WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Corrections says it’s looking into reports that a website is selling letters from the serial killer known as BTK for up to $300 apiece.

KSNW-TV reports the letters were sent from El Dorado Correctional Facility by Dennis Rader, who is serving a life sentence for a series of killings that haunted Wichita for three decades.

Rader was arrested in February 2005 and confessed to 10 killings in the Wichita area between 1974 and 1991. He called himself BTK, which stood for “bind, torture, kill.”

The Corrections Department says it wants to make sure Rader is not requesting that anyone make money on his behalf.

The website’s owner says he’s interested in serial killers and posted several of Rader’s letters from prison for sale online.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A U.S. attorney says a Topeka man must serve more than six years in prison on a child pornography charge.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom says 43-year-old James A. Greer has been sentenced to 76 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of distributing child pornography earlier this year.

Authorities say they discovered more than 900 images and around 290 videos containing child pornography.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A group representing small business owners has launched statewide radio ads in an effort to push Kansas legislators into keeping one of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s key income tax policies.

National Federation of Independent Business state director Dan Murray said Wednesday that the group doesn’t want lawmakers to roll back past personal income tax cuts to help balance the budget.

Lawmakers in 2012 exempted 281,000 business owners from personal income taxes as part of a larger package of reductions that Brownback pushed to stimulate the economy.

Some lawmakers want to rethink the policy because the state is facing budget problems. Republican Sen. Jim Denning of Overland Park said the law is flawed and needs to be revised.

The ads are sponsored by an NFIB political action committee.

LAWRENCE – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Ford Explorer driven by Andrew S. Lord, 37, Independence, was eastbound on Kansas 10.

The driver took the off ramp to Church Street. The vehicle failed to maintain the lane, left the right side of the roadway, came back onto the ramp and rolled.

Lord was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. The KHP reported he was not wearing a seat belt.

MANHATAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State has picked a new leader for its College of Veterinary Medicine.

Tammy Beckham said in a news release that she’s “honored to have been chosen.” She’s now the director of the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence in College Station, Texas.

Beckham also has served as director of the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.

Beckham succeeds Ralph Richardson, who has served as the College of Veterinary Medicine’s dean since 1998. The university says Richardson will transition to a faculty position in the college.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is preparing to outline proposed spending adjustments to help balance the next state budget.

The governor was expected to release his proposals Thursday at the start of a House Appropriations Committee meeting.

Budget Director Shawn Sullivan has said Brownback will propose between $80 million and $90 million in adjustments.

Sullivan also has said lawmakers need to close a $400 million shortfall in the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The state’s budget problems arose after legislators cut income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging to stimulate the economy.

Brownback is proposing to raise tobacco and alcohol taxes and has said he’s open to increasing the state’s sales tax.

The full Legislature reconvenes next week to finish its business for the year.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The Justice Department is stepping into a long-running lawsuit against one of the nation’s largest nursing-home chains, accusing it of systematic Medicare overbilling.

The department announced Tuesday that it has intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit against Toledo, Ohio-based HCR ManorCare after a yearslong investigation. The initial accusations against the company were filed by a northern Virginia occupational therapist in 2009.

The lawsuit alleges that ManorCare routinely pressured administrators of its nursing homes, assisted living and rehab facilities to meet financial targets by billing for unnecessary care. The lawsuit says fragile patients who were recommended for hospice care were instead put on arduous rehab schedules to increase billing.

ManorCare, which also operates under the Heartland brand, denied wrongdoing and said the dispute revolves around providing care that exceeds government expectations.

The federal statement says ManorCare operates about 281 skilled nursing facilities in 30 states including Kansas.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An $80 million piece of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for balancing the next state budget is in trouble in the Legislature because a major health insurance company opposes it.

Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said in a statement Wednesday that the Republican governor’s office is having active discussions with Aetna, legislators and the state Insurance Department about the disputed measure.

It would increase a fee paid by HMOs to 5.5 percent from 1 percent. Three private health insurers that manage the state’s Medicaid program would pay most of it.

But Aetna told legislators last month that it would pay $12 million a year in additional fees and Kansas consumers would see higher premiums.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure last month but it has stalled in the House.

STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS’ overloaded phone system hung up on more than 8 million taxpayers this filing season as the agency cut millions of dollars from taxpayer services.

For those who weren’t disconnected, only 40 percent actually got through to a person. Many of those people had to wait on hold for more than 30 minutes.

A new staff report by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee says the IRS diverted millions from taxpayer services and other areas to pay for President Barack Obama’s health law.

At a hearing Wednesday, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen blamed budget cuts. The agency’s budget has been cut by $1.2 billion since 2010.

Koskinen said the agency is required by law to implement the health law, leaving him with few places to cut.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The search continues for two men who kidnapped a rural Wichita man from his home and took him to a local business where the thieves stole roughly $175,000 worth of property.

KAKE-TV reports two armed men wearing ski masks entered the man’s home just east of Wichita around 3 a.m. Tuesday and robbed him and his wife.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office says the suspects then took the 72-year-old man to Heartland Coin Gallery, which he owns, and took cash, coins, jewelry and seven guns before fleeing in the man’s car.

Officials say the victim was not hurt.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man is going back to prison for robbing the same bank he held up eight years ago.

The U.S. attorney’s office says in a news release that 52-year-old Mark Finnigin was sentenced Wednesday to 63 months after pleading guilty during the same hearing to robbing Emprise Bank on July 22, 2014.

Prosecutors say he entered the bank and demanded $10,000. Before the clerk could finish putting the cash on the counter, he took $4,000 and fled. A surveillance camera at a nearby store recorded him getting into a minivan.

This is the same bank Finnigin robbed in 2007. He got 51 years in prison for that robbery.