Sounds like you have a possible problem with DirectX - the WE uses DX to render all the graphics in the editor, so if your cursor isn't showing, perhaps you need to either update your graphics driver or make sure you have at least DX 8.1. What sort of mouse are you using? Does it use generic drivers, or did drivers come with it?
I am working on getting access to the old news portal under a different URL for those that would rather use that for news before we get a different news view.
It is OK though for the main page to open up on the forum in the view it was before. As long as the portal has its own URL so it can be viewed that way I do want to try it as a regular forum view for a while
I switched it to a "Standard" article forum. This will show the thread list like normal, but the threads themselves will have the first post set up above the rest of the "comments"