How to isolate recent posts?

Hello, I’m having a hard time trying to figure out a loop for index.php.

I have a 3 column format for the 3 most recent posts, and the 6 recent posts following it underneath.

Dummy site until I get it to run on WP: http://socalnpo.org
Wordpress: http://socalnpo.org/wp

Is there a way to isolate the first 9 individual post so that I can force the format onto each individual <div>? Or do you suggest formatting it in

and then trying to loop it?

Code:
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Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

–Dana

[duplicate: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/magazine-front-page-truncated?replies=1 – please continue with your original topic – closed]