Call for Tear Gas Ban
Commissioners
lead effort to
protect children.
March celebrates
WOMEN’S
y MONTH
r
o
t
s
i
h
See Metro, page 9
PO QR code
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVV • Number 6
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • March 24, 2021
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Vaccine Eligibility Timeline Accelerates
3 million more
doses headed
to the state
After prioritizing seniors 65 and old-
er and other priority groups in the latest
COVID-19 vaccinations, new eligibility
timelines are coming into focus which will
allow many more people to receive the po-
tentially life-saving shot.
Gov. Kate Brown accelerated Oregon’s
COVID-19 vaccine eligibility timeline last
week in order for vulnerable populations
to receive shots ahead of May 1, when all
adults are now scheduled to become eligi-
ble, nationwide.
At a news conference Friday, state
health officials said that they expect to re-
ceive approximately 3.3 million doses by
the end of May — enough vaccine to give
every adult Oregonian their first shot.
“Until recently, in these news confer-
ences, we’ve talked about our limited vac-
cine supplies and the prospect that it could
take until late fall before we reached com-
munity immunity,” Patrick Allen, the di-
c ontinued on p age 4
photo courtesy M etro
Four Portland area healthcare systems, Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, OHSU and Providence, are working side by side to
operate a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Oregon Convention Center that sees more than 5,200 patients each day, one of the
highest vaccination sites in the country. The site is ready to scale up even more as more vaccines are produced and distributed.
Judge Takes Leave after Divisive Comments
Family to file
wrongful death
lawsuit
The family of Kevin Peterson Jr., a
Black man killed by sheriff’ss deputies
during a drug sting operation in Hazel Dell
last October, has announced plans to file a
wrongful death claim against Clark Coun-
ty.
Peterson’s parents and the mother of his
child held a press conference last Thursday
to share memories of him and demand jus-
tice.
“I’m very upset and I want justice,” his
mother said. “He was a super super nice
guy. I want people to remember him.”
Olivia Salto, the mother of his child,
said she hopes their daughter remembers
him for the person he was. “He was a great
person,” she said.
Just two days earlier Clark County Dis-
trict Court Judge Darvin Zimmerman tem-
porarily removed himself from the bench
after demands for his resignation by the
Vancouver NAACP and others for com-
ments he made about Peterson that were
picked up on a hot microphone.
Zimmerman called Peterson “the Black
guy they were trying to make an angel out
of,” and said, among other comments, he
believed Peterson “was so dumb.”
In response to the outcry, Zimmerman
announced he would take a leave of ab-
sence to help determine what he can do to
help heal the community he has served.
The judge also is the father to a Clark
County Sheriff’s office deputy who was on
the scene of Peterson’s shooting last Oct.
c ontinued on p age 4
Darvin Zimmerman
Kevin Peterson Jr.