Her investigations have uncovered government benefits fraud,[1] public health,[2] workplace safety issues,[3] tax oversight failures,[4] malfeasance in undercover federal law enforcement stings,[5] life-threatening dangers of alcohol poisoning at resorts in Mexico,[6] and a disproportionate fire risk faced by renters living in Milwaukee's most distressed neighborhoods.

[7] In April 2010,[8] she won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for a yearlong series for the Journal Sentinel that exposed widespread fraud in the "Wisconsin Shares" child-care system.

[13] Rutledge also co-authored an investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ use of undercover storefront stings that exposed how agents mishandled operations across the country utilizing people with intellectual disabilities and later charging them with crimes.

[17] After the mysterious death of a Wisconsin college student in a resort swimming pool, Rutledge uncovered widespread problems with tainted alcohol, derelict law enforcement, price gouging from hospitals — and warnings to others muzzled by TripAdvisor.

Rutledge and two colleagues published an investigation in 2021 revealing the disproportionate risk facing Black renters in Milwaukee's most economically burdened neighborhoods and how officials were doing little to fix the problem.