He was the editor of the Granite State News in Wolfeboro, N.H., editorial page editor for the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Maine, and editor and publisher of Maine Times. Now a freelance editor, writer and author, he covers Maine state government, specializing in environmental issues, public education, municipal affairs, business and tax policy. He currently writes an op-ed column for several daily newspapers. His writing has earned awards from the National Newspaper Association and New England Press Association, and he has been named best opinion columnist three times by the Maine Press Association. Rooks is a graduate magna cum laude of Colby College, and a former board president of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Augusta. He lives, with his wife, in a 210-year-old farmhouse in West Gardiner.