How to contact me: beth.dalbey@patch.com.
I'm a longtime community journalist and started with Patch.com in 2011.
My career has been solely focused in journalism, except for a brief detour in 2007 when I joined the communications department of a scientific research institute studying the evolution of language in bonobos and other great apes.
I left journalism for that brief 3-year period because I knew it would be an adventure – it was! – and worked as a freelance writer and consultant after that position was eliminated in 2010.
Beliefs
Politics: I’m a registered independent. I will vote every time, regardless of party affiliation, for the individual with the best ideas to make our communities more livable.
Religion: I grew up attending the United Methodist Church in my small hometown. It was a great foundation that taught me most of what I believe is right and wrong. I believe in a supreme being. I respect others’ right to believe what they believe, as long as they’re not proselytizing on the taxpayer’s dime, and I think this whole business of seeing everyone who does good works as an angel or every marvelous outcome as a miracle cheapens both.
No film student left behind; what they did so they can say they do; safe harbor for monarch butterflies; why a loving daughter mops floors.
Reading the full text of the 700-page American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will take about 10 hours, delaying Senate action on the package.
Humans aren’t alone in catching COVID-19. After a gorilla troop at the San Diego Zoo tested positive, other non-human primates got a shot.
The Asian elephant calf expected this summer was conceived through artificial insemination, a procedure rarely performed on the species.
The COVID-19 lockdown separated Lisa Racine and her father, a resident of a Stillwater, Minnesota, care center. Then she went job hunting.
Hundreds of bills in state legislatures would restrict or expand voter access ahead of Supreme Court ruling that may gut Voting Rights Act.
Recognizing their privilege, little girls help restaurants in a big way; Philadelphia Phillies pitch teacher’s good work during pandemic.
Ornithologist Jamie Hill had a “one in a million bird encounter” — a photo session with a cardinal with the characteristics of both genders.
The Biden administration wants to get vaccine into people’s arms quickly while also ensuring distribution is equitable. Right now, it isn’t.
Giving away his toys wasn’t enough for a 5-year-old; the heart behind acts of kindness week; a coincidence or something meant to be?
The extreme winter weather in Texas is making life difficult for animals in shelters, sanctuaries, the sea and the land.
The Farmers’ Almanac’s extended spring forecast is out, giving polar vortex-weary Americans a peek at when it will start warming up.
The hunt for a missing rooster may have seemed like much a-cock-a-doodle-doo about nothing, but Thomas Ramsey loved that chicken.
A North Carolina sheriff’s office’s “Valentine’s Day Weekend Special” encourages people to turn in exes with outstanding warrants.
Love story started long before even they knew it; 100-gallon blood donor; helping kids understand the pandemic; Kodak Black’s big gesture.
"People are scared," one food bank worker says of the pandemic-fueled increase in food insecurity. But neighbors are helping each other.
The blast of cold arctic air may not break records, but it's notable the duration of the polar vortex could last beyond Valentine’s Day.
A Texas judge tweets a video of a Zoom hearing where a lawyer appeared as a fluffy white kitten, making the internet purr in satisfaction.
Former President Trump won’t testify at his second impeachment trial. His lawyers argue it's unconstitutional and his speech is protected.
Maddie slipped out of a new house in a new town three days before Hurricane Harvey hit. She came home Sunday, thanks to lost-pet sleuths.
