Hey,
1) It's not directly possible. You can use a workaround though. Open up index.php and replace:
$additional_loop = new WP_Query("cat=".$negative_cats."&paged=$paged");
with:
$additional_loop = new WP_Query(array('post_type' => 'page', 'post__in' => array(50)));
and instead of 50 fill in the ID of your page. Then search for:
<div class="entry-text">
<?php the_excerpt() ?>
</div>
and replace it with:
<div class="entry-text">
<?php the_content() ?>
</div>
and delete:
<a href="<?php echo get_permalink() ?>" class="more-link"><?php _e('Read more','newscast'); ?></a>
2) You can use the menu manager (Appearance > Menus ) to add any content you like. I posted a tutorial here: http://www.kriesi.at/support/topic/i-can%E2%80%99t-create-a-custom-menu-the-menu-behaves-weird