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 Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission on Thursday approved licenses for dispensaries, a key step to making medical marijuana available in the state after years of delay. Commission Chairman Rex Vaughn estimated the products will be available in the spring of 2026. The state’s medical marijuana program has been delayed by false starts and litigation over who should hold the licenses to sell and grow cannabis -
Eli Lilly, known for medications including Prozac, the weight loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, and the mass producing insulin and the polio vaccine, is coming to Huntsville. The Company plans to build a $6 billion dollar manufacturing facility in north Alabama. -
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a case that could make it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled. The justices are taking up an appeal from Alabama, which wants to put to death a man who lower federal courts found is intellectually disabled and shielded from execution. -
The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn from an agreement with the city of Houston to curb illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods, part of the Trump administration’s broad dismantling of environmental justice initiatives. This follows a similar move in Alabama. -
Memphis has hired former Alabama associate head coach Charles Huff as football coach after his one season at Southern Miss. Athletic director Ed Scott announced the hiring with Huff replacing Ryan Silverfield, who left for Arkansas at the end of November. -
Arizona took over the top spot in the AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll, a reward for a perfect start to the season that includes a quartet of wins against ranked foes, including a lopsided victory over Auburn last weekend. Alabama remained at No. 12. -
Seven decades after Rosa Parks was thrust indelibly into American history for refusing to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, new photos of the Civil Rights Movement icon have been made public for the first time, and they illustrate aspects of her legacy that are often overlooked. -
Alabama’s loss to Georgia during the SEC Championship did not cost the team its shot at the championship. The College Football Playoff Committee put the Tide at number nine against Oklahoma. -
Alabama is forcing the committee that will set the College Football Playoff bracket to revisit an old question: Should a 12-team tournament to determine the national champion include a program with three losses? And Duke is bringing up a new head-scratcher that nobody really thought of before: Could a team possibly make the playoff with five? -
Gunner Stockton threw three touchdown passes as No. 3 Georgia solidified its position for a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff and beat Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game for the first time, pounding the 10th-ranked Crimson Tide 28-7 on Saturday.
