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.
Readers made New Year’s resolutions for their neighbors about leaf blowers, free-range cats, nosiness and noisiness, and property upkeep.
![2024 Neighbor Resolutions, A Look Back At Top 2023 Takes [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20240104/051418/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-2376809451___04171315043.jpg)
As part of the casual dining chain’s strategic plan, eight restaurants in the Northeast are being sold to former CEO Ray Blanchette.
With rapid improvements in elevator technology in the 1920s, architects turned undesirable attics into luxurious living spaces.
A cyberattack on the tiny town of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, late last year was a wake-up call about risks to public water utilities.
The Department of Homeland Security has extended the deadline for REAL ID driver’s licenses multiple times, mostly due to COVID backups.
The odds of being born on Leap Day are about 1 in 1,461. We want to hear about Leap Day birthdays, weddings, celebrations and traditions.
Timing is everything to observe the rich-in-fireballs Quadrantids, which peak at a rate of 120 meteors an hour — but only for a few hours.
We want to find snack and appetizer recipes that will make guests do a touchdown dance during the big game. That’s where you come in.
Once regarded as varmints worth only their thick pelts, beavers are ecological engineers scientists say are essential in healthy ecosystems.
While prices may increase some with seasonal demand, $5 and $6 gas and diesel prices are expected to fade away along with 2023.
If you could make one New Year’s resolution for your neighbors, what would it be? Or maybe you resolve to be a better neighbor in 2024.
![What’s Your 2024 New Year’s Resolution For The Neighbors? [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20231229/114951/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-586372142___29114836000.jpg)
The popular BlendJet portable blenders have resulted in 49 injury reports and about $150,000 in property damage.
In 2023, a meteorite fell into a family’s house, a guy was pulled over while arguing with his parrot, and what’s up with all those bananas?
No one matched the winning numbers in Wednesday’s Powerball drawing: 4, 11, 38, 51 and 68, with a Powerball of 5.
Thomas Jefferson brought the concept of dumbwaiters from France, using them at his Monticello plantation and the White House.
Some 17 million workers still earn less than $15 an hour — nearly half in the 20 states that use the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Wildfire smoke cast a dystopian pall across multiple cities; search for missing submersible raises questions; a “hurriquake” in California.
Aimed at correcting racial disparities in the justice system, the pardon helps make the “promise of equal justice a reality,” Biden said.
Rosalynn Carter, Sandra Day O’Connor and Dianne Feinstein accomplished important firsts for women in politics and the judiciary.
Competition for on-street parking is fierce during the holidays, but it doesn’t do much good to complain, readers told us.
![‘You Don’t Own The Street’ And Other Parking Vexations: [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/790386/20231221/053018/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-1193269636___21172433122.jpg)