Reporters Laurence Hammack (left) and David Ress

Update June 17: Here’s the first story in the series, about a proposal to expand Medicaid in Virginia.

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This Sunday (June 16), The Roanoke Times kicks off “Understanding ‘Obamacare’” — an occasional series of stories examining how the Affordable Care Act  (widely called Obamacare first by critics and now also by some supporters) — will change how you access and pay for health care in Southwest Virginia.

The series by reporters Laurence Hammack and David Ress will look at the impact the new law has on individuals, businesses and health-care providers.

The first installment will take a look at a proposal under the ACA to expand Medicaid in Virginia.

Before you dig in on Sunday, listen to Hammack’s interview on WVTF (it’s about 11 minutes long).

Hammack explains the series in more detail on his Med Beat blog, where we encourage you to share your questions, comments and suggestions for future story ideas.

Ron Adkins reads his video letter to the editor along Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke County. Photo by Joel Hawksley | The Roanoke Times

From editorial page editor Christina Nuckols:

Do you have strong feelings about the proposed Roanoke City Council raise, this year’s governor’s race, immigration or some other topic?

We love to get letters from our readers, but we also understand that some of you like to express your feelings in other ways. That’s why we’ve launched a new feature in which readers can submit video letters.

All you need is a YouTube account, an opinion and someone to hold your smartphone and film you. Post the video on your YouTube account and send us the link. It’s that simple.

The best video letters are those that don’t just tell people something, but also show them. For example, if you have an opinion about the improvements to Elmwood Park, you can film yourself talking about that while in the park.

You can see examples on The RoundTable.

Our first video letter contributors want sidewalks along Brambleton Avenue  and music venues accessible to young people younger than 21.

Betty Strother, our letters editor, also has a video explaining more about why we’re doing this and how to participate.

The basic rules for civility apply to video letters just as they do to the written versions. We also ask that you keep your video to 2 minutes or shorter. We look forward to hearing from you. And, as always. please include an address and phone number for verification purposes when you email us your video letters to letters@roanoke.com.

In previous posts, we’ve updated you on our new and improved iPad app and shown you how to access the digital reproduction of the paper on your Kindle.

This week, we shift our attention to the Nook, the tablet sold by Barnes & Noble.

The video above will walk you through the process.

Remember, if you’re a print subscriber, any of our digital products are included at no cost.

You can also order a digital-only subscription to get eTimes access without receiving the print newspaper.

To get your login and password to access the eTimes, call 540-981-3211 or email digitalaccess@roanoke.com.

If you have further questions, check out our FAQs.

Last week, we announced that The Roanoke Times iPad app has a new look and a few new features.

This week, we wanted to call attention to another way to access our eTimes (the digital reproduction of the newspaper): By Kindle.

The video above will walk you through the process.

Remember, if you’re a print subscriber, any of our digital products are included at no cost.

You can also order a digital-only subscription to get eTimes access without receiving the print newspaper.

To get your login and password to access the eTimes, call 540-981-3211 or email digitalaccess@roanoke.com.

If you have further questions, check out our FAQs.

Heads up, digital subscribers*. We’ve just released an update to our iPad app, the one that presents each day’s paper in an electronic format.

To get the update, head to the App Store and search on “Roanoke Times.” Look for the icon labeled “Print Replica.”

What’s new with the update?

To begin with, the loading screen is now a gorgeous image of Grayson Highlands by former Roanoke Times photographer Sam Dean.

Beyond that, the biggest change benefits your bandwidth consumption. In the previous version, the app would automatically download that day’s edition for offline reading if you were in a WiFi area. Now you have to push a button in the upper left (labeled “download for offline reading”) to kick that in.

This change was made to allow users with limited storage capacity on their devices to choose when to download and when to read only online.

Another change makes the app act more like a tablet app, allowing for left-right sweeping gestures to quickly scan content. When you are in the article mode (you get there by double-tapping on a story), sweep your fingers across the screen from left to right. The story you’re reading will sweep away and be replaced by the next article on the page.

You can learn more about the iPad app by checking out our FAQ.

This video also walks you through the iPad app signup and links to other instructional videos in our Digital Access Series. (Yep, that means we have stuff for you Kindle users and Droid fans, too.)

*Remember, if you’re a print subscriber any of our digital products are included at no cost. Email digitalaccess@roanoke.com to sign up and get started.

For ages now, we’ve encouraged online commenting on our roanoke.com blogs. We believe the best digital conversations happen around communities of interest, where commenters get to know each other and share their passion for food, sports, politics or the like.

But with the roanoke.com redesign, we wondered if we couldn’t keep the community vibe going while also allowing for conversations on stories that don’t fit neatly into our blog lineup. Could we resurrect story commenting, but manage it carefully and maintain our rules of engagement?

We’ve all seen comments run amok on other sites, with haters, shouters and trolls rendering the bottom of a story page the equivalent of a sewage-filled basement .  We’ve worked hard – and invested time – here to keep that crew out by pre-screening every comment posted on our site.

That will stay the case with our new story commenting, which we’re rolling out this week. You’ll find an example on today’s breaking story about the sentencing of former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy Jonathan Agee. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see where you can post a comment. As with our blogs, you can post anonymously but need to sign in. You also may need to wait a bit before you see your comment approved by our editing team.

Thanks for your patience if you experience a delay. We hope you understand it’s a small price to pay for keeping roanoke.com a safe place for commenting.

So, how will this work every day? We’ll open story commenting on a few stories a day. If you’d like to suggest a thread, let us know by messaging onlineeditors@roanoke.com.

Let’s get some conversations going.

GOLD: Yard/garage sale; GREEN: Community/multi-family sale; PURPLE: Moving sale; PINK: Estate sale

Ready to hunt for bargains?

Anxious to clear the clutter and make some extra cash?

No matter if you’re buying our selling, you should find our yard sale map helpful.

Not only is it  mobile-friendly, but you can quickly sign up for yard sale text alerts. Just text keyword yardsales to 96362. (Standard message and data rates may apply. Receive up to 4 messages/month. Reply STOP to any text message to cancel.)

You can also quickly advertise your sale with affordable packages at yardsales.roanoke.com.

Have you hosted a successful yard sale? Please help the rest of us by sharing your favorite tips below.

Hidden Valley grad Luke Hancock, who helped lead the University of Louisville team to a national title in the NCAA basketball championship, was named Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player — the first reserve to take that award.

Find the special commemorative page in today’s paper (Wednesday, April 10), inside the Sports section. You can purchase a reprint here, and see the full PDF below:

Luke Hancock: Final Four Most Outstanding Player

Find the share tool on the right side of every web page.

As we planned the roanoke.com redesign, one of our goals was to make it as easy as possible for the public to share information with us, no matter if it was a breaking news situation, or they were having a problem with the website, or if they simply wanted to send a letter to the editor.

We hope you find our new share tool (located at the right side of every web page) as helpful as we hoped — it’s meant to be an efficient, one-stop place to submit those examples and more.

When you click on “Share,” you should see a pop-up box with the following menu of choices (also pictured at the bottom of this post):

Submit a calendar listing
Submit a news tip
Submit a photo
Request a correction
Submit a letter to the editor
Submit a commentary
Tell us about a problem with the website
Request a reprint
Schedule a tour of The Roanoke Times
Other

The tool really came in handy during a recent snow storm … it’s how we collected so many wonderful reader photos, including Daphne McDaniel’s gorgeous cardinal photo.

Don’t forget that you can find specific departments, including customer service, advertising and the newsroom, with our catch-all Contact Us page.

Have you used the share tool yet? Please let us know if it worked for you … and if we should add any more options.

We’re thrilled to formally launch the long-awaited, redesigned roanoke.com.

A small army of folks across The Roanoke Times have worked together for about a year to make our ideas — based on your input — a reality.

What are the biggest changes you might immediately notice?

Besides our blue color scheme (which is explained in the video above), you’ll notice new navigation designed to help get you around the site faster, along with a greater emphasis on visuals. From our “center four” carousel of photos on the home page to larger photos in stories to more prominent video content and photo galleries, we intend to showcase our multimedia and what we love about Southwest Virginia.

WikiMedia Commons

While we’re oooohing and ahhhing about the slick visuals, please keep in mind the site is still in beta mode, meaning you might stumble across some construction zones. Don’t be surprised by occasional glitches or sections with little content. This is a work in progress.

Along the way, we’ll still want your feedback. Some readers have already asked about the readability of the font, offered navigation ideas and wondered what will happen to PlateUp (you’ll find that content under Living/Food). You can report problems, ask questions, offer comments and see what other users are saying using this dandy feedback tool.

As mentioned above, this brief video will walk you through some of the new features, too.

Enjoy!