Despite attacks from federal government, Illinois continues to deliver new economic opportunities, stronger education and healthcare, and essential civil rights protections

Idalia Bisbal moved from New York City to Allentown, Pennsylvania, hoping for a cheaper life. Three years later, she feels disappointed by high prices for essentials like food and gas.

Calls from businesses for federal guidance on how to handle the elimination of the penny have so far gone unanswered, pushing some states to take up the issue.

As the Trump administration cracks down on immigration and guts science research funding, Canada has launched an initiative to attract top scientists and highly-skilled H-1B visa holders away from the U.S. This comes after the Trump administration slapped $100,000 fees on new H-1B visas, which has an outsized impact on health care sector workers. Dr. Bobby Mukkamala says physicians are likely to go to Canada “because it's going to be a welcome mat instead of a bill.” However, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Cohen says of Canada’s new initiatives: “I don't see them moving the needle in a significant way.”

Over the course of the year, the Trump administration cut billions in funding for the National Institutes of Health, and $500 million worth of mRNA vaccine research. “There has been erosion of trust in science and public health and medicine,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the Texas Children’s Hospital. “But it’s not random, this occurred deliberately by bad actors for political motivation.” Dr. Francis Collins, the former director of the NIH, said he’s never seen anything like this. Cuts to NIH resulted in the cancellation of 383 clinical trials affecting 74,000 trial participants. “Many of these people very serious cancers for which we don't have a great answer, but maybe we're in the middle of discovering one, and then the trial gets stopped, and all that data is lost, and those people are basically left to drift,” Dr. Collins said. “This is immoral to drop somebody into that space.”

President Trump calls America’s affordability crisis a “hoax,” but two recent legal cases that have come to light suggest his administration may be fueling it. Critics say antitrust enforcement has weakened under Trump, resulting in higher prices for millions of Americans consumers. Former FTC chair Lina Khan goes further and accuses the administration of “handing out special favors to corporate lawbreakers.”

Critics say antitrust enforcement has weakened under President Trump, resulting in higher prices for millions of American consumers. “People are just sick of large corporations using and abusing their market power to make life worse for them,” says former FTC chair Lina Khan. The result is “inflating costs for everyday Americans,” she adds.