Three features that I think would be really cool:
1) allow multiple site wide news alerts to display simultaneously at the top one after another
2) add a new parameter to news post that represents the expiration date of the news. After the expiration date, the news post should unpublished automatically. This would reduce the need for admins to unpublish news posts
3) ability to set the color of the site wide news alert banner. Red is great for grabbing attention, but sometimes it's a bit jarring if the news is good news or neutral news :)