Patrick M. O'Connell

Patrick M. O'Connell is a former Tribune reporter.

Justin Reyes administers a COVID-19 test to Maria Suarez outside Heartland Health Centers in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood on July 10, 2020.

Governor to those protesting stay-at-home order: ‘We’re in the middle of an emergency, a pandemic’

April 19, 2020 at 11:49 p.m.

A small group of protesters holding "Don't tread on me" flags and chanting "Open Illinois!" demonstrated outside the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on Sunday, the latest in a series...

Paul Kilgus tends to dairy cows at the Kilgus Farmstead.

With schools and coffee shops closed, Illinois dairy farmers face tough choices in an economy battered by coronavirus

April 17, 2020 at 11:13 p.m.

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Kilgus Farmstead in central Illinois produced 6,500 gallons of milk a week. The family-run farm in Livingston County, northeast of Bloomington, relied on orders from...

Work being done on a levee in Marion County, Mo., on May 15, 2019.

The Mississippi River has many nicknames. Now it has a new one: America’s ‘most endangered river.’

April 14, 2020 at 4:06 p.m.

The upper Mississippi River, from its headwaters in Minnesota to the southern tip of Illinois, has been named the most endangered river in the United States, according to an annual...

Pritzker: ‘It’s wrong’ the way federal government has handled coronavirus pandemic

April 6, 2020 at 12:29 a.m.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker expressed frustration Sunday at the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying the way top officials have handled the lead-up to the crisis and the...

Lurie Children's Hospital, shown June 9, 2012.

Lurie Children’s Hospital loans 10 ventilators to Northwestern Memorial for coronavirus patients

April 7, 2020 at 5:34 p.m.

Lurie Children's Hospital on Friday loaned 10 ventilators to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in an effort to help fight the coronavirus crisis in the city. With COVID-19 hitting older populations more...

As spring rains arrive amid the coronavirus crisis, towns prep for flooding: ‘Last year was really scary. You never know what the river is going to do.’

April 2, 2020 at 7:35 p.m.

In Rock Island, public works crews are staggering their hours. In central Illinois, dredging work continues at the confluence of the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, though the main focus has...

Signs on a fence surrounding a Dakota Access pipeline mainline valve in a cornfield in Mount Sterling, Illinois, on Dec. 12, 2019.

Activists rail about need for Dakota Access pipeline expansion as coronavirus threatens oil markets and federal ruling raises more questions

March 30, 2020 at 10:55 p.m.

The possibility that more oil will be allowed to flow through the Dakota Access pipeline has been increasing for months, as state agencies have granted approval for plans to boost...

Patrick M. O'Connell

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