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 co lead-counsel in a $3 billion dollar settlement plan with the NCAA over name, image, and likeness deals for college student athletes took direct aim at former Alabama football coach Nick Saban. Steve Berman says he thinks an updated agreement with the NCAA will solve the judge's concerns over roster limits that have delayed the settlement's approval -
Birmingham officials are fighting to keep control of the state's largest water board, alleging in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that a new bill shifting power to Alabama's Republican leadership and majority-white suburbs "constitutes blatant racial discrimination." -
The deadline to get a REAL ID is fast approaching in Alabama and elsewhere after years of postponements and delays. Starting May 7, your license or identification card will need to be REAL ID-compliant to fly domestically in the U.S. It’s also known as the “STAR ID” in Alabama. -
University of Alabama graduates could have some unwelcome news coming today. The Trump administration is ordering the U.S. Department of Education to start collecting on student loans in default. The U.S. Treasury Department could claw back those dollars through the garnishment of wages. The website Education Data Initiative says Alabama has greater student loan debt on average than the rest of the nation. Over six hundred thousand Alabamians have outstanding college loans that need to be paid back. -
Alireza Doroudi has been detained in an immigration facility in Louisiana for nearly six weeks. Doroudi's detention has instilled fear in the small Iranian community in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he and his fiancee are doctoral students. Doroudi's visa was revoked in 2023, but he wasn't given a reason. His fiancee says he was told that he was legally allowed to stay in the U.S. as long as he remained a student. Now, one Iranian doctoral student says the fear in her community "feels like we're returning back to Iran again." -
Alabama Public Radio newsroom student intern Barry Carmichael recently reported on a bill before the state legislature that would widen the incentives to bring entertainment projects to Alabama. That list of films also feature “The Life of Chuck,” based on a novel by Stephen King, which was shot along the Alabama Gulf coast. That includes a tie-in to “Star Wars” and the observance of Sunday's “May the 4th Be With You” Day, which is followed by Monday's "Revenge of the 5th." Both are a play on words related to the Sci Fi film classic series. -
Alabama is known as “football country.” But, this Saturday, a Thomasville grocery story owner has his sights on something other than the CFP College Football Championship. Robbie Norman owns Coal Battle--an unproven racehorse he reportedly bought for $70,000 two years ago. Coal Battle has paid back that investment with a shot at the so called “run for the roses.” -
A suspect whom authorities have linked to white supremacist movements has been arrested in the March 2019 fire that destroyed an office at a storied Tennessee social justice center. Regan Prater was arrested last week and charged with one count of arson. Rosa Parks and John Lewis trained there. -
Labor leaders, politicians and civil rights activists are mourning the death of Mobile, Alabama native Alexis Herman, the first Black U.S. Secretary of Labor and a fierce advocate for workplace equality. She died last week at the age of 77. -
On April 27, 2011, during the four-day 2011 Super Outbreak, one hundred and twelve tornadoes touched down across the southeastern United States, killing 319 in the deadliest day of tornadoes in the U.S. since 1925. On this anniversary, disaster managers say what you do before and during a tornado can make the difference between life and death.
