On making a Unique Story for front page

I gather that Views, CCK and Panels will help me build a news style front page. There's quite a bit I need to get up to speed with (for all the modules) in a short time, and am hoping for someone with experience to guide me.

I am going to have one Top Story, and two Main stories displayed on my front page. This will be administered by a non-savvy website editor.

Is there a method to have only one story at a time that is marked "Top Story" using the modules I mentioned? The same way you can choose only one default theme at a time? So the story "New CEO" will supersede the story "Position Vacant", for example?

thanks