Thanks Sara, IolantheAlias, Sara, and Patrick!
Sara - Sally is a new member of the city beat. I think that's in there, but not prominently. My thought is that when the Planet was blown up without hope of repair, several people found other jobs. So while the key players we care about are all back, there are several new people working there as well to fill in the holes. Sally is one of them.
Don't worry. She's not that important. She disappears after chapter 60 (not that something bad happens to her, she just isn't important to the story).
I agree with you about the k-cage. That was part of why I wanted him in there. Plus, I liked the idea of Superman having to feel even more guilty when he saw Clark emerge all weak after he had just kissed Lois.
IolantheAlias - This story doesn't continue much past House of Luthor (well, we're finished with it now I think, but the rest is all non-canon stuff), so we don't see what happened to Lex, but in my head, he's not coming back.
Sorry, Sara!
Patrick - Yes, Superman left Clark in the k-cage. (Sara - while he didn't mean for Clark to end up in it, he did hover over LexTower and see Clark in it, so he knew he was there). This was not supposed to be Superman being evil. I couldn't see any way for Superman to help Clark. If he snuck down there, the kryptonite would effect him and there might be two dead Supermen. If he got help, he'd be giving away Clark's secret.
Add to that that he's not thinking clearly right now, and he felt awful about it, but ended up trusting that Clark would get out like he did. He did however, start to go help Clark once he saved Luthor and had talked to Lois and realized how differently this universe was going. But of course, by then, Clark had gotten out himself.