I have added the preloader and it seems to work fine, so thanks for that. As for the no-tables layout, I'll have to take a closer look at that, but it seems like it's much the same as tables (in terms of the tag layout)?
Similar nesting structure (because I'm using lists for the news articles) yes. But a lot more flexible in the styling you can do (it takes a bit of practice, but lists are definitely useful. This site can explain quite a bit that you can do with them: http://alistapart.com/