Identical index.php changes in identical sites deliver differing outcomes

I am adding category blocks to the frontpage of my main site. The theme’s dev team said they can only advise to copy and paste a block div in the index.php and just change the category options. ie change block4cat to business, if I wanted a new block modelled off of block four to be for the business category.

This actually worked in the test site. So I just copied it over to the mainsite but it is not working. The title says “Travel” but the content is the latest posts.

Here is the website: burdekintribune.com

Here is the div in question:

<div id="colorcontentblock" class="colorcontentwrap8_left">
<?php
$b9_cat = of_get_option('block9cat');
?>
<?php /* Category credentials */
$category_id = $travel;
$category_link = get_category_link( $category_id );
$category_name = get_cat_name($category_id);
?>
    <?php query_posts('showposts=1&offset=0&cat=' . $category_id); if (have_posts()) : ?>
		<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
            <div id="colorcontenth3_small" class="custom9"><a>" title="<?php echo $category[0]->category_nicename; ?>"><?php echo of_get_option('travel', 'travel'); ?></a></div>  

    	<div id="colorcontentwrap9">
				<h3><a>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>

            <?php if(get_option('thumbok')!="no"):?>  <?php if( has_post_thumbnail() ) { ?>
            <a>"><?php the_post_thumbnail('colorcontentblock9'); ?></a>
             <?php } else { ?>
           <a>">  <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/noimg.png" style="width:320px; height:190px;" /> </a><?php } ?>
           <?php endif?> 

           <?php if(get_option('thumbok')!="yes"):?>
<?php 	$m_scrp = get_template_directory_uri() . '/includes/timthumb.php?';
                    	$m_image = '';
                    	$customfields = get_post_custom();  if (empty($customfields['image'][0])) {
$m_image = m_theme_capture_first_image(); } else { $m_image = $customfields['image'][0]; } if (empty($m_image)) { $imgpath = $m_image_def;  	} else {
$imgpath = $m_scrp . 'src=' . $m_image . '&w=' . 320 . '&h=' . 190 . '&zc=1'; } ?>
  <a>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
  <img src="<?php echo $imgpath; ?>" alt="" /> </a>
 <?php endif?> 

            <?php $excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); echo string_limit_words($excerpt,21); ?>..
		 <div class="cb"></div>
		</div>
    		<?php endwhile; ?>	<?php else : ?> 	<?php endif; ?>
    		 <?php query_posts('showposts=3&cat=travelcat'.of_get_option('travelcat').'&offset=1'); if (have_posts()) : ?>
		<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
    	<div id="colorcontentwrap9">
				<h2><a>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
		 <div class="cb"></div>
		</div>
    		<?php endwhile; ?>	<?php else : ?> 	<?php endif; ?>
   </div>

[Moderator Note: Please post code & markup between backticks or use the code button. Your posted code may now have been damaged by the forum’s parser.]

So how can I go about fixing this issue? I have been chopping and changing for about 20 hours now and nothing.

Also, I’m not well versed in coding and all that jazz, so please speak as if I were a small child or golden retriever.