State to give $12.5M to 4 boys found starving

? New Jersey has agreed to give $12.5 million to four boys allegedly starved by their adoptive parents, state officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

Attorneys for the boys have agreed in principle to the settlement, the largest ever involving the state Department of Human Services, but they have not all signed it and it has not been approved by a judge, department spokeswoman Laurie Facciarossa said.

Authorities found Bruce Jackson, then 19 but appearing to be about 7 years old, rummaging through a neighbor’s trash can in Collingswood in October 2003.

Three of his younger adoptive brothers were similarly undersized. Authorities said their adoptive parents withheld food and the boys subsisted on gypsum wallboard and uncooked pancake batter.

Child welfare workers had visited the Jackson home regularly to check on the family’s foster child but did not take action regarding the bone-thin adopted boys.