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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An Alabama case worker has been fired and a state investigation is underway after a three year old toddler died in a hot car while in the custody of The Department of Human Resources. Ke’Torrius Starks Jr was supposed to be taken back to daycare following a supervised visit with his biological father. Published reports say the youngster was left in a hot car for hours and declared dead about an hour after police arrived. -
A federal judge reprimanded lawyers with a high-priced firm defending Alabama’s prison system for using ChatGPT to write court filings with “completely made up” case citations. U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco publicly reprimanded three lawyers with Butler Snow, the law firm hired to defend Alabama and other jurisdictions in lawsuits against their prison systems. -
Tommy Castellanos moved on from Boston College to Florida State for a crack at beating national power Alabama in the season opener. He’s one of several high profile college quarterbacks who used the transfer portal to switch teams before the start of the 2025 season. -
Cancer patients along the Alabama Gulf coast will have another treatment option. U-S-A Health will soon be the first hospital system in the state to use a new technique that uses ultrasound energy to break up liver tumors. Only about one hundred hospitals nationwide are using the new technique. -
All sides are preparing arguments for a three judge panel over how Alabama draws future voting maps. A three-judge federal panel has scheduled a hearing one week from today on whether federal oversight is needed for Alabama. Criticism was made over how conservative handled the creation of the new minority U.S. House seat in District two. -
The death of an unarmed 52-year-old man who died after an Alabama police officer kneeled on his neck was ruled a homicide by a county coroner, according to an official autopsy reviewed by The Associated Press. The finding led lawyers representing Phillip Reeder's family on Monday to compare his death to that of George Floyd in 2020. -
An Associated Press analysis shows Donald Trump’s travel pace is about the same as that of his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. By his six-month mark in office on July 20, Trump will have made 49 trips to 14 states and seven foreign countries. That’s not far off from Biden's pace. The Democrat made 45 trips to 17 states and three foreign countries early in his presidency during the pandemic. -
The Trump administration reportedly wants to cancel a collection of science missions at NASA. One, whose development and operation is based at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, appears to be one rallying point for NASA workers planning on staging a protest over federal budget cuts. The demonstration is set to take place on what’s known as “Moon Day” on July 20th, when the agency celebrates the landing astronauts on the moon during Apollo 11 in 1969. -
While Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer is hoping to send a message during the Crimson Tide’s season opener against FSU next month, Texas is the preseason favorite to take home all the marbles and win the Southeastern Conference championship. The Longhorns, with quarterback Arch Manning leading the team, garnered the most votes from the media during this week’s SEC media days. Texas received ninety six of the two hundred and four votes to claim the title on December 6 in Atlanta. -
Protests and events against President Donald Trump's controversial policies that include mass deportations and cuts to Medicaid and other safety nets for poor people have started Thursday at more than 1,600 locations around the country. The “Good Trouble Lives On” national day of action honors the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. The late activist and Congressman was among the voting rights marchers beaten and tear gassed in 1965 as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
