Patch User Profile for Timothy Robertson

Email - timothyr@patch.com Phone - 781-291-9071 Hometown - Bangor, Maine Birthday - July 19, 1985 Bio (professional highlights, marital status, hobbies, etc) I received my journalism masters degree from Hofstra University, where I also earned a bachelors degree in journalism. At Hofstra, a professor and I pioneered and founded a hyperlocal news website that covered four local villages around the university. During a four-year stay at Long Island's Newsday as an intern and a freelancer, I pounded local streets and covered breaking news, heart-warming feature stories and even a forgetful story about Lindsay Lohan. I'm an avid college hockey and MLB fan, and follow all other sports with a gross amount of attention.

Your Beliefs At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know. Politics How would you describe your political beliefs? Are you registered with a certain party?

Raised in Maine, I tend to think of myself as an independent whose political convictions hover near the middle. I lean toward to the right, particularly on issues of federalism and taxation, and on issues of social rights, I run the spectrum, depending on the question at hand. Religion How religious would you consider yourself? (casual, observant, devout, non religious)

I am an observant Catholic. I used to go just twice a year (guess which days), but in the past few years, I drop in at Mass from time to time during the year. Local Hot-Button Issues What do you think are the most important issues facing the community? Where do you stand on each of these issues?

Two of the biggest issues that I have heard when talking to residents are the renovation of Dedham Square and, like many school districts across the country, meeting No Child Left Behind requirements.

Legacy Place brought a new dimension to shopping at Dedham, and with a new look. Now it is Dedham Square's turn to revamp and modernize. The Square will undergo a massive traffic improvement, but it also most likely will impact the bottom line of many businesses in the Square as the two-season construction takes place.

Second is the NCLB requirements. Several schools in Dedham have not met adaquate yearly progress in the past, and it has forced principals to implement new programs and new strategies. As NCLB moves toward a 100 percent requirement in just a few years, we'll be tracking the progress of Dedham students and their MCAS scores.