Patrick M. O'Connell

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

A member of the press receives hand sanitizer at the entrance to the press filing area before a rally for former Vice President and presidential candidate Joe Biden at Renaissance High School Monday, March 9, 2020, in Detroit. Campaign volunteers required members of the press to receive hand sanitizer as a measure of protection from COVID-19, or coronavirus. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

We have lots of new questions about coronavirus. A Northwestern doctor has answers.

March 26, 2020 at 2:54 p.m.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, new questions about the virus and how to respond in our daily lives arise every day. We posed several of these new questions to Dr....

A ferry to Madeline Island passes by ice fisherman in Bayfield, Wisconsin, on Jan. 25, 2020.

Ice shapes economy, identity of Lake Superior’s coastal towns. But it’s disappearing.

March 15, 2020 at 6:59 p.m.

In the past decade, balmy winter temperatures and waning ice cover have complicated Aron Kastern's charters.

Denise Oedy, of Chicago, sanitizes her hands after voting early in Chicago on March 5, 2020.

How Election Day in Illinois is adjusting to the coronavirus: fewer polling places, more hand sanitizer

March 12, 2020 at 11:39 p.m.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday evening the primary election in Illinois will be held as planned despite a wave of other closures and cancellations caused by the coronavirus pandemic....

Onlookers walk near opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline expansion in Chicago.

Environmental activists, pipeline proponents pack hearing in Chicago on Dakota Access expansion plans

March 5, 2020 at 11:05 p.m.

Dozens of environmental activists and union laborers turned out in force Thursday morning for the Illinois Commerce Commission hearing on the proposed expansion of the Dakota Access pipeline, which transports...

Grace Kordulla, left, and Joanna Nawotka wait for car traffic to pass on West Lawrence Avenue while walking along the Des Plaines River Trail on the Chicago/Schiller Park border on Feb. 22, 2020. The women chose to cross automobile traffic on the road instead of taking a pedestrian underpass because it was flooded and frozen.

Without upgrades, the Des Plaines River Trail faces more flooding — some wonder whether the cost is worth it as heavy rains become more common.

March 4, 2020 at 7:23 p.m.

Along the Des Plaines River Trail, as trucks trundle past on Grand Avenue and trains rumble across the bridge spanning the slow-moving waters, the ground is soggy and caked in...

Wilt Chamberlain (13) and Wes Unseld (41) reach for a rebound during the 1973 NBA All-Star Game that was played at Chicago Stadium on Jan. 23, 1973.

Michael Jordan starred the last time Chicago hosted the NBA All-Star Game. But the first time the city hosted in 1973? It was a much different era.

February 14, 2020 at 3:51 a.m.

The last time Chicago hosted NBA All-Star festivities, in 1988, the Bulls' Michael Jordan famously soared from the free throw line in the dunk contest. The next night, he scored...

A bicyclist rides the Lakefront Trail near North Avenue Beach in Chicago as Lake Michigan waves crash along the lakefront on Feb. 4, 2020.

Lake Michigan water levels break monthly record high for the first time in more than 30 years; Illinois to review shoreline damage

February 7, 2020 at 8:30 p.m.

Pounding waves, eroding bluffs, submerged trails and disappearing beaches have become a common sight along the Lake Michigan shoreline during the past months. While lake levels usually reach their lowest...

Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows on March 24, 2019.

A year after high-profile split, Harvest Bible Chapel revamps, and Pastor James MacDonald sues radio host ‘Mancow’

February 3, 2020 at 2:24 p.m.

It has been a year since the relationship between Harvest Bible Chapel and Pastor James MacDonald began to dissolve. Since MacDonald's ouster, Harvest has completely revamped its leadership team, replacing...

Flooded fields around Kaskaskia, Illinois, on July 1, 2019. Kaskaskia, the first capital of Illinois, is located on an island on the Mississippi River.

In 2019 — the 2nd wettest year ever in the U.S. — flooding cost Illinois and the Midwest $6.2 billion. Scientists predict more waterlogged days ahead.

January 16, 2020 at 5:12 p.m.

Flooding on the Mississippi River and its tributaries throughout Illinois and the Midwest caused an estimated $6.2 billion in damage in 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday....

Duke Peltier, 43, stands near his home on the shore of Lake Huron in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on the Manitoulin Island, Ontario, on Nov. 24, 2019.

On the largest freshwater island in the world, Lake Huron’s Native Americans warn of the fragility of water

July 25, 2024 at 2:01 p.m.

In their native tongue, the Anishinaabe people have many words for water.

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