Click on topics and suscribe to 'Breaking News' and any other heading you'd like to appear in your sidebar. I have used the beta version all week and am already used to it. Just have a bit of patience, I think you'll like it. Good Luck!
Been there, done that...
I normally leave cookies disabled unless I'm posting. Now I cannot get a breaking news sidebar unless I have cookies enabled. I have no desire to leave cookies enabled, because I'll ultimately forget to turn them back off. Therefore, despite the fact that the "Breaking News" sidebar technically still exists, in my case, it is effectively gone. Bummer.
Unless I am mistaken, lurkers that have not yet registered will also not see the breaking news sidebar. IMHO, this is not a good feature.
Thanks. I now have "Breaking News" on my sidebar.
I don't know if FR should bother with the flag graphic underlay, though. It may be only 11.2 KB's, but I think the fact that another whole page is effectively loading over it is what's slowing page load time.