I registered a domain name for my wife's business through Networksolutions.com and they are "hosting" it -meaning I have to pay them every year and I have to go through them in order to change anyting. Can I somehow switch this name to Yahoo and have Yahoo maintain the name, etc???

Yes. You can transfer your domain name from one registrar to another. But before you initiate the transfer you need to unlock your domain name in case networksolutions.com have locked it for you. By the way locking a domain name is for your own safety since none other than you can transfer your domain.

Before you transfer your domain name, let me tell you it is always best to Register domain name with one company and host your site with another company.

To transfer your domain to yahoo, first login to your networksolutions.com control panel. Check if your domain name is locked. If locked, unlock your domain name first. Then go to your new domain name registrar and choose transfer domain name. I am not sure if yahoo is doing this. But there are lot of reliable domain registrars service providers out there to where you can transfer your domain.

http://www.domainnameswebhost.net/

yes just use it as new/not transfer