Senator Cindy Friedman

Issues embracing limits on prison sentences and on devices aimed at producing machine guns drew support last week from Sen. Cindy Friedman, Democrat of Arlington.

On Thursday, Oct. 12, she expressed support for a comprehensive criminal-justice bill, sponsored by Sen. Will Brownsberger, Democrat of Belmont: “I am proud to stand with Senate colleagues and community advocates…Now is the time to bring real, meaningful reform to fruition in our state to reduce unnecessary incarceration and refocus on criminal diversion.”

She commented in an Oct. 14 news release following a State House rally seeking the passage of Senate Bill 2170, An Act Relative to Criminal Justice Reform.

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After the town of Arlington decided to turn the Gibbs building into a sixth grade school, the Lesley Ellis school was one of the four tenants who needed to find a new home.

On Oct. 11, Benson invited school community members and state Sen. Cindy Friedman to a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the new location. Lesley Ellis currently serves 183 students from preschool to eighth grade. Roughly half of those students are from Arlington and the rest are from surrounding towns

“You should all be very proud, this is a wonderful building. It’s old, it’s got great roots and you’ve done a beautiful job to modernize it and make it a welcoming environment, which is one of your great legacies,” said Friedman.

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BOSTON, MA — Several years ago Mary Maguire’s 17-year-old son was driving home from a homecoming dance. He fell asleep at the wheel while on I-495 near Wrentham. He woke up while his pickup truck was taking down highway reflectors and over-corrected course, the truck hurdling across all three lanes before crashing.

He was trapped so tightly he couldn’t reach his phone. It took three sets of “jaws of life” to get him out. The emergency crews told Maguire later that it looked like it would be a salvage mission instead of a rescue mission. But her son made it out alive. All because he was wearing his seatbelt that night. Now a more strict seatbelt law is being sought by legislators. One bill was presented this week to the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. If passed, it would essentially require everyone to wear a seatbelt, allow police to pull over a car for anyone who is not wearing one, and double the current fine for not wearing one.

“Seatbelts save lives. That is a given,” said State Senator Cindy Friedman, who said she wasn’t familiar with the law yet. “In general I agree with mandatory seatbelt laws. We would have to make sure that there are no unintended consequences in terms of how the law would be applied.”

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The Burlington Democratic Town Committee recently held its first meeting of the 2017-18 year, with State Sen. Cindy Friedman delivering an update on legislative priorities.

Friedman’s priorities include preserving access to and coverage for health care; support of paid family leave; and support of the Fair Share Amendment, which would tax income over $1 million as an investment in public transportation and public education. Friedman is also focused on increasing worker protections and rights and is currently leading the effort in the Senate to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2021.

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Amazon’s search for HQ2 has generated quite a buzz across the continent, attracting nearly every major U.S. city to consider a bid, as the technology giant searches for a second home.

Among the likes of Los Angeles, New York City, and Toronto, Billerica might seem a small fish. But, after checking off the prerequisites to apply, the town is moving forward to bid for the second Amazon campus.

State Sen. Cindy Friedman and state Rep. Marc Lombardo support Billerica’s bid, which must be filed by Oct. 19. Amazon is expected to choose its new headquarters location sometime in 2018.

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BOSTON — It’s a deeply personal and sensitive subject that’s divided lawmakers on both sides of the aisle: should a terminally ill patient have the option to end his life medically?

More than 40 lawmakers have signed into the most recent bill, including the late Arlington Sen. Kenneth Donnelly. Sen. Cindy Friedman, his former chief of staff who won a special election for his seat, said a patient’s personal end-of-life decisions are ‘nobody’s business but your own.

“I want to ensure there are safeguards for ensuring that it isn’t misused for people who aren’t able to speak for themselves,” said Friedman, a Democrat who also represents Lexington, Billerica and Burlington. “But in general I think that’s a very personal decision.”

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“WOBURN — Wow! The ‘wow factor’ was much in evidence on Sat­urday as many members of the general public were overwhelmed and had their first look at the new James L. McKeown Boys & Girls Club.

President Donaghey was quick to point out, “I want to first and foremost thank Mayor Scott Galvin, Rich Haggerty and the entire City Council who helped us ‘rise from the ashes’ in our ‘darkest days’ when we were go­ing to be ‘essentially homeless for one year.’” Donaghey also exclaimed in a smiling fashion when he thought, “OMG — the city might bill me for all the times I called their cell phones saying ‘Help.’”

The club, he pointed out from a podium in a sun-filled parking lot to attendees, is now “rebuilt and ready to serve the youth of the area. Because of our expanded building we can now easily double the youth we serve.”

He had special praise for other public officials in at­tendance like Senator Cindy Friedman “who is new to her position. She helped Sen Ken Donnnelly (now deceased) secure our temporary home at the old Clapp School.”

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At today’s $11 minimum wage, a full-time worker working 40 hours a week with no vacation would earn just $22,880 annually. When adjusting for the cost of living, the $11 minimum wage is still worth less than the state’s minimum wage in 1968.

“This decline in purchasing power means low-wage families have to work longer hours just to achieve the standard of living that was considered the bare minimum almost half a century ago,” said Friedman. “Giving these working families a raise should not be a controversial decision.”

According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would benefit nearly 1 million workers statewide. Of those affected earners, less than 10 percent are teenagers, over half are women, and almost two-thirds work full time. Additionally, nearly one-third of children in the commonwealth come from a household that would see a raise in their incomes.

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