Midday Roundup: Suspected Boston bomber's body finally laid to rest

Buried. Late Wednesday night, the body of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was spirited away from a Worcester, Mass., funeral home and buried at an undisclosed location outside the city. Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, and Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors director Peter Stefan spent more than a week trying to find a final resting place for Tsarnaev’s remains, but no cemetery wanted to take him. Offers of burial plots came in from around Massachusetts and even Canada, but officials in each city said allowing Tsarnaev’s burial would not be in their best interest. Someone in the city of Worcester finally relented, police said in a statement this morning: “As a result of our public appeal for help a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased. His body is no longer in the city of Worcester and is now entombed.” Police declined to disclose the location of the grave.

Preventable? The House Homeland Security Committee is meeting today to examine the events surrounding the Boston bombings and try to ascertain whether anything could have been done to prevent them. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said it was, adding that If federal officials had shared intelligence about the suspected bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, with state and local law enforcement agencies, they would have been better prepared to act. That lack of communication “may be one of the most significant and painful takeaway lessons” from the incident, he said. During the hearing, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said his office was not aware that federal investigators had ever questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev or that Russian officials had concerns about the six months he spent in his former homeland in 2012.

Not a toy. More than 100,000 people have downloaded blueprints for the world’s first commercially available gun made out of plastic, according to the company that created the design. The so-called “Liberator” can be made on a 3-D printer and assembled by hand. Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old founder of Defense Distributed, hopes the gun will allow anyone who wants a firearm to get one without going through government loopholes, in both the United States and other countries. Gun control advocates say the weapon, which is virtually undetectable by current safety scanning technology, will unleash an avalanche of violence. New York Rep. Steve Israel and Sen. Chuck Schumer are trying to ban undetectable firearms in response to Defense Distributed’s release. But only a fraction of the people who downloaded the plans will actually be able to make the weapon, which must be printed on an expensive 3-D printer few people have access to.

Relieved of command. Three Marine officers have been relieved of their command for their roles in the March explosion at Nevada’s Hawthorne Army Depot. The accident, caused by a mortar tube explosion, killed seven Marines and injured seven others. One sailor also was injured by the blast. Lt. Col. Andrew McNulty, Capt. Kelby Breivogel, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Douglas Derring, all stationed at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, will remain active duty Marines. Lt. Peter Koerner, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division, said Thursday that McNulty was relieved because of a loss of confidence in his ability to command the battalion.