It's another kind of rivalry that sometimes plays itself out in Tallahassee. But instead of a football field, the arena is the Florida Legislature

Heading into the 2017 legislative session, Florida State University can claim educational ties to 26 members of the House and Senate, while 24 lawmakers have links with the University of Florida.

Less than a third of the 160 lawmakers can be claimed by the two universities designated as "pre-eminent" institutions by the state.

In his annual "state of the university" address on Wednesday, Florida State University President John Thrasher reiterated his strong opposition to allowing guns on university and college campuses.

As a member of the Florida Senate, Thrasher helped kill a bill in 2011 that would have allowed gun owners with concealed-weapons licenses to bring their firearms to Florida's university and state-college campuses.

"I opposed it. I killed it. I have worked against it since then," Thrasher told the FSU faculty. "And you have my promise that I will work against it this year also."

Reviving a decades-old fight, environmentalists have begun a legal push to remove the Rodman dam in North Florida and restore the Ocklawaha River.

After losing the state's presidential and U.S. Senate races and failing to make major gains in the Legislature, Florida Democrats are groping for a way forward as the 2018 elections loom with battles for governor and all three state Cabinet seats

The immediate issue is who will lead the Florida Democratic Party and its 4.87 million voters, with the announcement Friday that Allison Tant, who has chaired the party since 2013, is stepping down in January.

Florida Democrats made a net gain of two seats in the state House of Representatives on Tuesday, although Republicans kept their firm grip over the 120-member chamber.

Florida voters in the Orlando area called home a 24-year veteran lawmaker from Washington on Tuesday.

In the fall of 2014, more than a quarter of the students who had transferred to state universities after earning associate in arts degrees in the Florida State College System were enrolled at the University of Central Florida.

The Orlando university's ability to enroll 27.2 percent of the state college graduates contrasts sharply with Florida A&M University's enrollment of less than 1 percent of those students, a new report given to the state Board of Education on Wednesday showed.

While state debt has declined 9.5 percent over the past five years, debt for Florida's state universities has risen by 41 percent, according to a report reviewed Tuesday by Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet.

State debt has fallen by $2.7 billion in that period, for a total debt of $25.5 billion at the end of 2015. In the same time, university debt has risen by $1.1 billion, for a total of $3.8 billion, the state Division of Bond Finance report showed.

The Florida university system has set an ambitious goal of having the equivalent of 40 percent of its full-time undergraduate students taking online classes by 2025.

That would more than double the usage of online classes from the 2013-14 academic year, under a goal set by the system's Board of Governors.

A key factor in that transition will be cost, with the idea that students may have an incentive to shift to online classes if they receive breaks on tuition or fees.

President Barack Obama has made Florida eligible for disaster aid in eight counties as the state continues to recover from the impact of Hurricane Matthew.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved aid to the state and local governments for debris removal and emergency protective measures in Brevard, Duval, Flagler, Indian River, Nassau, St. Johns, St. Lucie and Volusia counties. A request for additional federal disaster aid for individuals and businesses and federal aid to repair roads and other public structures is pending.