Funny thing happened. After posting this and trying a few things, I rebooted my computer and opened FF and looked in the Extensions/plugins and there was Proxy Tool. I removed it and now I have control of my new tabs.

So perhaps, it hides until you reboot. Not sure if this is it or not. Anyway, my problem with this is solved. Thank you all.

Here are some steps.

   1.Open a new tab
   2.In the address bar, type about:config
   3.Hit Enter
   4.Accept the warning
   5.Search for browser.newtab.url
   6.Right click on the first result
   7.press reset to restore the default value 
   8.Hit OK