Nathan,  to assist you better we need a more specific question. What exactly do you want to know?
Also have a look at this plugin http://www.oxwall.org/store/item/695 and this crash course
http://docs.oxwall.org/dev:crash-course it may be useful for you.

For starters I would like to begin with the news feed, I would like and example of how the data is pulled from the database. Since that[the database] is obfuscated [by what appears to be some sort of hibernate like intermediary library] it makes it difficult to figure out how to construct a select statement for the news feed...

A simple example of a select statement that returns news would be a good place to start since it contains pretty much every element needed to poll almost all data from each user. The rest of the statements for CRUD actions can be extrapolated from that I am assuming.

Basically I am attempting to take all of your modules, and build a second version(or modify existing) to return data from the database without HTML and UI elements as JSON.
This would allow for a simple to use API that could easily be integrated with ANY mobile technology... ONCE completed I have no problem giving it back to the community at NO COST... since Oxwall is fantastic... it just lacks any semblance of a usable API or mobile experience.. the mobile site is atrocious... worse actually.
Not to insult you, just constructive critique. In the interim whilest I work on the API I will build and app for android  and strip the CSS and rewrite it on the fly using webview.. using android  webview I should be able to make the site more user friendly for mobile users...
 once completed I will release the source for the mobile pp to every body interested, because I find the lack of mobile functionality  to be a  terrible waste of a really good social site software.

The data is from the database is pulled by using these methods:

protected function findActionList()

protected function findActionCount()

protected function findActivityList()

in ow_plugins/newsfeed/classes/feed_driver.php 

site_driver.php and user_driver.php files

As to the returning data as JSON, you need to format it on your own, as we do not provide assistance on code modifications and plugins development

OK, thats fine, i'll have a look...