Is there a way to boost posts to the top of the "recent" list?

I added new sorting options for the front-end components. So you can sort the posts by view number or view date too.

Great, thanks. So what does the "featured" option do on a blog post? And is there a way to boost posts to the top of the "recent" list?

The "featured" option is a marker. I will extend the front-end components with this feature. I added it to my todo list.