By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery AL – State lawmakers worked into the early morning hours Tuesday as they finished their session. However, they were unable to reach a compromise on a bill that would have expanded protections for private property owners against eminent domain land seizures. The House and Senate could not agree on whether governments should pay current use or best use value when seizing property for public projects. But numerous other bills did pass and now await consideration by Governor Bob Riley. Among them are ... a bill to move Alabama's presidential primaries to February making Alabama voters among the first in the nation to cast their ballots ... a bill that establishes a process to pardon Rosa Parks and hundreds of others arrested for violating segregation-era laws ... a bill that sets a tax holiday for back-to-school purchases on the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August ... and a bill that allows local school boards to set their own policies regarding the use of cell phones, pagers and similar equipment in public schools. Lawmakers also have declared the peach as Alabama's official state tree fruit.