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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 2020)
Established in 1970 PO QR code Volume XLVIV • Number 26 ‘City of Roses’ www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • December 23, 2020 Committed to Cultural Diversity 2020 Y ear in r eview Turmoil and Racial Progress Tina Kotek Lawmakers Advance COVID Relief Eviction moratorium extended through June Oregon lawmakers passed four bills in a special session Monday, which includes $800 million in relief to people struggling from the corona- virus pandemic, extending an evic- tion moratorium through June and al- locating funds for renter and landlord relief “Make no mistake, if we do not pass this bill thousands of families will lose their homes in January and it will be on us,” Rep. Julie Fahey, a Democrat from Eugene, said to her colleagues. The special session was conten- tious. State police declared an unlaw- ful assembly at the Capitol building C ontinued on P age 10 A photo from AP shows peaceful protesters laying down on the Burnside Bridge for nine minutes with their hands behind their backs to memorialize the time a Minnesota police officer used his knee to pin George Floyd’s neck to the ground, a black man who died May 25 under the police restraint. Daily protests against systemic racism in law enforcement this summer marked a year of demands for advancing racial progress, with added turmoil coming from the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impacts, bad air quality from wildfires, people facing home evictions, homelessness, and growing hunger. See inside for a review of our top stories of 2020. C ontinued on P age 4