[ale] Unity focus problem, following link in email

[PairOfTwins]

All:

Lots of searching and still scratching my head.

I've got an 87 year old running Ubuntu 12.04 for over a year now :-)  
It's fully updated.

Lately it developed this problem - she clicks on a link in an email, and 
nothing seems to happen.  ACTUALLY Firefox loads the page but doesn't 
bring it to the front.  Even when I click on the Firefox launcher, it 
STILL doesn't come to the front.  BUT if I click on Home Folder, THEN on 
Firefox, it comes to the front!

BTW if I make Chrome the default browser, it acts the same.  If the 
browser is not running, the browser comes to the front and displays the 
page.  If the browser is already running, it loads the page but my 
87-year old doesn't know it.

Clues?

Tom