I am getting the Item image opening in a new window instead of popping up in a Light-box style pop up. Requiring the use to click the "Back" button instead of just clicking off the image to return to reading the article.

www.911truthoutreach.org/557-news-releases/475-pentagon-plane-approach-captured-on-video.html

Did something change with K2 2.7 or did I uninstall something I shouldn't have.

Hello Tim,

It appears that jQuery is not being loaded.
You can change this in K2's settings and enable jQuery loading from there.

OK, JQuery was being loaded but the JQuery Libraries were not. Got the light box pop-up back but the fade-in fade-out duration seems to be set to zero. Is there somewhere I can give this a non-zero value besides modifying the JavaScript?

Unfortunately you have to modify the js file.
dimsemenov.com/plugins/magnific-popup/documentation.html