Displaying posts on Homepage

Try the following using WP_Query:

<div class="news-column">
    <h3>Latest News</h3>
    <ul>
        <?php
        //get news
        $args->posts_per_page = 5;

        //query
        $query = new WP_Query($args);
        while($query->have_posts()):$query->the_post();
            ?>
            <li class="news-item">
                <h4><?php the_title(); ?></h4>
                <p><?php the_date('F jS, Y'); ?></p>
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
                <p class="footnotes"><a href="https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/69725/<?php the_permalink(); ?>">Continue reading</a></p>
            </li>
            <?php
        endwhile;
        wp_reset_postdata();
        ?>
    </ul>
</div>

You can read more about other params to use here: codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query