Thank you for your opinions. I will have a building inspector and
probably the builder himself in the house over the next few months and
plan to ask them, but it is always helpful to have the opinions of
other knowledgable people, so thank you.

I took a look at the ceiling of the basement behind the staircase, and
took a few pictures as well. The first picture http://img585.imageshack.us/i/img2465s.jpg
shows the staircase where it turns 90 degrees and continues upward.
The 2x10 joist that runs directly above the wall I want to remove does
NOT run all the way to the center support I-beam of the basement
because it is interrupted where the stairs turn 90 degrees. The same
goes for the TJI joist that is only a few inches from this 2x10 as
well as the next TJI joist over. This is more clearly seen in the
next picture here http://img707.imageshack.us/i/img2466f.jpg/ . All
joists seem to rest on the wall that supports the portion of the
stairs after they turn left. By the next TJI joist over (3 away from
the 2x10), this one clears the stairs and goes from sill plate to I-
beam and we are back on track.

The other side of the stairwell where there are no stairs turning to
the right, as seen in the third picture http://img87.imageshack.us/i/img2467x.jpg/
, the 2x10 joist does run all the way from the sill plate to the I-
beam, so we are good there and all makes sense to me on that side
(unfortunately that's not the side I want to remodel).

Lastly, I found this picture from when the house was built, less than
a year ago, and it shows all of the floor joists in place along with
the center i-beam, before any stairs were added
http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/7527/img1831t.jpg. It seems that
the floor joists are supported without any of the wall that I want to
remove; however, I'm not sure if this necessarily means it is not load
bearing because the rest of the house is not obviously built and the
joists are not fully loaded.

Final thoughts anyone?

Thanks yet again