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.
Driven by the “tiny house” trend, shipping container homes are popular among buyers seeking a more sustainable, minimalist lifestyle.
Driven by the “tiny house” trend, shipping container homes are popular among buyers seeking a more sustainable, minimalist lifestyle.
Driven by the “tiny house” trend, shipping container homes are popular among buyers seeking a more sustainable, minimalist lifestyle.
Many readers said how they store RVs on their property is nobody’s business, but others said private property rights aren’t absolute.
![RV Storage: A Property Right, Or A Blight On Your Rights? [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20240216/025158/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-2111000978___16144314905.jpg)
Long delays are “barbaric and unacceptable,” a reader said. Another questioned complimentary drink policies in the “age of rage.”
![Get Me Off This Plane! Readers Vent About Tarmac Delays [Flightmares]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/ap/790386/20240215/073001/styles/patch_image/public/ap23178711073042___15192655624.jpg)
“I felt like a little entrepreneur,” one person said of her days selling Girl Scout cookies. “The memories are beautiful,” another recalled.
A female stingray hasn’t been swimming with a male in nearly a decade. Mating-type bite marks suggested a shark might have done the deed.
Her mother in labor and her father working out of town, Amber Jirsa was born on the way to the hospital in the back seat of a Ford Pinto.
Give into real-estate voyeurism and satisfy your “house envy” by peeking inside these luxury homes in neighborhoods A-listers call home.
Give into real-estate voyeurism and satisfy your “house envy” by peeking inside these luxury homes in neighborhoods A-listers call home.
Give into real-estate voyeurism and satisfy your “house envy” by peeking inside these luxury homes in neighborhoods A-listers call home.
Some neighborhoods have covenants dictating when people can park their RVs on their property or on the street. What do you think about this?
![A Neighbor’s RV Or Camper Is An Eyesore : What Do You Do? [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20240212/104231/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-542408998___12104054247.jpg)
A spa for adults who role-play as babies in diapers; kangaroo gets loose; tip to cry over; wings to fly on; love stinks and so does your ex.
Samantha Lotti admired Frank Lloyd Wright homes but expected to buy one. Three steps in, ‘I fell in love with this house,” she said.
For several years at this time of year, some residents have been interrupted in the night by noises causing tremors in their homes.
Secret rooms and passageways date back to the Egyptian Pyramids. Some shelter important secrets, while others are just for the fun of it.
Secret rooms and passageways date back to the Egyptian Pyramids. Some shelter important secrets, while others are just for the fun of it.
Secret rooms and passageways date back to the Egyptian Pyramids. Some shelter important secrets, while others are just for the fun of it.
You can’t answer “Raspberry Rally,” last year’s limited edition cookie that caused Girl Scouts USA to scold “cookie scalpers.”
About 15,000 cities nationwide, located everywhere but Hawaii and Washington, D.C., could see a dramatic population shift.
