This is a little old but I went to see anyway.

Q. Why if you are supposed to be coding xhtml strict/css, are there any tables in this design?

There should be no tables. Mixing tables and CSS-P, there are bound to be errors. Get rid of the tables.

Q. Why are you using IE to create your page?

You should use a standard compliant browser (like FF or Moz) then hack for IE if the need be.

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TIPS
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1. As was mentioned, your Navigation should be (out of tables) marked up using an inline UL.

2. Remove unused divs and classes.

3. Make sure you are coding your xhtml correctly. The P tag does not need to be closed. Remove the two <p /> tags that are between your tables - I have no idea why you have that there.

4. Use semantic markup before making divs and classes. Change your "div.newstitle" to an H1 or H2 and style that.

5. Remove style elements from the page and put into stylesheet. Easier to troubleshoot if you are working only in one place.

6. Don't make newsdate a div of its own. Use <p class="newsdate">, or better yet style another Header element.