[zeroality]

Edit: Alright, I've been playing around with this. It's probably nothing remarkable but I'm pretty proud of myself as I don't know mySQL or PHP and I had to do this via trial/error and am learning my way around.

This is my first experience in actually coding something in mySQL/php - all I've ever done before was move stuff around or follow file edit instructions.

Anyway - here's what I've gotten so far:
Attachment 51050

I did all this by editing the plugin code and the template code. Here is what I have for both:

<!-- Latest Announcement -->
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
	<tr>
		<td class="tcat" colspan="2"><a href="http://www.pokerealm.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=28">Latest News and Announcements</a></td>
	</tr>
</thead>
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_events" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_events]">
	<tr>
	<td class="thead" width="3%">&nbsp;</td>
	<td class="thead" width="97%">Recent Headlines</td>
	<tr>
	<td class="alt2" align="center"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/announcement.gif" alt="News Icon"></td>
	<td class="alt2">$lns_show</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td class="alt1" colspan="2"><div class="smallfont">$lns2_show</div></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td class="alt2" align="center"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/announcement.gif" alt="News Icon"></td>
	<td class="alt2">$lnsb_show</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td class="alt1" colspan="2"><div class="smallfont">$lnsb2_show</div></td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<!-- /Latest Announcement -->

// ### LATEST NEWS BY TANTAWI ############################################
		$latesta = $db->query_first('SELECT title,threadid,views,replycount FROM ' . TABLE_PREFIX . 'thread WHERE 1 AND forumid = 28 ORDER BY dateline DESC  LIMIT 0 , 1');
		$lns_show = "<a href=\"showthread.php?"  . $vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl'] . "t=$latesta[threadid]\">$latesta[title]</a>";
		$lns2_show = "<b>Replies:</b> $latesta[replycount] <b>Views:</b> $latesta[views]";
		$latesta2 = $db->query_first('SELECT title,threadid,views,replycount FROM ' . TABLE_PREFIX . 'thread WHERE 1 AND forumid = 28 ORDER BY dateline DESC  LIMIT 1 , 1');
		$lnsb_show = "<a href=\"showthread.php?"  . $vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl'] . "t=$latesta2[threadid]\">$latesta2[title]</a>";
		$lnsb2_show = "<b>Replies:</b> $latesta2[replycount] <b>Views:</b> $latesta2[views]";

You can get an idea of how to edit the plugin once you compare my code to the original. Have fun guys.

I plan on adding a lot to this - I'm even thinking of asking someone how to trim phrases in PHP so that I can draw from the database and get the first post then trim it to 150 characters or so and display it right there under the title then a link "Read more...".

-Whoops, didn't mean to double post. I thought it would auto merge my posts.