Charlottesville Community Engagement

On this 2026 edition of October 17, we look back to 1919 and the creation of the Leeds United Football Club following the shutdown of a previous club that had been caught in a finance scandal. The side does not play today and perhaps supporters are celebrating the 106th anniversary. They play Manchester United tomorrow at Elland Road at 9 a.m. in the eastern time zone in North America. Will you be...

Today’s sponsor: Big builds, small repairs, and everything in between, Nola Builds does it all On October 13, 1892, astronomer E.E. Barnard set up a photographic plate to capture the night sky towards Altair with an exposure time of four hours and 20 minutes. Upon analysis, Barnard spotted a comet, the first time one had been discovered using the technology. The Nashville native would go on to mak...

In a perfect world the audio versions and the newsletter versions of Charlottesville Community Engagement would come out at the exact same time as part of a well-funded information outlet’s mission to provide information about a small metropolis in flux to benefit the people who live there. Then again in a perfect world, the sole person who does this work would have benefits, a guaranteed amount o...

Today’s sponsor: Big builds, small repairs, and everything in between, Nola Builds does it all A hundred years ago today, fingerprint expert Irving Lindsay Leafe became the chief of police in Charlottesville. He would serve in the position for less than six weeks. Both pieces of information can be traced to the archives of the Charlottesville Daily Progress . What else can be found in the digital...

Sometimes the math doesn’t quite work out and the podcast does not come together the way I would like. That is the case for this edition which should have gone out Saturday morning but I had ambitions that ended up causing more confusion. To get the week of September 28 moving correctly, it is time to finally present the sonic version of some recent stories. For a further explanation of why this i...

The podcast edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement marks the end of one week and the beginning of the next, and serves as a way to process and reset. The mission of this newsletter is to bring people stories about local and regional government and the audio version is a good way to hear some of the voices of decision-makers and those who speak up at meetings. Most of you are not listeners...

On September 12, 1885, Arbroath Football Club defeated Bon Accord Football Club 36 to 0, setting a world-record for the biggest victory in a professional match . The two were playing in the first round of the Scottish Cup. The sport was still relatively new and today and today the winning club plays in the Scottish Championship and matches can be watched outside the United Kingdom for £20 a month....

Do consider a paid subscription today in case a time accident takes place and suddenly I’m whisked back to September 5, 1698, when Tsar Peter I of Russia levied a tax on beards for everyone except the clergy and peasants. This is most likely not going to happen, but this is one possible reason to make a contribution. This Saturday edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement also offers me the...

On September 1, the City of Charlottesville is expected to begin clearing out people who have been living in encampments along the Rivanna River and charging anyone who tries to stay with trespassing. September 1 is also the same day that Central Arizona Shelter Services is contractually obligated to begin operating an emergency low-barrier facility at 2000 Holiday Drive. In this edition of Charlo...

In any given year, leap or otherwise, August 22 is almost but not quite two-thirds of the way through the year. For this year, the exact tally is 64.1 percent. In 2028 that number will dip slightly to 63.9 percent. One unwritten style note of Charlottesville Community Engagement is that the percentage sign is to be avoided. A perhaps gaudy style note is to use these podcast editions to inform newe...

Today’s sponsor: Panorama Natural Burial is reimagining death care through natural burial, land conservation, and community The opening of the Beijing Olympics, a president announces a resignation, and a certain incident took place on a Chicago bridge. These are just some of the things that have happened on other editions of August 8 throughout recent time. There has only been one regular edition...

For some reason, there has only been one other August 1 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and that was back in 2024 with a recount underway in the Fifth District Republican Primary. This is a podcast edition that provides audio versions of stories and thus does not count toward a total number of produced newsletters. That number is 1,374 which comes from 375 Week Ahead versions and 1...

On July 25, 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40 in G Minor , a fact we know because the composer kept intricate records. I can tell you that so far there have only been two other July 25 editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement and they were in 2023 and 2024 . What were you doing on any of those three days? In this week’s stories: * Charlottesville City Council will...

The rhythm of being an independent journalist who strives to cover a lot of ground sometimes is affected by alternate beats. The last two Saturdays have not been favorable to produce a new audio edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement so archive editions went out. But now it is time for the July 18, 2026 edition. I’m Sean Tubbs. This week’s return to the usual studio means more ability to...

This edition and its copy comes straight from the radio version that aired on WTJU this morning Good morning and welcome to Charlottesville Community Engagement for July 11, 2026. I’m Sean Tubbs, a writer and producer who covers local and regional government in the area in and around the University of Virginia. That includes Albemarle and Charlottesville, two communities in a nation wrestling with...

For the second week in a row, I’m reusing the same production file that was used on WTJU. If I was awake and alert, it would maybe take 15 minutes to record new audio. However, this June 27 feels like the kind of day where such a direct task would take about two hours. I’m ready to get ready for the next set of stories. If you are a new reader, I got my professional start at WVTF Public Radio in R...

Astute listeners will realize that the audio for this version is the same as the version that ran on WTJU this morning at 6 a.m. I’ve done this one or twice before and today I want to use my morning to get on to the next set of stories rather than record a new version. The switch to morning publication means there is a clock ticking the moment I wake up and motivation this morning has taken me in...

On June 13, 1895, a two-seat vehicle driven by Émile Levassor crossed the finish line in Paris 48 hours and 48 minutes after leaving that city in the world’s first automobile race . The journey took contestants on a 1,178 kilometer course to Bordeaux and back and Levassor arrived six hours before the runner-up. However, the rules called for a four-seater and both were ineligible for victory. What...

For the next set of stories to be written for Charlottesville Community Engagement, the audio versions of the previous ones must be distributed. That’s the purpose of this particular edition which collects four stories from the past week with an extra one thrown in from the archive. The podcast version is also slightly different from the version that aired on WTJU at 6 a.m. on June 6, 2026. Please...

It seems that we have arrived at the end of May 2026, as well as the end of another busy week at Charlottesville Community Engagement. This week began with a holiday and ushered in a switch to a morning publication as opposed to an afternoon one, a transition intended to prepare for a more active future covering local and regional government in the community. One hopes. Mostly every story that fea...

Happy Birthday to the Associated Press which incorporated as a non-profit news cooperative on May 22 , 1846 to share the costs of covering a war between the United States of America and Mexico. Charlottesville Community Engagement is an experiment in bringing people stories about an area that seems to be in constant change. Once a week there’s an audio version and this is a chance to catch up on w...

Where do you get your information about what’s happening in the greater Charlottesville area? Hopefully from multiple sources in order to expose yourself to multiple perspectives. But perhaps this is your first time looking at (or listening to) the opening words of a sonic edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast that seeks to get more people to understand what’s h...

Today’s edition is sponsored by Nola Builds Five times five is not 125, but May 5 is the 125th day of the year and goes by 5/5 no matter what side of the Atlantic you are on. Charlottesville Community Engagement has so far been produced on the Western side but one potential future would be for at least some editions to be created in other parts of the world. After all, it has now been three years...

No matter what late April got up to, the first day of May brings another shower of sonic stories made up of various reports from this week’s text editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m Sean Tubbs and I got my professional start as an intern at a public radio in Roanoke over thirty years ago and believe the audio form is a good way to get information out to people. If you’ve not hear...

The British government subsidized the publication of North America’s first continuously published newspaper which was produced for the first time ever on April 24, 1704. All issues of The Boston Newsletter had to be approved by the Royal Governor. Aside from one very brief ad buy that was discontinued, Charlottesville Community Engagement receives no contribution from the government and relies on...