Dzhokhar Tsarnaev May Have Had Two Shady Side Businesses. Only One Involves Pot.

[DonViejo]

By Josh Voorhees | Posted Wednesday, April 24, 2013, at 3:40 PM

The Boston Globe today brings us the best look yet at the apparently meager finances of the Tsarnaev brothers, who reportedly scraped by thanks to a series of odd jobs—both on and off the books—along with financial help from the government in the months and years leading up to the Boston marathon bombings.

Tamerlan, the older brother, reportedly worked a series of short-term jobs (as a pizza delivery guy, a driver, etc.) to help his family make ends meet but appears to have relied mainly on his wife, Katherine Russell, to carry most of the financial load. Russell, according to her lawyer, works 70- to 80-hour weeks as a home health care aide. Even with that overtime, the family was still qualifying for state assistance until 2012, according to the government. Dzhokhar's work history, meanwhile, appears to have been largely off the books:

Tsarnaev’s younger brother never seemed strapped for cash, according to people who knew him at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where he was a sophomore. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a scholarship student who earned spending money by selling marijuana, say three people who bought drugs from the 19-year-old. ...

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev didn’t live a particularly lavish lifestyle. He drove his father’s green 1999 Honda Civic. And while UMass Dartmouth costs more than $22,000 a year, including room and board, many students receive significant student loans and other financial aid. UMass declined to give details on Tsarnaev’s aid package, but he received at least one scholarship—$2,500 from the city of Cambridge, where he went to high school.

full article:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/04/24/dzhokhar_tsarnaev_junior_s_auto_body_boston_suspect_reportedly_sold_pot.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content

[MADem]

1. I do know that scholarships to the UMASS system are dependent upon

academic performance....and that kid flunked "seven or eight" courses in the two years he'd been there. I think his scholarship was kaput. If he was running on loans, they'll never get paid back!

[DonViejo]

2. My youngest son is a senior at UMass Amherst....

I'm having some trouble swallowing the quoted $22,000 a year fee. But, on second thought, I'll bet that includes housing and food.

If he flunked a few courses, he would have been on academic probation and the school's Administration was probably bending over backwards to assist him with his studies.

[MADem]

6. That is the cost--and yes, it includes the dorm room.

You can go to the Dartmouth website http://www.umassd.edu/undergraduate/financing/tuitionandfees/ and see the costs, that is accurate (it was actually a little bit more, $22,255.00....but close enough). Bridgewater has the same fee structure, and Salem, and others in the system.

He flunked more than a few courses--"seven or eight" is what was quoted, so that's a LOT of courses for a sophmore. He was too busy smoking and selling weed to study, I guess.

Here's one account of what he flunked--to include *surprize, surprize* American Politics:

At the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dzhokhar began to struggle academically. According to a university transcript reviewed by The New York Times, he was failing many of his classes. The transcript shows him receiving seven failing grades over three semesters, including F’s in Principles of Modern Chemistry, Intro to American Politics and Chemistry and the Environment. According to the transcript, Dzhokhar received a B in Critical Writing and a D and D-plus in two other courses.

San, 22, a former classmate at the university who would identify himself only by his first name, said that Dzhokhar had told him he was having trouble in some courses.

“He was talking about how he wasn’t doing as good as he expected,” San said. “He was a really smart kid, but having a little difficulty in college because going from high school to college is totally different.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/us/details-of-tsarnaev-brothers-boston-suspects-emerge.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

[DonViejo]

12. Yeah, I checked the cost myself last night...

forgot to come back and post what I found. You beat me to it. Thanks.

[Recursion]

3. Why does 70-80 hours a week not pay for 3 people to live?

That's depressing.

[surrealAmerican]

4. Yup. She was or is working the equivalent of two full time jobs ...

... and still isn't earning a living. The pay must be really crummy.

[NutmegYankee]

5. The result of 30 years of backdoor labor theft

All caused by a surge in prices while pay has remained flat. Big business wants slaves, and working 80 hours just to feed one's self makes for a convenient form of slavery.

[MADem]

7. They don't pay those home health workers enough.

They are often the only people that disabled and elderly people see during the day, and they don't make a living wage. It's an important job, but it's not given appropriate value.

[DonViejo]

13. According to a couple sites, but this one I'm going to cite...

a Mass HH Aide makes $26,750 per year, the fourth highest rate in the country

#1 - Connecticut $ 28,500
#2 - Alaska $ 27,850
#3 - Vermont $ 27,090
#4 - Massachusetts $ 26,750
#5 - Rhode Island $ 26,450

http://www.hha-certification.com/how-much-do-home-health-aides-make-in-your-state/

Just recently, like, last month, I checked into the cost of hiring a PCA (Personal Care Attendant) in Mass., something different than a HH Aide. A PCA earns $12.48 per hour, $499.20 per 40 hour week or, $24,960 for a 50 week year.

Duties
Job duties will vary according to federal and state laws as well as employer policy. Both attendants and home health aides perform housekeeping and personal care tasks. Health aides are also responsible for providing basic health care needs such blood pressure monitoring, changing dressings, and maintaining medical equipment.

Supervision
Home health care aides are usually supervised by a health care professional, usually a registered or licensed practical nurse. Home attendants may likewise be supervised by a nurse, but may also be under the supervision of a non-medical professional such as a social worker, or employed directly by their client or her family.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6851652_difference-aide-_amp_-home-attendant.html#ixzz2RTrtZjHU

[MADem]

14. That will about cover the rent.

The overtime would help with utilities and groceries.

I'm assuming that the rent was on the low side, since the family had been there ten years, and I am also assuming that the father/mother's name was still on the lease, and they came under rent control, with minor increases each year. Since the housing bubble, rents have gone up. More people prefer to rent than buy these days.

Many of the home health workers start out at less than twelve bucks an hour--closer to ten, maybe even a bit less, depending on if they are full time or "per diem" workers. After six months to a year on probation, they might get the one dollar raise. The longer they stay on and the more 'certificates' they get, the more they get paid. I don't think the Missus has been at this but two years or so. She's not one of those in the "highly skilled" tier, making fifteen bucks an hour. She's still in the "entry level" tier, I'd bet.

I've helped a couple of home health workers with their taxes--they get paid "in the dark" as they say. You don't get rich doing that kind of work.

[magical thyme]

15. home health care essentially pays minimum wage

plus you rack up a lot of miles and time driving to other people's homes.

[moondust]

8. Inequality strikes!

Would these guys have grown disillusioned/radical/indifferent if they had been able to find decent-paying jobs that would have kept them busy and allowed them to feel they were making some headway in life? I imagine there could be millions of young people today who don't see a very bright future ahead of them working at Walmart, on food stamps, few if any benefits, and unable to afford the crushing cost of higher education--while the CEO sucks up $20 million a year, which would take a full-time Walmart hourly employee more than 785 years to equal. http://tinyurl.com/dy4c2gv

I think the oligarchs who have fostered this sick system of inequality over the past 30 years bear some responsibility when desperate people in seemingly dead-end lives do desperate things. Will the corporate media even discuss it?

[HiPointDem]

9. I was wondering about that angle too. The family was apparently at least middle-class in russia,

father & mother were lawyers, & extended family locally prominent. Political developments make them leave kyrgystan, then dagestan.

They get to the US where the dad is a $10/hr auto mechanic, the mother's giving facials in their crowded apartment. The parents are now in their 40s and things don't seem to be getting better.

The elder son loses his golden gloves bid, gets his girlfriend pregnant.

Only the youngest seems to be doing ok until recently.

[jessie04]

10. What is her deal ?

very weird.

[HiPointDem]

11. if you've seen the video of the mechanic, who's from brazil, he's got neck tattoos that look like

gang tattoos -- iow, he looks kinda shady himself.