and a more personal one: newseditor status tied into the regular profile, instead of having to log in twice

(including the forums, I have 3 logins on this site

)
EDIT:
in the top line of each post on the front page... add "Submitter: $name ?> - or whatever the submitter variable is called

people often complains about not being credited - and the place it's currently placed is not very visible and it discourages a lot of people to post news stories to us.
Second: Might / Could be a problem with the "posting module". The admin would have to set it free. So if a news post is commited, it will be posted immediately, instead of being checked first. Then the proper name would show.
This way is more safe, as one can check the post before! Maybe it could be altered by the admin to set a "Someone posted:" in front of it. That is all you can do. The rest is too dangerous!