Hi Randy, I have tried looking at this error as I was getting it as well.  I found that there is a line of code in the news module I was getting an exception on that was resulting in the very same error.  There may be better forum information somewhere else, but perhaps this is clue for you to do some more research.  The line is highlighted below.  This is from RssModule.ascx.vb.  My sense is one of two things.  Either there is a setting in webconfig that is forbidding me from setting the  proxy member of the HttpWebRequest object, or it's a call to some low level feature that my hosting provider is preventing modification of.   I'm just a hack who kind of knows how to use a debuger, so I could be totally off base on this.  One solution, that may work depending on your setup, remove your proxy entry if it has been set inadvertantly, as this section will be skipped if your proxy setting is blank.

' make remote request
                            Dim wr As HttpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create(xmlsrc), HttpWebRequest)
                            If UserAccount <> "" Then
                                wr.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(UserAccount, Password, DomainName)
                            End If

' set proxy server
                            If Convert.ToString(PortalSettings.HostSettings("ProxyServer")) <> "" Then
                                wr.Proxy = New WebProxy(Convert.ToString(PortalSettings.HostSettings("ProxyServer")), Convert.ToInt32(Convert.ToString(PortalSettings.HostSettings("ProxyPort"))))
                                ' set the credentials for an authenticated proxy
                                If Not Convert.ToString(PortalSettings.HostSettings("ProxyUsername")).Equals("") Then
                                    wr.Proxy.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(Convert.ToString(PortalSettings.HostSettings("ProxyUsername")), Convert.ToString(PortalSettings.HostSettings("ProxyPassword")))
                                End If
                            End If