Re: Setting initial homepage
The Home that is being set in Admin -> General is if you enter the URL of the root of your tikiwiki. So if your wiki is at http://www.progressiveomaha.com/tikidir you will be redirected to http://www.progressiveomaha.com/tikidir/tiki-view_articles.php . If you go to the main menu and select Home, you will go to a wiki page that is the home wiki page. That is a subtle difference. If you want the Home menu to go to articles, you need to edit the menu (Admin -> Menus)
When I browse to http://www.progressiveomaha.com/tikidir I get the Articles home page (like you want) So the permissions are correct.
gary