Starting a News Site. Just not sure about the design

So my buddy and I got really interested in news and how to better stay informed. We decided to start building site for topics we're interested in.

http://celeb.rawsignal.com/

We're pretty technical, and that's part of the fun of the project honestly. However, we're not sure if the design and layout is any good. We were going for a clean look that focuses on the news at hand.

Our old design looked like a link farm and was awful. We're hoping this is better, but not sure. What do you all think? Also, are there any examples of sites and layouts that have a better and more usable design look and feel?

Thanks for helping some n00bs

 

We launched another channel:
http://tech.rawsignal.com/

hope you like it