links in external text file

Heyo, I'm loading html formated text from an external txt file into a masked "createTextField", which was styled using an external CSS file.  Everything is fine, except for one strange thing...any links at the beginning of my text file DON'T work...the links towards the bottom of my text file DO work.  I have never ran into this problem before.  So far, I'm totally stumped.  Any ideas?  I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

Note: I have "a:hover" and "a:active" properties set via the CSS file.  When I rollover the links that aren't working, the anchor rollover properties do change, so there is some recognition going on, but the mouse doesn't change to a hand, it remains a cursor and the link will not open/activate.