Text Animation Bullets can't drag them anymore

When animating text, specifically bullet items on a timeline (fade in animation, Effect Options - By Paragraph) I move all the separate bullets to the beginning of the timeline (I'm in undocked mode for the timeline), I have selected all text items (paragraphs) by clicking to top item then mouse over the bottom and shift-click. The timeline has a voiceover. I click the 'play' icon in the lower left. As the narration/playhead reaches an entry point for a bullet item I stop the playhead, move the entire list of bullet items to that entry point. I 'ctrl-click' the top bullet-item which deselects it and continue by click 'play' again. At the next bullet entry point I pause the playhead, move the remaining bullet items to that entry point, deselect the one I want (ctrl-click) and repeat until all bullet items are in their respective entry points.

I have noticed that if I simply click on each bullet item that still needs to be moved down the timeline, they will relink and move together. didn't used to have to do this...