User access module unchangeable

I set up a staging server for a multi site and it seemed that is was working fine. I then install the blog module as use1. I had no problems. when I tried to give an authorize users access the select boxes looked good. after submitting the page I looked and the box we empty (not changed.)

Perms on the files and directories all seem right and match the production site.
checked node access and reentered the code, no difference.

on the staging site a new install was done the sites directory was copied from production.
The database we transferred via a MySQL dump and imported into the new sites.

I'm at a loss as how to proceed. Any help will be very much appreciated
Regards
Ron