Welcome!
Question #1 is pretty common, first suggestion would be to spray the latch down with some WD-40 and work it in there because its probably the latch sticking that is causing that problem. Search around the forum for its discussed quite a bit.
Question #2 Don't know if your familiar with how the cruise works but when you push the on button nothing will light up. The light on the dash will come on when you press "set" on the controls. If you have tried to hit set after pressing the "on" button and still nothing it might just be a fuse or something.
Here is a copy of the manual for your truck if you didn't have one already.
http://www.fordrangerforum.com/frf/manuals/1997.pdf
I would start with the fuses.