Neilo,
I modified the code as you suggested and now the shadow is gone, however the problem WAS not solved at this point. The good news is that it isolated the problem for me and sent me in search of a solution which I am happy to report worked for the most part.
For other Joomla! users that may be in this situation I will post my findings and solution.
I was using the JCE mediabox plugin to accomplish the modal window, however the background of the modal window would show though around the information balloon. When I changed the modal window background to "transparent", the website page showed through instead.
The solution for me was to switch to a different modal window called modalizer, which can be found at modalizer
Now everything is fine except for the text in the ballon is "times new roman" now only in internet explorer... I think I saw another thread on that. Thanks for the help in sending me down the correct path on this one. This is a great extension for dreamweaver, worth every penny I paid for it!
