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.
The CDC says the threat to humans remains low, despite virus mutations in humans, as some infectious disease experts worry about a pandemic.
Ford, fined last year for a slow response to recalls, issued four recalls in a single day; children’s jewelry sold on Amazon contains lead.
![Broccoli Sold At Walmart May Have Listeria [Recall Roundup]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/790386/20250103/092148/styles/patch_image/public/product-recall-graphic-1___03090648321.jpg)
Hyper-sexual “zombie” cicadas, giant flying spiders, rodents that eat other rodents and a celibate stingray’s pregnancy made us wonder.
We’re better than we were. Still, some people think nothing of throwing trash from their cars or leaving it for someone else to deal with.
![Why Do Some People Think The World Is Their Trash Can? [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20250102/114841/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-1036606723___02114135729.jpg)
The best time to catch the first meteor shower of 2025, the often overlooked Quadrantids, is in the hours before dawn on Friday morning
States as far south Idaho and Iowa could see the northern lights Monday and Tuesday after the sun expelled plasma hurtling toward Earth.
Readers answering Patch’s informal survey say we may have a better chance of keeping promises to ourselves if don’t make them on New Year’s.
![Yes, You Will Keep That New Year's Resolution. Here's How [Survey]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/ap/790386/20241230/035525/styles/patch_image/public/ap24365602921393___30152538565.jpg)
Seasonal norovirus outbreaks exceed previous years, according to the CDC, which says the virus causes 58 percent of foodborne illnesses.
Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, according to his son James E. Carter III. He was 100.
Noise, parking, driving and inclusion also got mentions in our survey of what readers would change about their neighbors and neighborhoods.
![Free-Range Kids A Top Neighborhood Peeve [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20241227/051953/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-2480807809___27171515628.jpg)
Mastodon fossil reveals Ice Age clues. A bear shot by a hunter falls on another and kills him. What is going on with California’s squirrels?
![Owl Flies Down Chimney, Tops Christmas Tree [Weird News & Oddities]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/790386/20241227/110615/styles/patch_image/public/470777829-977294767765659-1969832966838136194-n___27104417196.jpg)
Wacky plays on the Times Square Ball Drop feature descending muskrats, opossums, fish, cheese and a drag queen in a red high-heeled shoe.
Full worm “blood” moon, partial solar eclipse, and three supermoons in a row are sandwiched between meteor showers opening and closing 2025.
Many grocery stores are open as usual on Christmas Eve, but others will close early and remain closed until the day after Christmas.
An episode of the teen drama “The O.C.” popularized the term, but it has been around since 19th century Germany.
Watching Santa make his annual trek around the world is a tried-and-true way to bring an extra spark of cheer to kids this holiday season.
Biden’s action commuting sentences to life imprisonment comes weeks before Donald Trump, who favors the death penalty, takes office.
The sun reached solar maximum in 2024, gloriously so. Will the aurora displays that dazzled Americans be back in 2025?
The move announced to corporate employees Friday was not unexpected as the party goods retailer mulls its second bankruptcy in two years.
Santas line streets in tribute to St. Nick’s biggest fan; the most Clark Griswold thing ever; “The stones are singing” (not those Stones).
