Highlighting News in Group Pages

I have two related questions on configuring the look/feel of a group page:

1.  Sometimes, in some group pages, there is a "highlighted" box of news at the top of the group page - generally a rectangular box of text with a grey background.  How does a group admin add something like this to their group page, to make sure the members notice an important announcement? 

2.  Also, some group pages have a list of recent news topics above their list of forums.  In my group, there is no news box, but news items show up in the "recent activity" box with the "news" icon.  Is there a place in the admin control panel to designate what & where various items are displayed?