How do you create the Featured block in your demo?

Some more comments...

I see you have CSS for this featured block (called "sticky"), but other than manually recreating the block, can you make it so as an individual with the right permissions can manually "assign" an article to that block? If I'm missing something, please let me know.

Duh! I just figured it out. For the rest of us out there wanting to know how to do the featured article on the Analytic theme, just check the "Sticky at top of lists" box in the "Publishing options" section of the Create Story (or Page or other type of Create Content (Node) you have).