[Ranma2k]

On the default skins it makes a purpleish box around the banner. Can I remove that?

Yes the row takes the style of the table it's
if you want the back ground a white one .. you can change the code

<td colspan="8">

with

<td colspan="8"  bgcolor="#FFFFFF">

Secondly, is there anyways to get the extra space out between the nav bars and the banner?

yes
use

<td colspan="8" cellspacing="0">

By using that as a tempalte can this be used to create another table belwo the courrent events table to place my google adds in?

actully this code will only add a table row with one columns ( actully span 8 columns at once )

so if you want to add it in another table make sure that the number of columns in that table and add it in the

<td colspan="8">