Pat Duggins
News DirectorPat Duggins is APR’s news director. As a kid, he watched the Apollo manned moon launches along Florida’s space coast. Pat later spent 14 years covering NASA for NPR. After re-organizing the APR newsroom, he and the team were honored with over 150 awards for excellence in journalism. That includes APR being the first radio newsroom to receive RFK Human Rights’ “Seigenthaler Prize for Courage in Journalism.” Pat holds a master’s degree from the University of Alabama and has published two books on NASA. When he’s not at APR, he enjoys cooking with Lucia, and tending his beloved fig tree.
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday faced federal lawmakers for the first time since September as he sought to defend a more than 12% proposed cut to his department's budget and dodge arrows from angry Democrats along the way. One fight erupted between Kennedy and Alabama Democratic Representative Terri Sewell over comments he made in 2024 about Black children. -
Multiple published reports, led by The Guardian, say former Crimson Tide defensive lineman Luther Davis plans to make a guilty plea later this month to a scam where he wore wigs to impersonate NFL players. -
The four astronauts of NASA‘s Artemis-2 mission are getting used to life on Earth again. The crew splashed down in the Pacific after their flyby of the Moon. The astronauts took photos of the lunar surface, including one spot called the Ocean of Storms. One astronaut from Mobile was supposed to get a lot closer than that. Clifton Williams was meant to land there during Apollo 12 in 1969. -
A south Alabama woman who took part in a No Kings rally in Fairhope last October has been found not guilty following an scuffle with police. A jubilant Renea Gamble emerged from the court room, raising her arms in victory and with a message for her supporters. -
Now that the first lunar travelers in more than a half-century are safely back in Houston with their families, NASA has Artemis III in its sights. One question for this plan appears to be, where’s Apollo 10? -
The website of the Alabama Triple-A that watches gas prices nationally says urban counties in Alabama are catching up with rural counties, which showed more pain at the pump early on following U.S. military action in Iran. -
A man linked to white supremacist movements pleaded guilty on Monday to setting a fire that destroyed an office at a historic social justice center in Tennessee, a court document shows. The facility trained civil rights icons including Rosa Parks, who helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 -
This might be the best endorsement Keelon Russell could get in his case to be Alabama's next starting quarterback… -
Beach goers along Alabama’s Gulf coast will get more than amber alerts and weather warnings on their cell phones. The shark attack messaging system associated with the passage of “Lulu’s law” in the state legislature quietly went into effect today. -
As the tax-filing deadline nears, millions of Americans are expected to claim new federal income tax breaks for tips and overtime wages available for the first time under a wide-ranging tax law enacted by President Donald Trump.
