ILLINOIS STATE NEWS BRIEF (02/23/2024)

(SPRINGFIELD) Illinois was included in yesterday’s massive cellular service outage that affected thousands of customers across the nation. In fact, more than 50,000 AT&T users reported service outages in Illinois with the most outages occuring in the Chicago area. While some Verizon and T-Mobile customers also experienced problems with servics, both companies say their networks were operating normally although the reported outages were likely reflecting their customers attempting to reach users in other networks.

(SPRINGFIELD) The Illinois Department of Public Health has issued an updated standing order allowing schools to keep a supply of medications on hand to treat opioid overdoses and also permitting school nurses or other trained personnel to administer the drugs to students in the event of an opioid overdose. The updated order also makes it clear that statewide schools can obtain a supply of such medications without a prescription.

(SPRINGFIELD) The Illinois Department of Revenue is reminding senior citizens about the availability of the Senior Citizen Real Estate Tax Deferral Program, which works like a loan, allowing qualified seniors to defer all or part of their property taxes and special assessment payments on their principle residences. Taxpayers who apply and qualify are allowed to defer a maximum of $7,500 per tax year, including both first and second installment payments. The deadline date for senior citizens to apply for the program is March 1st.