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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Ruling in the case of a Black pastor who was arrested while watering his neighbor’s flowers, the Alabama Supreme Court said police can demand to see identification during a stop if they are dissatisfied with a person's verbal answers. -
One of the team's most notable players made two notable changes during the offseason. He added Coleman to his now-hyphenated last name to honor his mother and switched from No. 2 to No. 1, returning to the digit he wore in high school for in-state powerhouse Saraland -
Alabama guard Aden Holloway was arrested on a felony drug charge, just days before the start of the NCAA Tournament, authorities said. Holloway, 21, was arrested by agents with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force, -
Disturbing video footage shot by Alabama prison inmates wasn’t enough to sway voters for the 2026 Academy Awards. “The Alabama Solution” lost to “Mister Nobody versus Putin” at last night’s Oscars. The winning entry for “Best Documentary Feature” similarly used video shot in secret. A school videographer in Russia used footage he took at schools to illustrate how Vladmir Putin is working to indoctrinate young students. -
Three of the six U.S. service members who died in the crash of a U.S. military refueling aircraft were stationed in Birmingham as part of 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. -
A pilot from Alabama had just been promoted to major in January and had been deployed less than a week when the refueling aircraft he was aboard crashed in Iraq this week, killing him and five others. -
AJ Storr scored 17 points, Ilias Kamardine added 16 and 15th-seeded Mississippi upset No. 15 and second-seeded Alabama 80-79 on Friday night in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals. Mississippi won for the third time in three days in the tournament after losing 12 of the final 13 regular-season games. -
Opponents of capital punishment in the U.S. are talking “next steps” after what Governor Kay Ivey did this week. The Governor commuted the death sentence of Charles Burton. He’ll remain in prison without the chance of parole. Burton didn’t shoot the victim during a 1991 robbery. -
Governor Kay Ivey is commuting the sentence of Alabama death row inmate Charles “Sonny” Burton. He had spent the last thirty years awaiting execution for the 1991 killing of Doug Battle at a Talladega AutoZone store. Burton’s case attracted national attention since he did not pull the trigger. Prosecutors charged him under what’s known as felony murder. That law makes a convicted offender as guilty as the person who committed the killing. -
The Falcons are giving a former starting quarterback a test drive.ESPN reports the team plans to sign Tua Tagovailoa to a one-year deal when free agency officially begins on Wednesday.Michael Penix Jr. is recovering from a knee injury and could miss Week One.
