[Masa]

Agreed that the news section should be more utilized.
I would argue that people are more apt to read something out of the ordinary like a staff block "in the middle of the road", but at the same time, the news section should stand out more.
Also realize that many of the staff don't even have access to that news tab. Their only way of communicating to the players is either mass message or placing a big, gray staff block in an apparent location.
The only thing that wall is used for now is seeing the gang scores, and hell, more than half of the wall is taken up by two soda machines.
Perhaps a freestanding bulletin board or something would be more fitting, saying "updated 01/27/09!" or something.

On the other hand, isn't there a whole "news" tab that pops up when you hit N?
By default, doesn't that come up every time you log on?
Is there a point to even having any news indication outside of the news tab?