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Family members of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev say he had fallen under the influence of a Muslim convert, steering him toward a strict strain of Islam.

His family says that, under the tutelage of a friend known to the Tsarnaev family only as Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing and stopped studying music. He began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that Jews controlled the world.

Lawmakers say U.S. law enforcement and other agencies may not have shared enough intelligence about the Boston Marathon bombing suspects in the months before the deadly bombings.

But none of the lawmakers are saying — yet— that better sharing could have stopped the attacks, after FBI officials briefed them on the investigation Tuesday.

Authorities aren't saying whether they have a suspect in the mailing of what's believed to be poisonous ricin to Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

But a fellow senator is commenting. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill says the person believed to have mailed the envelope writes a lot of letters to lawmakers.

The envelope containing the suspected deadly toxin was never delivered to Sen. Wicker. It was intercepted at a Senate mail facility and will be tested again to confirm its contents.

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Most business economists opposed the automatic spending cuts that took effect Friday night amid the gridlock between President Obama and Congress.

But they overwhelmingly support efforts to reduce the deficit over the next 10 years.

That's according to a survey released Monday of 196 members of the National Association for Business Economics.

The survey, done from Jan. 21 to Feb. 13, gave some support to both sides in the U.S. government budget debate.