Usage: Stanch/Staunch

From today's paper:

Some folks who live along Bluff Road are fighting the expansion of industrial land toward Hopkins.
Tuesday, Richland County Council weighs a request to rezone nearly 148 acres from rural to light-industrial use.
Residents say the change would conflict with a long-standing promise by the county to staunch the creep of businesses along the road leading to the Congaree National Park.

The preferred usage still is "stanch" for the verb (and there's no question if you are strictly following AP style -- Stanch is a verb: He stanched the flow of blood. Staunch is an adjective.)