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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The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees wants basketball coach Nate Oates around until 2030. The panel approved the new agreement that will extend his current contract by one season to keep him in charge of the Crimson Tide basketball program through March 14, 2030. The compensation package will increase annually throughout the length of the contract
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President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday aimed at advancing the study of women's health by strengthening data collection and providing better funding opportunities for biomedical research while chiding Republicans for having "no clue about the power of women" but saying they're "about to find out" come November's election. The action comes barely a month after the President called Alabama’s high court ruling that “embryos are children” outrageous and unacceptable.
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Volkswagen's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is likely to be the first test of the United Auto Workers' effort to organize nonunion automobile plants across the nation. This follows moves at Hyundai and Mercedes Benz plants in Alabama toward organizing.
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As March Madness gets underway, more people than ever now can legally bet on sports. North Carolina became the latest state to allow online sports betting last week. Alabama lawmakers are back and forth on legalizing sports betting.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized over one hundred U.S. manufacturing plants for energy efficiency. Four Alabama companies were included, two in Tuscaloosa. The honorees earned the agency’s ENERGY STAR certification in 2023. This designation reserved for manufacturing plants in the top 25% of energy efficiency in their sector.
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Beginning with its ninth international opener, Major League Baseball is traveling to Alabama as well as international stops in 2024. The Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, is among the dates to remember for the upcoming season.
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More than half of Americans say they are against college athletes unionizing, though younger respondents were more supportive than older, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey found that 55% of adults believe NCAA athletes should not be permitted to form unions that would led to collective bargaining with schools. This follows a Congressional roundtable featuring former Alabama football coach Nick Saban on legislation to regulate college sports. Texas Senator Ted Cruz doubts the measure will pass Congress.
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Dorie Ann Ladner, a longtime fighter for freedom and equality in her home state of Mississippi with contributions to the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and voter registration drives, and a Selma voting rights marcher, has died, her family confirmed.
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Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne and Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner Jim Phillips met with Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The subject was legislation to regulate College football and other sports. Cruz came away less certain it will pass.
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The woman at the center of Alabama Senator Katie Britt’s controversial response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address is calling the account inaccurate and used without her permission.