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.
Christmas tree fires, though rare, can be deadly and expensive. Frequent watering is important; so is the integrity of decorative lights.
Months of hunkering down for the COVID-19 pandemic weakened Americans’ immunity to RSV, influenza and other diseases, health experts say.
Praise for the Colorado Springs shooting suspect, as well as racially and ethnically motivated violence, could inspire copycats, DHS warns.
Soil fungi causing deadly lung infections are found in more places than previously thought, leading to misdiagnoses, researchers caution.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center offer insight on areas most likely to see a white Christmas.
The lawsuit is part of a new legal push to hold firearms makers accountable in mass shootings, despite federal laws granting broad immunity.
The Respect for Marriage Act passed the Senate on a 61-36 vote Tuesday, with 12 Republicans joining every Democrat in supporting the bill.
With grocery prices 12 percent higher than a year ago, 38 million Americans struggle to find healthy, nutritious food for their families.
President Joe Biden and Democrats are pushing for renewal of the federal assault weapons ban after the latest string of mass shootings.
“Oligarch,” “codify” and “Queen Consort” are listed with “gaslighting,” used by abusers in relationships, politicians and newsmakers.
The number of chickens and turkeys killed in the 2022 outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza surpasses the toll in 2015.
The colorful, prolific Geminids peak as the Ursid meteor shower begins. Also coming up, fall yields to winter at the December solstice.
Since 2012, nonprofits, community and grassroots groups, and mutual aid networks worldwide have used GivingTuesday to galvanize fundraising.
For many small businesses, fourth-quarter sales could make the difference between hanging on or shuttering their shops.
If you are checking off gift items in Black Friday and Small Business Saturday sales, don’t push the deadline in getting them on their way.
“Mike’d” up for bachelor party; grandmother, stranger she accidentally texted share seventh Thanksgiving; donkeys, mini horses haze police.
The world has been waiting to see if Arizona’s “accidental grandmother,” Wanda Dench, and Jamal Hinton will spend Thanksgiving together.
One reader detests inflatables “with every fiber of my being.” Another wonders what Mickey Mouse, tin soldiers have to do with Christmas.
![Outdoor Christmas Displays: What’s Tacky, What’s Not? [Block Talk]](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/790386/20221123/113908/styles/patch_image/public/christmas-house-lights-1___23113056245.jpg)
Once, in real life, a radio executive really did think turkeys could fly. The promotion ended as badly as the one on the classic sitcom.
The Biden administration said it would be “ deeply unfair to ask borrowers to pay a debt” that would be forgiven under the debt relief plan.
