All of the parties involved in a legal fight over the shape of the state's congressional districts have until Monday to submit maps they believe should be used in the looming 2016 elections, a Leon County judge ruled Friday.

An order approved by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis lays out the timeline for the latest stage of the courtroom battle, now in its fourth year. The Legislature's version of the congressional map was thrown out in July by the Florida Supreme Court, which said the plan violated the anti-gerrymandering "Fair Districts" standards approved by voters in 2010.

So far, the legislative effort to review lobbying firms' compensation reports hasn't appeared to find any signs of corruption or malfeasance. But some firms might want to clean up their books a little bit.

To try to gauge whether lobbying firms were leveling on reports they are required to file with the state about who's paying them to work the Capitol, the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee decided to look over those statements from 2014. The panel picked 26 lobbying firms to undergo random audits. In that first batch, 16 had "findings," meaning they got something wrong.

Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers will have more than $600 million in extra money as they craft budget proposals for next year, according to a draft report issued Tuesday by economic forecasters.

The projection included in the Long-Range Financial Outlook, which will be considered by a legislative committee next week, marks the first official estimate of the state's surplus after accounting for continuing expenses and other spending decisions lawmakers generally make each year.

The leaders of Florida spent the week looking for directions, and maps didn't turn out to be much help.

In the case of the state's ongoing congressional redistricting saga, lawmakers and a Leon County judge were looking for directions from the Florida Supreme Court --- and there was no map to follow, because there is no congressional map at all. There also appears to be no roadmap for how to extract the state from the increasingly intricate web of lawsuits, special sessions and political battles sparked by the anti-gerrymandering "Fair Districts" standards.

Even without Tropical Storm Erika --- which could begin affecting Florida on Sunday and strengthen to a hurricane by Monday --- the churning storms of the Atlantic and Florida's unique place as a peninsula jutting into the water were bound to be a topic of political conversation.

Senate leaders crafting new districts for the chamber in 2012 held confidential meetings to discuss maps with lawmakers before the maps were made public, while at the same time boasting about "the most open and transparent redistricting process in Florida's history," according to court documents.

Depositions and other evidence in a long-running lawsuit about the Senate districts were released this week, at the same time that lawmakers are holding a special session to redraw congressional lines that were struck down as unconstitutional gerrymanders by the Florida Supreme Court.

The battle over boundaries for Florida's 27 congressional districts began in earnest Thursday, with a state House committee approving a plan while senators considered overhauling the same proposal --- and as a congresswoman continued pressing her case that the map would harm black voters.

The first draft of a new set of Florida congressional districts came under fire on several fronts Tuesday, with two members of Congress blasting the plan and some state lawmakers suggesting they would draw their own maps.

Perhaps, as a critic of the Legislature's first two drafts of congressional districts has said, the third time will be the charm.

Lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday to once again draw a map for each of Florida's 27 congressional seats. It is a drama being watched in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., as shifting lines just a few miles in one direction or another could decide the futures of several members of the state's U.S. House delegation.

Two voting-rights organizations that led the legal battle against congressional districts later found to be unconstitutional called Monday for a new map to be drawn in public -- a demand swiftly rejected by legislative leaders.

The League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause Florida released a letter to Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, taking issue with the top lawmakers' announcement that legislative staff and lawyers would be secluded as they draw a map intended to comply with a Florida Supreme Court decision rejecting current districts.