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 Menlo Park, California-based company Meta says it will open an $800 million data center in Montgomery. The internet giant operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.
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Students on the University of Alabama campus joined nationwide campus protests over Israel and Gaza. Marchers gathered at the plaza near the university's financial building on the Tuscaloosa campus.
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An Alabama built rocket is maybe days away from making space history. The Atlas-V is set to carry two astronauts and a new NASA space capsule called Starliner. Not even the astronauts know how it will go.
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Two-time reigning national champion UConn is among the teams that have dramatically changed their rosters with transfers during college basketball's open portal window. But, fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball will see some key players wearing different uniforms, thanks to that same transfer portal. The changes follow Alabama’s first ever appearance in the Final Four.
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The Biden administration is moving reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. That’s being hailed as a monumental step in reshaping national policy. But it might do little to ease a longstanding problem in the cannabis industry, including in Alabama. Medicinal marijuana is regulated by the State. But, there's a reported lack of loans, checking accounts and banking services for this industry that other businesses take for granted.
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Some 170 foundations, donors and advisors have signed on to a pledge started by the nonprofit Democracy Fund to make their grants earlier this Election Year. The "get out the vote" effort will reportedly include Alabama.
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The document in which Abraham Lincoln blockaded southern ports, including Mobile, is now part of the late President’s library and museum. The order set in motion the Union's military response to the launch of the U.S. Civil War. The document is now among Illinois' prized papers of the 16th president, thanks to a donation by the state's governor and first lady. APR covered the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Mobile Bay, which occurred after the signing.
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Democrats in both Alabama and Florida are looking to the possible political blowback from conservative actions like the Sunshine State’s new six week abortion that takes effect starting in May. There's also the ongoing headaches from an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children. Activists in both States think reproductive rights could be a rallying cry during the November election
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At least five Republican state attorneys general are challenging a new federal regulation that mandates protections for transgender students at schools. The federal rule opposes sweeping policies to allow transgender people from using the school bathrooms that align with their gender. At least eleven states, including Alabama, have such laws in their books already.
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The second of two new nuclear reactors for the Georgia Power Company’s number four unit at Plant Vogtle has entered commercial operation. Utilities in parts of Alabama as well as Jacksonville, Florida, as well as in the Florida Panhandle also have contracted to buy Vogtle's power.