How to contact me: beth.dalbey@patch.com
Beth Dalbey, a longtime award-winning community journalist, is Patch’s national editor. She has been with Patch since 2011 when she launched sites in Iowa and provided national Iowa Caucus and swing-state general election coverage. She worked as a regional manager before moving to the national desk in 2017. Throughout her time at Patch, she has reported and written about local topics of national interest and is currently focusing on exclusive Patch content, including Block Talk, an only-on-Patch neighborhood etiquette column for which readers supply advice.
Dalbey and the newspapers she has edited have earned numerous awards for news, feature and government coverage, editorial and column writing, and overall general excellence from the Iowa Newspaper Association, the National Newspaper Association and the Associated Press Media Editors. In 1992 in Iowa, she led the weekly Dallas County News to win the INA's prestigious Newspaper of the Year award, competing against metro newspapers many times its size. She was the youngest recipient ever of the INA’s Distinguished Service Award in 1994. At Patch, she received the Todd Richissin Award for Excellence in Reporting and Writing for the “Menace of Bullies” project.
In Iowa, Dalbey’s byline has also appeared in the Fairfield Daily Ledger, where she was editor for five years; and in the Des Moines Business Record, Cityview, dsm magazine and other publications under the umbrella of Business Publications Corp., where she was the editorial director for several years. Dalbey also freelanced for the Des Moines Register and other print and digital publications
Dalbey grew up in Missouri and majored in journalism at Northwest Missouri State University. Except for a three-year stint as communications editor for a scientific institute doing ape language research, she has spent her entire career in community journalism. At the former Great Ape Trust of Iowa, she wrote about the world-famous resident bonobos Kanzi and Panbanisha.
Was that George Jetson? Martha Stewart heads to the moon, in spirit anyway. Bears go shopping, fawns go swimming, and Americans keep giving.
Two fawns either opted for a swim in a homeowner’s pool, or they accidentally fell in. Either way, Parma, Ohio, police had to cowboy up.
Brown marmorated stink bugs, which threaten fruit crops in 46 U.S. states, are about to start invading your homes as temperatures cool.
Is a bear intent on getting a loyalty discount at a King’s Beach, California, Safeway store? Or are two bears now “shoplifting” there?
A collision of coronavirus-related economic crises is projected to push 54 million people, found in every U.S. county, into food insecurity.
Federal eviction moratoriums are ending. That could hurtle 40 million renters into more economic chaos, if not homelessness, by year’s end.
Thank the pandemic: Tasty watermelon has come at last to Brooklyn; also, “Athena Wright Day” honors World War II vet on her 105th birthday.
The Farmers' Almanac — not to be confused with the Old Farmer's Almanac — is out with a 2020-21 winter forecast for "everything crazy."
A 7-year-old with a kind heart collects 900 pounds of food for the homeless; “The Courageous Twelve” honored; superheroes carry brooms.
A video of Anisa Scott asking God to end gun violence struck a chord in 2016. The now-11-year-old died this month after being fatally shot.
Kirkland and other brand-name frozen shrimp distributed nationwide recalled due to possible salmonella contamination.
The coronavirus pandemic has made asylum-seeking children and their families more vulnerable and may limit their rights under U.S. law.
Family gives abused dog some sugar; college students share the burden for teaching kid at home; adversity proves to be a good teacher.
After a local grocery store is damaged in an arson fire, folks step up. Is that cat judging you? Drown your sorrows in a cream puff drink.
Daisy Coleman was 14 when she alleged a 17-year-old boy raped her at a party. Her small town’s outrage was directed at her family, not his.
The annual Perseid meteor shower, known as the “fireball champion” of meteor showers, will dazzle the celestial canopy during August.
Cartoonist Guy Gilchrist, author Eva Lou, actor Denis O’Hare and others create a multimedia book to help kids break down the pandemic.
The Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals were scheduled to play at a temporary MLB stadium at the "Field of Dreams" movie site in Iowa.
A DNA test surprise; kidney stays in the family; parents finally cuddle their twins; restaurateur and family lean in for front-line workers.
Teachers are scared for their lives and their students’ lives as a patchwork of back-to-school plans emerges amid rising coronavirus cases.
