"The Suicide Files" Minneapolis City Pages

Read the full story here.

November 2011: "'If anything happens to me,' Ruettimann said, 'give this to the reporter.'

After Ruettimann's death, Hereaux took the file down off his desk. Inside was a thick stack of loose-leaf documents, a manila folder stuffed with letters, and a catalog-size clasp envelope labeled 'Reports.'

Written in black permanent marker in the margin of the envelope was the reporter's name: mine."

"My Life in the Test Trade" Minneapolis City Pages

Read the full story here.

February 2011: "Today, tens of thousands of temporary scorers are employed to correct essay questions. This year, Maple Grove-based Data Recognition Corporation will take on 4,000 temporary scorers, Questar Assessment will hire 1,000, and Pearson will take on thousands more. From March through May, hundreds of thousands of standardized test essays will pour into the Twin Cities to be scored by summer."

"Forging the Oregon Trail" Minneapolis City Pages

Read the full story here.

January 2011: "Don Rawitsch rolled out a four-foot-long piece of white butcher paper on the living room floor of his Crystal apartment. He glanced at an open map of the United States frontier from the 1800s. Then he traced a squiggly line from the right side of the paper to the left.

By the time his roommates Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger returned home, the line had become a series of squares leading across a map of the western U.S. Rawitsch was scratching out words on a stack of cards. 'Broken wagon wheel,' said one. 'Snakebite,' said another.

He called it 'Oregon Trail.'"