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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Fans of the Crimson Tide got to see all four quarterbacks play during Saturday’s game against Mercer. One of Jalen Milroe’s three back-ups will move into the starting QB slot next year, assuming the Tide starter leaves to go pro. Number nine ranked Alabama beat the non-conference Bears fifty two to seven. -
After one of the most chaotic and least productive U.S. House sessions in modern history, voters made a surprising choice in elections — they overwhelmingly stuck with the status quo. Republicans will hold onto a thin majority in the House. Democrat Shomari Figures win in Alabama’s new District 2 in the state’s black belt, and a new minority majority seat in Louisiana may help keep the balance of power tighter. -
Alabama apparently didn’t make much of an impression on the CFP playoff committee following its pasting of LSU last weekend. The panel that picks teams for the first ever playoffs only ticked the Tide up by one slot to number ten. Alabama’s next opportunity to make an impression is tomorrow when Mercer comes to Bryant-Denny Stadium -
It looks like November is turning into the month for medieval festivals. Last week, we told you about the very first event of this type to take place in Scottsboro. Now, it’s the turn of the Gulf coast with the Mobile Renaissance Faire and Pirate Festival starting this Saturday in Robertsdale. -
Alabama’s two U.S. Senators are giving very different answers on Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General. Newly resigned Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz was under a House Ethics investigation for alleged sex crimes. -
If a little stargazing this weekend sound like fun, then a celestial light show is coming. The annual Leonid meteor shower is set to occur in a few days. The shooting stars appear in the night sky as the Earth passes through the debris coming off of comet Temple Tuttle. -
Based on Donald Trump's first term and his campaign statements, the United States will become less predictable, more chaotic, colder to allies and warmer to some strongmen, and much more transactional in picking friends globally than before. European country where all this seems okay is Serbia. That’s according to Tamara Bajcic. She’s CEO of the fact checking, anti-disinformation, think tank in Belgrade called DEMOSTAT. APR first met Bajcic at the invitation of the U.S. State Department. -
Visitors to the McWane Science Center in Birmingham may be in for a trip down the Yellow Brick Road this weekend. The center’s IMAX theater will be hosting a Saturday screening of the 1939 movie classic The Wizard of Oz with the new movie musical Wicked to begin showings next week. -
The family of a University of Alabama student is gearing up for trial following his drowning death three years ago. Garrett Walker’s family is also now suing the Delta Chi International Fraternity. -
Rafael may be gone, but forecasters are now watching a new disturbance in the Caribbean. That new system could become a tropical storm by mid November. Rafael was no threat to Alabama’s Gulf coast. But, the National Weather Service says that past storm is a reminder that a tropical system doesn’t have to hit Alabama directly to have an impact.
