Pat Duggins

With the Alabama Crimson Tide gearing up for Saturday's SEC season opener against Ole Miss, APR's Pat Duggins takes you "behind the scenes" at the press box of Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Radio, television, and print reporters, as well as students studying journalism, all crowd the press box to cover the Tide, including the team's first home game of 2015 against Middle Tennessee.

It was on this date back in 1963, when four black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast. Ceremonies in Birmingham remembered the victims of the attack. Click here to listen to some of Alabama Public Radio's international award winning coverage of the civil rights movement...

Alabama is ranked number 3 and Auburn number 6 in the Associated Press college football poll. The defending national champion Ohio Buckeyes took the top slot by receiving all sixty one first-place votes from the media panel in the rankings released Sunday. The TCU Horned Frogs are ranked number two, followed by Alabama, Baylor and Michigan State. The Buckeyes won the first College Football Playoff championship last season and are trying to become the 12th team to win consecutive AP titles since the poll began in 1936. Alabama won back to back BCS titles in 2012 and 2013.

Now, that GOP front runner Donald Trump has moved on from his rally in Mobile, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is gearing up for a visit to Tuscaloosa on Tuesday. Alabama was once considered a flyover state for presidential hopefuls. But, state GOP leaders that’s not the case now and six Republican Presidential hopefuls are lining up for a chance to woo voters in this self-avowed consecutive state. Governor Robert Bentley last Monday endorsed Ohio Governor John Kasich. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker spoke in Talladega on Saturday.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump arrived in flamboyant style to a rally in Mobile. The billionaire businessman circled Ladd-Peebles stadium in his private 757 jet before his speech. Trump told the estimated crowd of twenty thousand people that he knows "how Billy Graham felt" as he brings his campaign to thousands of Alabama voters. The former host of the TV reality show “The Apprentice” boasted "to have the election tomorrow" based on his standing in GOP polls. Trump was welcomed by an array of Alabama politicians, including Republican Senator Jeff Sessions.

A German auto parts maker has announced plans to build its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Alabama. The Alabama Department of Commerce says Schmidt Maschinenbau GmbH is planning to build its plant in Auburn. Production of engine components is expected to begin in 2016. The plant will make parts for Mercedes-Benz and other German automakers. Governor Robert Bentley says the plant will create fifty jobs and the company is planning to invest roughly $17 million in the plant.

As friends and family mourn the victims of Thursday's theater shooting in Louisiana, investigators are gathering clues on the alleged gunman for Phenix City, Alabama. Police say John Houser booby-trapped his Alabama home to keep anyone from living there after his pending eviction. The new owners found the gas starter tube in the fireplace was twisted out and ignited, the logs removed. Houser had grown into someone better known by neighbors and colleagues as an angry provocateur.

Former Crimson Tide quarterback Kenny Stabler, who later led the Oakland Raiders in the NFL, is dead. Stabler’s ex-wife, the University of Alabama, and the foundation that bears his name all confirm that the former football star died from cancer at the age of sixty nine.

The state is taking the first step to challenge a judge's order against the shutdown of the VictoryLand casino in Macon County. The Attorney General's office filed a notice of appeal in the case on Friday. The state will fight a ruling by Circuit Judge William Shashy. The judge ruled earlier this week that the state was wrongly targeting VictoryLand while letting other gambling halls stay open in the state. Shashy dismissed the state's attempt to keep almost two thousand machines and more than quarter million dollars seized in a raid two years ago. VictoryLand has been closed since then.

Tuscaloosa World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Deontay Wilder won his first ever title defense before an Alabama crowd. The “Bronze Bomber” knocked down challenger Eric Molina several times before landing a hard right hook in the ninth round that ended the fight. Wilder made over forty percent of his jabs and fifty six percent of his power punches compared to only eight percent jabs for Molina and thirty seven percent of his punches. Observers expected Wilder to knock Molina out by the second round. However, the challenger held his own until the ninth and final round.

Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords of Arizona is being recognized with a Navy ship named in her honor at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. The former lawmaker is set to attend the christening of the USS Gabrielle Giffords. The four hundred foot ship was built at the Austal shipyard in Mobile. It's the Navy's tenth littoral combat ship designed to operate in shallow waters near the coast. Giffords was badly wounded in a 2011 shooting that left six dead and thirteen injured in Tuscon. The Democrat left Congress and later founded an organization that supports gun control.

Deontay Wilder makes his first ever boxing title defense in Birmingham against Eric Molina tonight. The Tuscaloosa native will fight on the campus of UAB, and not his hometown. Wilder won his first thirty two fights by knockout within the first four rounds before winning the title. He won a unanimous decision over Bermane Stiverne earlier this year. There hasn't been a title fight in Alabama, although native sons Evander Holyfield and Joe Louis were also heavyweight boxing champions. Eric Molina has won his last five fights, including three knockouts.

Monday is the fifth anniversary of the Gulf Oil spill. Below are links to Alabama Public Radio’s national award winning coverage of the aftermath of the disaster off Alabama’s gulf coast in 2010. “Oil & Water: Recovering From the Spill” examined the initial recovery efforts, as well as the long-term effect of the spill on the economy, environment, and mental health of the region. "Oil & Water" won first place for best news series from "The Public Radio News Directors' Incorporated" in 2012.  It was APR's first PRNDI award in a decade.

Governor Robert Bentley is looking for more sources of state revenue and one agency may have found one. The Alabama Department of Revenue is considering a new rule requiring companies that offer digital streaming services to pay a four percent state tax. The fee would apply to movies, television programs and music. The revenue department says it's an attempt to update tax code for the digital era. Governor Bentley wants new taxes to plug a half billion dollar hole in the state budget. Opponents say the rule overreaches the bounds of current tax law.

The budget standoff between Governor Robert Bentley and the state legislature now involves state parks. State House member Joe Faust wants to make state parks self sufficient, so Montgomery doesn’t have to spend tax dollars on them. Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores is one of five facilities statewide that turn a profit. Still, Park Director Lisa Larraway says any budget cuts would be felt. Governor Bentley says he’ll veto any budget bill that doesn’t raise taxes to plug a half billion dollar spending shortfall. He’s proposing ideas like hiking cigarette taxes as one solution.

The former financial chief of two Alabama nonprofits for the poor and homeless will plead guilty to defrauding millions of dollars from the clinics and the federal agencies that fund them. The U.S. Attorney's office says Terri McGuire Mollica has agreed to plead guilty to almost twenty counts related to fraud against the government, including wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. Mollica worked for Birmingham Health Care and the Central Alabama Comprehensive Health Inc.

The Kentuck Art Center near Tuscaloosa kicked off a capital campaign to renovate its facilities with the receipt of a $50,000 donation from Alabama Power. Mark Crews, Vice President of the utility’s western division, presented the check to the Kentuck board during a member event at Chuck’s Fish in Downtown Tuscaloosa. The campaign seeks to raise over a million dollars to refurbish its five building complex in the town of Northport. Part of the Kentuck complex had to be evacuated when it became infested by bats.