Nikoel Hytrek is Iowa Starting Line’s longest-serving reporter. She covers LGBTQ issues, abortion rights and all topics of interest to Iowans. Her biggest goal is to help connect the dots between policy and people’s real lives. If you have story ideas or tips, send them over to nikoel@new.iowastartingline.com.
Nikoel Hytrek
Latest from Nikoel Hytrek
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STD Rates In Southeast Iowa Continue To Rise
As family planning clinics across the country face a mounting number of obstacles to providing health care, the conversation often is focused on abortion services and birth control. But family planning services also include Sexually Transmitted Disease [STD] testing and treatment, and data show the absence of family planning services often results in increased STD…
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Eighth Circuit Court Gives LGBTQ Discrimination Case New Life
Today the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals released a decision that adds another opportunity for a case in the Supreme Court concerning the crossroads between anti-discrimination laws and religious freedom. In a 2-1 decision, the panel of judges decided that a couple who won’t shoot wedding videos for same-sex weddings can pursue a claim in…
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Cedar Rapids Judge Eyed Again As Possible SCOTUS Nominee For Democrats
Soon, a progressive judicial group advocating for court reform will release a list of potential nominees for the Supreme Court that they hope the Democratic presidential candidates will consider. It appears that Jane Kelly, a judge from Cedar Rapids who currently serves on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and was once on Barack Obama’s…
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Beto O’Rourke Returns To Iowa With Renewed Focus, Passion
Beto O’Rourke returned to Iowa Tuesday evening with a fiery message to restart his campaign for president. The event was called “An Iowa Conversation: Standing up to Trump,” and during the event O’Rourke continued to condemn white supremacy. O’Rourke took a break from the campaign trail after a terrorist shooter killed 22 people at a…
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How Democrats Addressed Native American Issues At Historic Forum
Several common themes emerged from the first day of the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum, but the top one was that a government’s priorities can be determined by where it puts its money, and each candidate promised money to address issues faced by Native Americans across the country. For the first day of the…
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Pete Buttigieg’s Plan To Protect Pregnant Women In Rural Areas
As the conversation about health care increasingly includes rural areas, the topic of maternal health is showing up in more places, too. This past week, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg released a health care plan targeted at rural America. In it are several provisions that provide increased support for pregnant and postpartum women. “It’s…
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Bernie Sanders: Medicare For All Must Cover Abortion Services
Medicare for All has been a central part of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns since he launched his first national bid in 2015. Since then, the health care conversation in the United States has focused increasingly on reproductive services, as Republican-controlled state governments across the country limit abortion access and Supreme Court justices are appointed…
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New Themes, Familiar Lines; Candidates’ Changing Iowa Messages
This weekend, most of the field of Democratic candidates returned to Iowa to connect with voters in the first caucus state. The last time so many were in the state at one time was in early June, at the Hall of Fame Dinner in Cedar Rapids. Candidates went to the Iowa State Fair in Des…
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Democrats Talk Native Rights During Meskwaki Powwow In Iowa
Honor, respect and unity were the themes of the 105th Annual Meskwaki Powwow held yesterday in Iowa. Montana Governor Steve Bullock and author Marianne Williamson were there in the afternoon to share in the occasion. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker appeared in the evening. Beto O’Rourke was scheduled to be there, too, but he spent…
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Why Everyone’s Armed: SCOTUS And The Second Amendment
After a string of mass shootings have rocked the United States, the debate over gun control and the Second Amendment is raging once again. The Second Amendment says: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”…
