Someone please tell me how do I get a "Featured Articles" block for the top of a wordpress home page? Example - On John Chows homepage http://www.johnchow.com/ top left hand corner, there is a block that rotates out 5 featured articles. How can I get something like that set up on my page?
There are plenty of free news like wordpress themes that does this job. have a look here: http://top-best-themes.com/category/wordpress/newspapermagazine/
With some Javascript, CSS, and understanding of Wordpress codex, although it is not easy to use these three at once. Ask someone who is advanced in that area.