The state and the opponents of a suspended voter registration law are moving toward a settlement in a lawsuit over the new rules, both sides said Thursday, even as a group of voters is trying to brush aside the state's legal strategy and pursue an appeal.

In a brief scheduling conference Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle, who struck down new regulations on third-party voter registration organizations at the end of last month, an attorney for the groups said the two sides were close to striking a deal.

A federal judge who struck down part of a controversial state elections law will hold a hearing Wednesday morning on whether to issue a temporary restraining order in a separate case concerning a state-ordered voter purge.

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle to bar elections officials from removing any suspected noncitizens from the rolls by using an inaccurate state database at the center of the effort. The state argues that no voters are currently in danger of being pushed off and that the courts should wait to rule on the case.

As a panel appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to review higher education in Florida met for a third time Monday, state universities were plotting their next moves after last week's unprecedented rejection of a series of proposed tuition increases.

On the same day Sen. John Thrasher made it official that he will not run for the Senate presidency in 2016, Sen. Jack Latvala said he believes he has rounded up enough support to claim the office, barring too many losses in this year's elections.

Latvala, R-Clearwater, did not specify how many pledge cards he had collected from members of the Senate's GOP caucus, which will decide who will serve as president unless Democrats seize control of the chamber in this year's elections, 2014 or 2016.

During a brief break in a meeting last week of the Florida A&M University board of trustees, President James Ammons was weighing his options.

Several trustees had spoken in support of a motion of no-confidence offered against Ammons for his seeming lack of leadership as the university has dealt with one problem after another, including the hazing death of a drum major in its iconic Marching 100 band. The board would shortly vote on the motion, which ended up passing 8-4.

On the same day that James Ammons, Florida A&M University president, spelled out how to deal with the fallout of a hazing scandal that has rocked the university's band, the chairman of the Florida Board of Governors outlined a series of concerns it wants the school to address in Ammons' next evaluation.

"The Board of Governors remains concerned with the number of serious issues that continue to mount at Florida A&M University," chairman Dean Colson wrote in a letter to Solomon Badger, who chairs the FAMU board.

Among the areas Colson outlined his letter:

With qualifying set for next week, the election-year scramble by politicians to decide what office they're actually going to seek kicked into high gear this week.

At the same time, a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice moved to try to make clear what was necessary for groups registering the voters who will choose between those candidates -- and whether some already-registered voters could remain on the rolls.

A federal judge on Thursday barred enforcement of part of the state's controversial elections law, saying the rules made it too difficult for nongovernmental organizations to register voters.

Opponents of the law, approved by the Legislature last year, cheered the decision by District Court Judge Robert Hinkle to issue an injunction against some portions of the statute, most notably a provision requiring voter registration forms to be returned to elections officials within 48 hours of being filled out.

An open Senate seat in Palm Beach County has drawn the interest of three current and former lawmakers, all Democrats, in what could be a heated primary contest.

The candidates for Senate District 27 so far include Rep. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth, Rep. Mack Bernard of West Palm Beach, and former Rep. Kevin Rader of Delray Beach. No Republicans have filed in the district, which includes all or parts of Palm Beach, Greenacres, West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach in eastern Palm Beach County.

As the Florida Department of Education tries to handle the fallout of the collapse in FCAT writing scores, the office of Gov. Rick Scott has been intimately involved in efforts to roll out the test scores, according to staff emails.

Showing an interest often reserved for issues like economic development, one of the governor's priorities, Scott's top staff has played a key role in coordinating the state's response after a dramatic drop in test scores prompted a scramble by officials to temporarily lower the passing grade on the writing portion of the assessment.