Nicole Girten

Reporter with the Daily Montanan


Master of Science graduate from the Medill School of Journalism

The Fulcrum •

Claim: Rep. Ilhan Omar is connected to illegal ballot harvesting in Minn. Fact check: False

Just after midnight on Sunday, President Trump retweeted a Brietbart story that included a video from Project Veritas, claiming it found Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is connected to illegal ballot harvesting in Minnesota. The video showed a man named Liban Mohamed talking about the hundreds of ballots he'd collected. However, in Minnesota ballot harvesting is legal. In August, a district court blocked a Republican effort to end the practice, claiming that more voters having the opportunity to vot
El Paso Times •

Cluster of ‘persistent poverty’ Texas counties pose challenges for border communities

Editor's note:This story is being published in cooperation with Medill D.C. News Bureau. it was reported and written by Northwestern University graduate journalism students Nicole Girten and Anabel Mendoza. Over 400 counties across the U.S. are considered “persistent poverty,” having high poverty rates for decades. Almost half of the 44 counties in Texas with persistent poverty are located along the U.S.-Mexico border and their high poverty rates and low wage employment are exacerbated by the
The Fulcrum •

Claim: Justice Department can run Trump’s defense in defamation lawsuit. Fact check: True

During a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr said the Department of Justice could take over as President Trump's defense team in the defamation lawsuit brought against him by journalist E. Jean Carroll, citing the Westfall Act. Barr's office is claiming that Trump was acting in his capacity as president of the United States when he called Carroll a liar and therefore is protected under the Westfall Act, which gives federal employees immunity from claims like
UPI •

FDA data reveals racial discrepancies in cardiovascular drug trials

Data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shows that Black Americans are recruited for drug trials at substantially lower rates than White Americans. Seventy-five percent of cardiovascular drug trials reported from 2015-2019 had major racial discrepancies, according to recent data from the FDA. Nine out of the 12 trials report 80% or more White participants and less than 6% African American participants. Previous research has revealed that, historically, minorities, women and those older
Washington Monthly •

The Students of Zoom University

Kira Albiez’s final semester of her nursing master’s program at Johns Hopkins was supposed to be focused on getting hands-on practice, shadowing nurses in clinics and hospitals. “The clinical portion of our classes is really important—it’s where we learn to interact with patients,” she said. When hospitals implemented social-distancing measures, and her program shifted to mostly online classes, that real-world training was dramatically scaled back. It happened in other programs, too. “I have fri
Medill News Service •

The incumbent vs. the veteran: a breakdown of Florida's district 12 congressional race

In the race for Florida’s 12th congressional district between Republican incumbent Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Democratic challenger Kimberly Walker, the two candidates’ policy views and career paths could not be more opposing. Bilirakis first served in the Florida legislature for eight years before heading to Congress in 2007. This year marks his 14th serving on Capitol Hill. Walker came from a self-described poor family and, like many in her family before her, joined the military out of high schoo
Usa Today •

Trump wants to force a ban or sale of TikTok. Here is what political activists on the platform are saying.

Political content creators have not shied away from the social media app TikTok despite President Donald Trump’s executive order that could potentially ban the app. In fact, banning the app, some creators say, could have the unintended consequence of motivating young people to vote in November. TikTok has millions of young users and creators, some of whom have pivoted their content on the app to the election in November. TikTok was not designed as a platform specifically for political discourse
Washington Monthly •

Can Biden Break Through Trump's Base of Hispanic Voters?

When Juan Suarez-Rivas was 17, he volunteered to join a CIA-sponsored group of Cuban exiles who wanted to overthrow Fidel Castro from power. He had only been living five months in Miami before flying to Guatemala in the spring of 1961 to train in the shadow of a volcano. They were preparing for what would later be known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. Things didn’t go as planned. During the invasion, Suarez-Rivas was captured by Castro’s army and imprisoned with 214 others on an island off the coa

Trapped: How the Pandemic Affects Domestic Violence Services across Chicagoland | Illinois Channel

Maria Gomez cried while her children slept. She would wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares. The emotional turmoil of finally leaving her partner after years of verbal and physical abuse, compounded the isolation that came with Chicago’s stay-at-home order. “It was like I was going through withdrawal,” Gomez, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said. When Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the statewide stay-at-home order would go into effect on March
UPI •

Candidates in smaller swing state races struggle financially amid pandemic

When asked to describe what fundraising has been like during a pandemic, first-time Democratic congressional candidate Kimberly Walker did not miss a beat: "Hard." Across the board, donations surged in competitive congressional races despite the coronavirus pandemic. But in smaller races, the pandemic has made it harder to raise money for first-time and lesser-known congressional candidates while low-cost options to advertise and outreach have been limited. Walker paid $9,000 of the $10,400 of
Medill News Service •

$1 million in election funding allocated to Hillsborough County may not be enough

Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer said Wednesday that the county was given a total just over $1 million in funds from the CARES Act and the county to spend on ensuring safe elections in August and November. However, he’s not sure he can stretch that funding far enough to cover all that’s needed for protection against coronavirus spreading on Election Day. “We’re going to go through that million pretty quick,” Latimer said. The CARES Act appropriated $400 million in emer
UPI •

Esper says it's 'unclear' who ordered protesters dispersed from Lafayette Square

July 9 (UPI) -- Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Thursday that it is "still unclear" who gave the order to disperse thousands of protesters in Lafayette Square outside the White House so President Donald Trump could walk through the park for a photo-op. Law enforcement officers forcefully cleared Lafayette Park of the protesters who were rallying against the murder of George Floyd and racial injustice in the early evening of June 1. Witnesses said U.S. Park Police and the D.C. National Guar
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