Tom Hamburger joined the Star Tribune as a reporter in 1983. He became chief of the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1993.

Sharon Schmickle has been a Star Tribune reporter since 1981. Since October 1994, she has worked in the Washington bureau covering Congress.

John Oslund has been an assistant business editor/reporter at the Star Tribune since 1992. He joined the newspaper in 1977 and has been assigned to its business department since 1982.

Research assistance was provided by Star Tribune librarians Sylvia Frisch and Roberta Hovde and also by Janet Reid, Jennifer Corbett, Caron Carlson, Scott Carlson and John Ferguson.

Graphics were designed by artist Gregory Branson and supervised by graphics editor Tim Campbell with assistance from photo editor Peter Koeleman. Graphics were adapted for Star Tribune Online by Jamie Hutt.

Assistant national editor Mike Pashalek and national editor Roger Buoen supervised and edited the series. Articles were also edited by Mike Cooney. The project was coordinated by Ron Meador, assistant managing editor for special projects.