Tsarnaevs Got $100K in State Benefits: Report

The Boston Herald may have had its request for records denied, but that hasn't stopped the paper from managing to learn the extent of the public assistance received by the Tsarnaevs: more than $100,000 between 2002 and 2012, including cash, food stamps, and housing, the paper reports. "The breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning," says an insider. The finding comes by way of the state's House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, which was given some 500 documents from the state upon request.

"I can assure members of the public that this committee will actively review every single piece of information we can find, because clearly the public has a substantial right to know what benefits, if any, this family or individuals accused of some horrific crimes were receiving," the committee's chairman said. The documents haven't been publicly released. Meanwhile, the state's Department of Transitional Assistance is conducting a probe of its own: into whether the Tsarnaevs informed the agency about Tamerlan's Russia trip. (More Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stories.)