Поможите неведущему с кодом

После $topicid = 3; добавите $announce = null;

Вместо echo "<p>$hometext</p><br>"; напишите:

if( empty( $announce ) )
{
	$announce = $hometext;
	echo "<p>$announce</p><br>";
}

А если так

$topicid = 3;

$cnt = 0;

$sql    = "SELECT storyid, title, hometext  FROM ".$db->prefix("stories")." WHERE topicid=".$topicid." AND published>0 AND published<".time()." ORDER BY published DESC";

$result = $db->query($sql, 3, 0);

while (list($storyid, $title, $hometext) = $db->fetch_row($result)) {

    echo "<p><a href='/article.php?storyid=$storyid'>$title</a></p>";

    if($cnt==0){

        echo "<p>$hometext</p><br>";    

    }

    $cnt++;          

} 

$topicid = 3;
$sql    = "SELECT storyid, title, hometext  FROM ".$db->prefix("stories")." WHERE topicid=".$topicid." AND published>0 AND published<".time()." ORDER BY published DESC";
$result = $db->query($sql, 3, 0);
$flag = true;
while (list($storyid, $title, $hometext) = $db->fetch_row($result)) {
echo "<p><a href='/article.php?storyid=$storyid'>$title</a></p>";
   if ($flag)
   {
      echo "<p>$hometext</p><br>";
      $flag = false;
   }      
}  

Или использовать for

Или

$topicid = 3;
$sql    = "SELECT storyid, title, hometext  FROM ".$db->prefix("stories")." WHERE topicid=".$topicid." AND published>0 AND published<".time()." ORDER BY published DESC";
$result = $db->query($sql, 3, 0);

list($storyid, $title, $hometext) = $db->fetch_row($result);
echo "<p><a href='/article.php?storyid=$storyid'>$title</a></p>";
echo "<p>$hometext</p><br>";

while (list($storyid, $title, $hometext) = $db->fetch_row($result)) {
echo "<p><a href='/article.php?storyid=$storyid'>$title</a></p>";
//echo "<p>$hometext</p><br>";
}  

Почему нельзя убрать отсюда AND published>0?

Всем большое спасибо, удачи в наступающем году :)

Всегда пожалуйста!