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By Chris Lisinski, Colin A. Young and Sam Doran | Dec 13, 2022
Departing Reps, Senators Deliver Traditional Farewell Remarks
News

By Greater Boston Staff | Sep 28, 2022
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Massachusetts to take a quantum leap or two on some of the things that voters have been telling Beacon Hill for a long time that they want to see us do,” Chang-Díaz said.
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By Colin A. Young | Aug 01, 2022
Tackles Equity, Host Community Agreements, Cannabis Cafes
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By Dan Adams | Aug 01, 2022
Long-awaited measure includes crackdown on local fees, funding for equity
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By Simón Rios and Todd Wallack | Jul 30, 2022
"It’s going to be a game changer," Chang-Díaz said. "I know it's going to take time for the MCAD to fill the staffing shortages that they've been experiencing in recent years, but this is a huge step forward."
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By Simón Rios and Todd Wallack | Jul 05, 2022
State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz recently sponsored a budget amendment to increase the MCAD's funding by nearly two-thirds.
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By Chris Lisinski | May 05, 2022
“Without a license, a routine traffic stop can have a lasting and traumatic set of repercussions: arrest, ICE detention, deportation. It can tear families apart, and that is a heavy, heavy burden to carry."
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By Samantha Gross | May 05, 2022
“It has been a long, long road for this bill,” Sen Chang-Díaz said. “This bill means trust and dignity for immigrants in our state who lack federal status.”
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By Dan Adams | Apr 07, 2022
Cannabis cafes, crackdown on local fees among reforms headed to House
News

By Chris Burrell | Feb 08, 2022
“The numbers here are lackluster, to put it lightly,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, head of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Racial Equity. “But I think that equally, if not of greater concern, is the lack of transparency."
News

By Dan Adams | Jan 30, 2022
“The gap between the law’s stated commitment to equity and the on-the-ground reality of the industry shows just how much work we have left to do,” said Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, the other co-chair of the cannabis committee.
Press Release
Jan 29, 2022
On Friday, January 28, the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy moved forward a sweeping bill to promote social equity in the cannabis industry.
News

By Stephanie Ebbert | Nov 24, 2021
“We need to come to terms with the fact that we are free-riding on the backs of women,” said state Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, a Boston Democrat.
Op-Eds

By Sonia Chang-Díaz, Adam Gomez, Russell Holmes, Segun Idowu, and Rosario Ubiera-Minaya | Oct 21, 2021
The American Rescue Plan funds could help close the racial wealth divide and to put an end to the inequities this pandemic has exacerbated.
News

By Katie Lannan | Oct 18, 2021
A coalition of advocacy groups plus a handful of lawmakers on Monday released a scorecard they’ll use to measure whether the American Rescue Plan Act spending plans prioritize racial justice.
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By Anna Lamb | Sep 15, 2021
Activists and elected officials marched the three miles in support of a moratorium on construction of a new women’s prison in Norfolk.
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By Mark Arsenault | Aug 16, 2021
"Across the Commonwealth, far too many people — and let’s be real: it’s disproportionately Black and brown people — are incarcerated in toxic conditions that place their health, safety, and human dignity, and the safety of the communities to which they will return, at risk," said Sonia Chang-Díaz.
News
By Nik DeCosta-Klipa, Boston.com | Jul 28, 2021
More local leaders are pressuring Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration to resume reporting the age, race, and sex of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Massachusetts, as concerns about the impact of the Delta variant heighten.
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By Morgan C. Mullings | Jun 02, 2021
Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz is advancing legislation that would reinvest savings stemming from criminal justice reforms back into communities.
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By Sharman Sacchetti | May 25, 2021
The new law, among other changes, set up a commission to certify and decertify police officers, banned the use of chokeholds by police and limited the use of no-knock warrants.
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By Benjamin Kail | May 03, 2021
State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz said that unemployment in Roxbury is “routinely double the unemployment rate in the rest of our commonwealth.”
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By Greater Boston Staff | Feb 26, 2021
State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Suffolk, and Atyia Martin, former chief resiliency officer for Boston, joined Jim Braude to talk about the key takeaways from the COVID Oversight Hearing.
News

By Chris Van Buskirk | Feb 19, 2021
A senior-level director in charge of COVID-19 vaccination equity and an allocation of $10 million to community organizations for outreach and engagement in communities of color are part of a list of five demands outlined Wednesday by a new coalition seeking to address what they say are serious racial injustices in the state's vaccine distribution plan.
News

By Paris Alston and Callum Borchers | Feb 18, 2021
Senator Chang-Díaz and the Vaccine Equity Now! Coalition discuss Massachusetts' vaccine rollout
News
By Nik DeCosta-Klipa | Feb 09, 2021
From pre-registration to a mobile vaccine program.
News

By Colin A. Young | Jan 06, 2021
"At the end of the day, when I zoom out and I look at what this bill accomplishes... there is a ton in this bill that is really going to set a new standard for the national policy landscape on police accountability that could potentially ripple through the other forty-nine states."
News
WGBH
By Tori Bedford | Jan 01, 2021
State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, who was one of the bills sponsors, said the law is a “mile-marker,” but not an end to an ongoing fight against racism in policing.
News

By Sarah Betancourt | Jan 01, 2021
Gov. Charlie Baker signed sweeping police reform legislation on Thursday that will create a mandatory certification process for law enforcement and launch the nation’s first civilian-led police oversight board with subpoena power and decertification authority.
News

By Matt Stout | Dec 22, 2020
Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, lamented that many things “over-policed communities pleaded for” are not in the bill, including binding definitions of use of force. But she said there was much for advocates to celebrate.
News

By Chris Lisinski and Sam Doran | Dec 02, 2020
"I'm really satisfied with the total product of this bill," Sen. Chang-Diaz said. "...It is a final package that strikes a lot of wins for accountability, for community voice at the table of power, for changing our vision for what public safety is and means from one of force and punishment to one of de-escalation and helping and prevention."
News

By Greater Boston | Dec 02, 2020
State Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, who served on the police reform conference committee, and state Representative Russell Holmes, who has long pushed for many of the changes included in the bill, join Jim Braude to discuss the long-awaited police reform bill.
News

By Morgan C. Mullings | Nov 26, 2020
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz filed an amendment to create more guidelines for the Department of Corrections when working to reduce harm and depopulate facilities during an outbreak.
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By Deborah Becker | Nov 20, 2020
The lawmakers say the Department of Correction will expand testing and take steps to release prisoners to home confinement.
News

By Chris Burrell | Nov 17, 2020
With immigrant communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, the debate about whether to allow unauthorized immigrants in the state to get driver’s licenses is heating up.
News
By NBC Boston Staff | Nov 12, 2020
Holding signs saying "No service cuts" and "Save the Mission Hill trolley," protestors heard from state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Boston city councilors Kenzie Bok and Matt O'Malley.
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By Katie Lannan | Oct 14, 2020
Data collection and reporting, vaccine distribution and funding for COVID-19 response initiatives are identified as "critical priorities" for the state to pursue, in a preliminary report approved Wednesday by members of a state health equity task force.
News

By Yawu Miller | Sep 16, 2020
Roxbury activists have voiced opposition to the plan from the beginning, citing what they said would be unsafe street crossings and the loss of trees that help mitigate pollution and reduce extreme temperatures.
Press Release
Jul 14, 2020
Bill enacts reforms to raise police accountability standards, shift resources to communities and build equity, justice and fairness
Video/Media
Jul 10, 2020
Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz speaks after the second day of delaying debate on the Senate's Reform, Shift + Build Act
News

State House News Service
By Katie Lannan | Jul 06, 2020
The Massachusetts Senate plans to vote Thursday on a wide-ranging bill that would create a process for certifying and de-certifying officers and impose new limits on use of force, including a ban on chokeholds and restrictions on the use of tear gas.
Press Release
Jul 06, 2020
Bill enacts reforms to ban aggressive police tactics, significantly raise standards for accountability in law enforcement and reprioritize public safety resources
Press Release
Jun 18, 2020
On behalf of their constituents and in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, the legislators filed An Act to make Juneteenth a State Holiday.
Press Release
Jun 02, 2020
Coalition unveils 10-point plan for policing reform and accountability.
News

The Boston Globe
By Matt Stout and Dasia Moore | Jun 02, 2020
Mobilized by the social unrest gripping the country, the state’s top political leaders of color gathered Tuesday to urge action across all levels of government, their words underwritten by a docket of resolutions, policies, and legislation they say are designed to transmute anger into change, increasing police accountability and chipping away at structural racism.
Press Release
May 14, 2020
Legislation will study disparities in treatment among communities of color.
News

Jamaica Plain News
By David Ertischek | Apr 23, 2020
“Ensuring people have safe, reliable housing throughout this crisis is one of the most important things we can do to flatten the curve and save lives right now,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz (D-2nd Suffolk).
Press Release
Apr 21, 2020
The moratorium provides some of the strongest protections in the nation for renters, homeowners, and small business owners harmed by COVID-19.
Op-Eds

By Sonia Chang-Díaz, Maria Robinson, and Liz Miranda | Apr 15, 2020
If we’re waiting for consensus, we’re waiting too long. Consensus is a luxury for politicians that poor and minority residents can’t afford.
News

WGBH
By Esteban Bustillos | Mar 20, 2020
State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz’s Twitter feed has been filled with information about local resources in both English and Spanish.
News
MassLive
By Melissa Hanson | Mar 05, 2020
“This is both a critical and efficient step in delivering on the requirement that money from marijuana tax revenues be spent on restorative economic development for communities harmed by the War on Drugs,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, the chair of the joint committee.
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