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Hello TedERux
Welcome to Xoops
You are probably better setting up your "News" module as your default start page. To do this go to system admin/preferences/general settings and chooose "News" as your default start up.
See this thread here for the forum question
https://xoops.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=17844&forum=7&post_id=75429#forumpost75429
For your 3rd question try typing the word "theme" in the top right search box--enough results there to keep you going for weeks..
In particular got to the "web links" results and click on "show all"