NRC (News Research Center) is slated to be closed in one month.

We at NRC, Rhonda Shafner and Randy Herschaft, the two remaining researchers out of an initial 10 people, are asking that you sign our petition urging AP to reconsider.

NRC is a critical part of fact-based journalism, contributing to AP's accuracy and productivity, especially when there is fast-breaking news. While editors and reporters make the necessary phone calls and knock on the necessary doors, NRC researchers are helping them answer the questions and ultimately saving everyone time and money.

We successfully research questions such as:

--Will Biden be the first president to be a great-grandfather in office? (A.I. got it wrong.)

--Given just a signature on a public document, can you decipher the name of the doctor who delivered Barack Obama and find that doctor?

--Can you find descendants of Black WWII soldiers in Bamber Bridge, England June 1943 involved in melee with white soldiers?

Additionally, very few staffers have access to mobile and unlisted numbers and that contact information is one of the bread and butter requests we frequently receive.

With at least three public record databases at our disposal, plus legal, news and business, and decades of experience, we can often find things that others can't.