Based on Traveller's feedback ( thanks alot! ) I've changed the ticker background back to what it was and changed the CSS file accordingly so we can see the text. I also changed the font family to Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif so that is was consistent with the rest of the site. I think it is more legible than the previous Arial font.

Can everyone please do a Shift-Refresh to make sure they can see the latest changes and report any issues.

Thanks.