Can I remove the slogan area?

goto administer -> themes
configure the theme not to show the slogan by using the appropriate checkboxes

odd. check page.tpl.php and comment out the line of code where slogan is called ?

are you sure this isn't a caching issue ?

the only other thing I can think to do is fire up the firefox browser with the firebug add on and begin to check the .css being called in that area.

In page.tpl.php delete these lines:

    <div id="title">
      <?php if ($site_name) { ?><h1><a href="<?php print $base_path ?>" title="<?php print t('Home') ?>"><?php print $site_name ?></a></h1><?php } ?>
      <?php if ($site_slogan) { ?><div class='site-slogan'><?php print $site_slogan ?></div><?php } ?>
      <div id="title-spacer"></div>
    </div>

Next, you will need to edit style.css. Find the #nav section (line 131 in the current release), and change it to this:

#nav {
  height: 25px;
  width: 715px;
  clear: both;
  font-size: 10px;
  margin-top: 175px;
}