Much of state government might be done for the year, but the judiciary spent the week still getting through the last bits of its 2015 workload.

The highest-profile case --- at least to those who work in the 10 square blocks surrounding the Florida Capitol --- was Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds' review of proposed redistricting plans for the state Senate.

The final state redistricting trial in a nearly four-year legal battle over Florida's political boundaries ended with both sides trading charges of partisan gerrymandering, some of them the same accusations that have been hurled in court since the beginning.

In closing arguments Thursday before Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds, lawyers for the state Senate and a coalition of voting-rights groups made final pitches for their versions of a map for the Senate's 40 districts.

Republican Congressman David Jolly, who's running for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat in 2016, thinks businessman Donald Trump should step out of the presidential race. But Jolly also agrees with him on something. It just depends on which Jolly message you focus on.

With the legislative committee weeks coming to a close, and the end of the year in sight, there were plenty of finales showing up in Tallahassee this week.

One phase of a nearly four-year-long legal battle over the state's congressional districts reached its conclusion. A race for the Senate presidency that at times threatened to tear the chamber apart was finally, definitively set aside. And the head of Gov. Rick Scott's economic development agency bowed out.

According to Gov. Rick Scott, his budgets are only getting better --- even as they keep getting bigger.

"What's great about this is, it's way better than my first budget," Scott said Monday as he unveiled his $79.3 billion spending plan for the year that begins July 1. The governor noted that the state was facing a shortfall when he took office in 2011, prompting cuts.

One of the lobbying groups with the most firepower at the Florida Capitol is the National Rifle Association. It's rare, though not unheard of, for the organization to lose a legislative vote.

Which is why it was somewhat surprising to see a House committee shoot down a measure the NRA has backed for the 2016 session.

That was just one of a series of bills about firearms considered in Tallahassee this week, and in most cases the NRA managed to outgun its opponents.

A key Florida Supreme Court justice sounded skeptical Tuesday about the Legislature's proposal for a contested South Florida district in a battle over the map for the state's congressional delegation.

Meanwhile, two congresswomen vowed to take the fight to the federal courts after their districts were largely ignored during oral arguments before the state Supreme Court, raising the prospect of more uncertainty in the nearly four-year saga about how to redraw the state's political boundaries under a voter-approved ban on political gerrymandering.

South Florida emerged Wednesday as the final barrier to an agreement between legislative leaders about a redistricting plan for the state Senate, even as resistance to other parts of a House-passed map raised questions about whether a majority of senators could be persuaded to back the proposal.

An evening negotiating session between House Redistricting Chairman Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, and Senate Reapportionment Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, didn't produce an immediate compromise on a plan to redraw lines for the Senate's 40 seats.

House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to approve a redistricting plan for the state Senate, setting up the delicate endgame for a three-week special session called to finally bring Florida's political boundaries into line with a voter-approved ban on gerrymandering.

"Ain't nothing but a family thing," the fictional White House chief of staff Leo McGarry once said in an episode of "The West Wing." And while he was talking about his battle with alcoholism, he might as well have been discussing the past week in Tallahassee.

The state Senate redistricting battle descended into a personal and political quagmire that involved no fewer than three of the Legislature's almost dynastic families. The fight has also ripped apart the Republican caucus in the upper chamber, which has started to resemble a dysfunctional family.