Messages do not show, Magento 1.7, New Installation

[xAvarice]

"You have 1 critical, 5 major, 19 minor and 59 notice unread message(s). Go to notifications Latest Message: Reminder: Change Magento`s default phone numbers and callouts before site launch"

Magento informs us that we have the above messages waiting for us, when we click on the link it takes us to the messages page, states there at 80 or so messasges (5 pages worth) yet shows nothing.

Has anyone had this problem before?