Rob Roberts / LJWorld.com

Staff

Rob Roberts (News editor)

Rob Roberts is news editor of the Shawnee Dispatch.

Recent stories

Google Fiber attracting startups, creating nationwide buzz: By Rob Roberts; February 24, 2013; If you want to know why Google Fiber is such a big deal, talk to Matthew Marcus. In addition to housing the social media calendar company he and CEO Adam Arrendondo run, the home was the site of the first public installation of the new 1-gigabit Google Fiber service in the world’s first “fiberhood.” By Rob Roberts
Study touts benefits of midwife-led birth centers: By Rob Roberts; February 22, 2013; Conducted by the American Association of Birth Centers, the national study shows that women who receive care at midwife-led birth centers incur lower medical costs and are less likely to have cesarean births than women who give birth at hospitals. By Rob Roberts
Derby helps single mom rebound: ‘She needed to be part of this team’; By Rob Roberts; January 16, 2013; When Mary Strafuss’ marriage fell apart last spring, she and her two daughters were left alone in their Shawnee home, where they entered what Strafuss described as some dark and confusing times. Then, a few months ago, Strafuss’ 14-year-old daughter, Meara Roach, showed her mom a black-and-blue way out of the tunnel: roller derby. By Rob Roberts
Shawnee teenager electrocuted while working on computers: By Rob Roberts; October 9, 2012; A teenager recently found dead at his Shawnee home died of electrocution while working on computers, according to police and coroner reports.
‘Survivor’ contestant from Shawnee back home, guarding secret: By Rob Roberts; September 16, 2012; Carter Williams, a 24-year-old Shawnee resident and one of the 18 castaways selected for the show, “Survivor: Philippines,” has to remain mum about if he was the sole survivor and winner of $1 million.
Offline information resources dwindling: By Rob Roberts; June 18, 2012; Residents without Internet access can still get most information they desire from public agencies. But as the offline population dwindles and online communication tools proliferate, the data gap between those with and without computers is widening.
Digital divide: Not everyone views Internet, smartphones as advances: By Rob Roberts; June 17, 2012; In 1812, a group of English textile workers known as Luddites destroyed new labor-saving equipment that threatened their livelihoods. Two hundred years later, the term “Luddite” survives, with a broader definition as a person opposed to technological changes — such as the Internet.

Recent photos

Cathy Gordon of Shawnee, far right, gives her daughter-in-law, Emma Gordon, a look at her unborn baby via a sonogram as Emma’s husband, Matt Gordon, and their daughter, Hadley Gordon, gleefully look on at New Birth Company, Johnson County’s only midwife-led birth center.

Cathy Gordon, left, and Kendra Wyatt, co-owners of New Birth Company, are pictured in one of the birthing rooms at the facilty, Johnson County's only midwife-led birth center.

Darrel Zimmerman is a member of a nonprofit organization rebuilding a historic barn on Zimmerman's Kill Creek Farm in De Soto. It will replace a 130-year-old barn destroyed on the site by tornadic winds in May 2010.

Full photo list