Campaign behind initiative to criminalize hunting, fishing, and any intentional injury to animals in Oregon submits signatures for verification
On May 20, the campaign behind a ballot initiative to criminalize hunting, fishing, and any intentional injury to animals in Oregon submitted more than 120,000 signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State for verification.
While previous animal treatment measures in the country have addressed certain hunting methods, wildlife trafficking, farm animal confinement, animal fighting, racing, and animal experimentation, this would be the first to criminalize all hunting, fishing, the slaughter of animals for food, and livestock husbandry.
The initiative, which sponsors call the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions (PEACE) Act, would amend Chapter 167 of the Oregon Revised Statutes to remove certain exemptions to animal cruelty laws.
The only exceptions allowed under the initiative for harming or killing a protected animal are self-defense against an immediate threat to yourself, other humans, or other animals, and good veterinary practices defined in state law. Under the initiative, protected animals would include any nonhuman mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, or fish.
Nineteen states have conformed to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s No Tax on Tips deduction
Of the 41 states that levy a broad individual income tax on wages, 19 conformed their tax codes to adopt the No Tax on Tips deduction created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Twenty-one states have declined to adopt the deduction, and one state, Georgia, has partially conformed to it.
The No Tax on Tips deduction allows eligible workers to deduct up to $25,000 in qualified tip income from their federal taxable income each year. It covers tax years 2025 through 2028.
Whether a state extends the No Tax on Tips deduction to its own income tax depends largely on how it conforms to the federal tax code.
In addition to the No Tax on Tips provision, Ballotpedia also has extensive coverage of the state implementation of the OBBBA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provisions and the U.S. school choice tax credit scholarship program.
Voters across 34 California counties will decide on 113 local ballot measures on June 2
Voters across 34 California counties will decide on 113 local ballot measures on June 2, ranging from school bonds and parcel taxes to data center bans and election administration changes.
The measures coincide with the statewide primary, which is historically the second-largest election date for local ballot measures in California, behind only the November general election in even-numbered years. The 113 measures on this year's ballot fall below the average of 171 measures per primary since 2018. The number of measures on primary ballots has ranged from a low of 96 in 2022 to a high of 291 in 2020.
Los Angeles County has the most measures on the ballot with 26, followed by Contra Costa County with 12 and Marin County with 11. The remaining 31 counties have between one and eight measures each. There are no measures on the ballot in 24 counties.