Many thanks for your input on this. I have php code blindness - I have honestly tried, but I have let David Powers down dreadfully. 
Happens to all of us regardless of how long we have been developing so don't worry about it.
However, I would like for the Home Page to always display the latest post created in Wordpress, but only if it has been listed under the category (slug) of 'site-news-item'. This is so that the owner of the site can choose to have a post appear in the lower-left section of the Home Page as a 'News Item', and still post others under different categories that won't appear on the Home page.At the moment I can have the latest post appear there, but the latest post will appear regardless of what category it is listed under, as the categories/slugs are defined in a second wordpress table/recordset.
As the tables are heavily integrated with the way that wordpress works, I wouldn't know how to go about integrating them, and wouldn't want to try!
Dave - is this the sort of thing that 'SimplePie' does for you?
Yes this is exactly the kind of thing that SimplePie can do, but there seems to be a problem with your rss feed as when I try to view it in a browser I get an error as shown in the attached screenshot.
P.S - Dave - have been looking at your sites portfolio - fabulous design work.
Thanks, I have been lucky enough to work with some really good designers over the years.
