@RangerZ suggested that the home page should have a News item. I added one to a playground page at: https://lede-project.org/playground/start3
The news items themselves come from a :meta:news_items at: https://lede-project.org/meta/news_items
The Home Page can only be edited by an admin, but I recommend we try leaving the news_items page unlocked to see if it causes any problems.
IMHO, splitting the top paragraph into two columns doesn't look polished. I'd give the news its own paragraph, probably below "why use lede".
A news item is a good idea IMO.
However, I would expect the formating to be applied to the startpage, not to the meta page, i.e. startpage = 2 columns; meta page = no formatting like "right".
An own section like stangri proposed would cost extra vertical space, therefore I would prefer the 2 columns. And also: News belong to the top, where they are visible at first sight. You wouldn't expect Breaking News on page 3 of a newspaper, would you?-)
Oh, sorry, I knew that LEDE was spun off OpenWrt, I had no idea about the new direction in the mass media business. 