Importing HTML Text Spacing issues...PLEASE HELP, I'll $$PAY$$$

Hello, I’m importing some html text into a Dynamic Text Field(services_txt). Here’s the code:

var url:String = “content/servicesoffered.html”;
var loadit:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
loadit.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);
loadit.load(new URLRequest(url));

function completeHandler(event:Event):void {
services_txt.htmlText = event.target.data ;
}

The html imports fine, but for every space between tags my text field adds a space. For example:

<ul>
<li>hello</li>
<li>hello 2</li>
<li>hello 3</li>
<li>hello 4</li>
</ul>

looks like

[LIST]
[*]hello
[/LIST]

[LIST]
[*]hello 2
[/LIST]

[LIST]
[*]hello 3
[/LIST]

[LIST]
[*]hello 4
[/LIST]

instead of:

[LIST]
[]hello
[
]hello 2
[]hello 3
[
]hello 4
[/LIST]

Any ideas???