE THAN. FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH OUT HERE IN AN IOWA CORNFIELD I WILL CONTINUE TO COMPLAIN