How do I display all but one category on the home page?

I'm helping convert a large Drupal blog to WordPress. The site currently has a NewsWire Page that is separate from the Home Page. We'd like to do this in WordPress too. I'm thinking giving NewsWire posts a category of "Newswire" then not displaying that category on the Home Page would work.

Is there a way to do this from Atahualpha Theme Options or do I need to tweak index.php?

If I do need to tweak index.php, what should it says?

I'm open to other ideas too.

Thanks!