MissyQuill - Your problem has been addressed before in the previous Ask a Moderator thread as well as the Site Upgrade Forum. Long answer short - it's a glitch with the system that has still not been fixed yet.

OliveOil_Med - You can use either the <br> or the <br /> tag. If you're not putting in the space, it's not going to work, so I suggest you use the <br> tag.