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 Justice Department is ramping up its efforts to reduce violent crime in the U.S., launching a specialized gun intelligence center in Chicago and expanding task forces to curb carjackings. Alabama will be part of that effort.
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Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would provide new sentences for about 30 inmates who were given the death penalty despite a jury's recommendation of life imprisonment. The 2017 overturning of Alabama’s judicial override law occurred following the airing of Alabama Public Radio’s national award-winning prison investigation “…and justice for all.”
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Boeing’s new Starliner space capsule is on the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, next door to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The vehicle, on top of an Alabama built Atlas-V rocket, is scheduled for an early May blastoff to the International Space Station.
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Following on the heels of Governor Kay Ivey’s warning to Alabama autoworkers not to unionize, State lawmakers advanced legislation on economic incentive dollars for companies that voluntarily recognize a union without holding a secret ballot election.
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On the eve of a vote on union representation at Volkswagen's Tennessee factory, Governor Bill Lee and five other southern governors are telling workers that voting for a union will put jobs in jeopardy. Republican Kay Ivey of Alabama signed onto that statement.
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President Joe Biden's reelection campaign continues wrangling with Republican-dominated state governments in Ohio and Alabama to assure he is listed on their fall ballots, as once-mundane procedural negotiations get caught up in the nation's fractious politics. It’s apparently happened before in Alabama history.
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The November election will include the first vote for Alabama’s newly redrawn District two U.S. House seat. An analysis by the non-profit National Redistricting Foundation says turnout could be big.
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The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing Idaho to enforce its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth while lawsuits over the law proceed, reversing lower courts. The list of states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors includes Alabama.
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Israel has hailed the success of its defenses in the face of an unprecedented attack by Iran. The U.S. military took part in defending against the more than three hundred drones and ballistic missiles that were launched. Alabama reportedly played a role in developing the weapons used by the U.S. Navy.
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A growing number of progressive politicians are choosing to tell their own abortion stories. The list includes newly elected Alabama State House member Marilyn Lands, who won a special election by focusing on reproductive rights.