"About This Mac" & Notifications Not Working Right

I've got a Mac Mini (2015, I believe) with the current operating system.

1 -- Some problems with the options under the Apple icon in the upper right. First, i clicked "About this Mac" -- nothing happened. No popup with the information. Then I clicked on Sleep, Restart and Shut Down. None of these did anything. Any thoughts? (I'll do a force restart by holding down the power button.)

2 -- The MM is set to display notifications in the upper right corner. But starting a few days ago, the notifications don't disappear. Previously, they would appear for a few seconds, and then disappear. Now I need to open up the notifications slider and close each notification. Can I get this back to have the notifications disappear automatically?



Thanks.