Re: The News section
It would appear that if you go to Site Admin – Blogs and click “edit” on the blog in question, that you can edit the permalink structure in the appropriate field. (Scroll way down.) Edit out the /blog and click Update.
However, Settings – Permalinks doesn’t reflect this change.
But when I Publish a new post, the permalink now becomes /news/post-name-etc.
But then I click on “News” on the home page, and the posts don’t show up.
Well, that’s what’s happening with me anyway. I am on trunk 544.