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.
Guinness World Record holder Don Gorske has eaten as many as nine McDonald’s Big Macs a day, but now eats two a day, and little else.
“Where’s my tail?” a Harvard researcher has wondered since childhood. When he injured his tailbone, he began searching for the answer.
Wendy’s rolled out its frozen dessert in 1969, but a Patch editor who has been around for its entire life just tried it for the first time.
Feeding birds brings great joy to some but expensive hassles for neighbors who have to exterminate rats and other critters drawn to feeders.
![Bears And Varmints Convince Birders To Remove Feeders [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20240229/015712/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-1361906666___29135015931.jpg)
Women across the country are working to make their communities better places for all women. We want to hear about women who inspire you.
The skies haven’t been that friendly in recent years as reports of unruly, disruptive and sometimes violent passengers surge.
![Air Rage: What Do You Do About Unruly Passengers? [Flightmares]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20240228/045139/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-1031232373___28164904450.jpg)
Often wintery Washington, Minnesota and Michigan have the worst problems with potholes — but some warmer states have concrete craters, too.
“Stationmasters” in Pennsylvania risked their lives by hiding escaped slaves traveling north to freedom via the Underground Railroad.
“Stationmasters” in Illinois risked their lives by hiding escaped slaves traveling north to freedom via the Underground Railroad.
“Stationmasters” in New York risked their lives by hiding escaped slaves traveling north to freedom via the Underground Railroad.
The iconic department store chain plans to close a third of the targeted stores by the end of 2024 amid falling sales and a proxy battle.
With musical tones, the LightSound device helps people with vision impairment experience the 2024 Great American Solar Eclipse.
Nighttime skies reveal a flying squirrel and a mysterious fireball, and a doe ambled around for days with her head stuck in a jug.
Leap day twins, sibling leapers and others dish on how they cut loose every four years on their birthdays. Feb. 29 is a day for love, too.
Besides pretty birds, your neighbor’s back yard feeder may attract squirrels and raccoons, rats and cats, or even bears. What do you do?
![Are Well-Meaning Bird Feeders Attracting Vermin? [Block Talk Survey]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20240222/095556/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-477778825___22215434778.jpg)
2024 has four consecutive supermoons starting this summer. The last full moon of winter is the opposite and looks small and far away.
Volunteers won’t actually be rocketed off to Mars. But their experiences may lay the groundwork for future human travel to the red planet.
The SAVE program offers the most lenient terms ever for debt repayment. Some borrowers will see their balances wiped out.
Mutiple U.S. states have legslation to adopt either permanent daylight saving or standard time, but they can’t act on their own.
As an El Niño climate pattern rapidly transitions to a La Niña, the potential is heightened for severe storms and an active hurrcane season.
