KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — The Russian creator of a computer program that authorities say has been used to drain bank accounts in multiple countries has been sentenced to serve 9 ½ years in federal prison.

Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, also known by the online aliases “Gribodemon” and “Harderman,” was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Atlanta. He’s accused of creating the malware program SpyEye and selling it through cybercrime forums online.

A second man, Hamza Bendelladj, an Algerian who used the online alias “Bx1,” will be sentenced Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors said he sold versions of SpyEye online and used the malware to steal financial information.

Prosecutors say SpyEye was the pre-eminent malware from 2010 to 2012 and was used to infect more than 50 million computers and cause nearly $1 billion in damage.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on Kansas’ new fiscal forecast (all times local):

6:45 p.m.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback says it would not be useful for Kansas legislators to debate raising taxes in looking for ways to balance the budget.

But Kansas Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said Wednesday that the governor is in “denial” about the failure of his tax policies.

The GOP-dominated Legislature slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging to stimulate the economy.

But a growing number of Republican lawmakers want to reverse a key policy that exempted 330,000 farmers and business owners from personal income taxes. Hensley also supports the move.

Brownback Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said the policy has helped the economy.

But the state has struggled to balance its budget since and a new fiscal forecast Wednesday reduced projected revenues through June 2017.

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6:30 p.m.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is pushing for higher spending for the state’s troubled mental hospital in offering proposals to cut elsewhere to help balance the budget.

Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said Wednesday that the governor is proposing an additional $17 million in spending over the next 15 months at Osawatomie State Hospital in eastern Kansas and Larned State Hospital in western Kansas.

The proposals contrasted with plans announced by Sullivan to delay highway projects and cut spending at state universities to help balance the budget following new, more pessimistic revenue projections.

But the state has been trying for months to boost staffing at the hospitals.

The federal government decertified Osawatomie in December over the reported rape of an employee by a patient in October and other safety issues.

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6:15 p.m.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback plans to delay major highway projects and make cuts to funding for state universities to help balance the state’s budget.

Budget Director Shawn Sullivan announced those actions Wednesday and other proposals for legislators to consider in filling budget shortfalls through June 2017.

The governor also proposed selling off the rights to collect part of the state’s portion of a national legal settlement with tobacco companies to get a one-time infusion of $158 million to help balance the budget.

As alternatives to the tobacco-money plan, Sullivan proposed either delaying contributions to public employee pensions or making $139 million in spending cuts that would include a reduction in aid to public schools.

Sullivan announced the budget measures after a new fiscal forecast for state government slashed projected tax collections.

4:50 p.m.

The top Republican in the Kansas House says there’s much good news in the state’s economy despite a new fiscal forecast that slashed projected revenues.

House Speaker Ray Merrick pointed Wednesday to the state’s low unemployment rate of 3.9 percent in March and said businesses are adding jobs.

Merrick said that even with the lower revenue projections issued Wednesday, the state would see tax collections increase fiscal year over year.

The Stilwell Republican said in a statement that lawmakers would work to keep the budget balanced with what he called “a broad, clear-headed view of the actual situation.”

The fiscal forecast issued by state officials and university economists reduced projections for state tax collections through June 2017 by a total of $348 million.

4 p.m.

A new fiscal forecast for Kansas has slashed the state’s projected tax collections by $348 million for the current and next fiscal years.

The new forecast drafted Wednesday would leave the state with budget shortfalls totaling more than $290 million.

The figures were included in documents prepared by legislative researchers ahead of a Wednesday evening Statehouse news conference and obtained by The Associated Press from another source.

The forecasters reduced the projection for total tax collections for the current fiscal year by $177 million, or 2.9 percent, to about $5.86 billion.

They also cut the estimate for the next fiscal year that begins in July by nearly $171 million, or 2.7 percent, to $6.04 billion.

Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget director planned to outline budget-balancing proposals during the news conference.

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3 p.m.

Kansas legislators are bracing for bad fiscal news and proposals from Republican Gov. Sam Brownback for keeping the state’s next budget balanced.

State officials, legislative researchers and university economists met Wednesday to draft revised projections for tax collections through June 2017.

The new forecast was being released Wednesday evening during a Statehouse news conference and was expected to be more pessimistic than the current one issued in November. Tax collections have fallen short of expectations 11 of the past 12 months.

Budget Director Shawn Sullivan was expected to outline budget measures during the same news conference.

The Kansas House and Senate budget committees were scheduled to meet Thursday to review the governor’s proposals. The full Legislature returns next week from its annual spring break to tackle budget issues.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City suburb is providing bottled water to residents of one neighborhood as a precaution after potentially high lead levels were detected.

The city of Olathe said in a news release that residents of about 105 homes are affected. The release says the city is conducting follow-up testing of water drawn from residents’ taps. The potential problems were detected in samples taken from outside water meters, and no details on the results were provided.

City spokesman Tim Danneberg says testing at the meter can be inaccurate in detecting lead levels. That’s because the samples can be contaminated by such things as lead from surrounding soil and welding joints. He says health officials only recognize the results of samples taken from the tap.

Danneberg says previous tests showed no problems.

HUTCHINSON -Two Hutchinson Community College students were arrested Tuesday on drug distribution charges.

Raashid Jamal Arnold, 19 and Jaleen Cook, 21 were arrested for suspicion of distribution of marijuana within a thousand feet of a school, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute and no drug tax stamp.

Police were apparently told that Arnold was selling drugs out his vehicle in one of the parking lots at the college.

That led to a search of his dorm room where they allegedly found drugs and paraphernalia.

Police later located him and he gave consent to search his vehicle.

They again found drugs as well as a magazine to an assault rifle.

He informed them that this belonged to a friend, Jaleen Cook.

His car was parked next to Arnold’s and they allegedly found drugs, shotgun shells and an assault rifle in that vehicle.

They are being held in the Reno County Correctional Facility where Cook was able to post bond. Arnold is being held on a bond of $13,500.

He appeared via video from the jail where he asked for a reduction of bond. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen denied the request.
He’ll be back in court on April 27.
Cook will make an initial court appearance sometime next week.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two female students have sued Kansas State University, alleging it has refused to investigate their rapes at off-campus fraternity houses.

The two civil rights lawsuits filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas contend the university’s practice endangers students and violates federal law by creating a hostile learning environment for victims.

Kansas State declined to comment.

The suits say Kansas State is under a federal Title IX investigation.

The students’ attorney, Cari Simon, says the U.S. Department of Education has said schools have an obligation to respond to such complaints, even if they occur off campus. She says Kansas State’s position is an outlier.

The lawsuits cite police reports that indicate at least 11 rapes were alleged to have happened at Kansas State fraternities since 2012.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita gas station clash in which authorities say racial slurs and the names of presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were shouted has led to misdemeanor charges.

Joseph Bryan, a white 33-year-old, and Christian Saldana-Banuelos, a 19-year-old Hispanic student at Wichita State University, face charges that include disorderly conduct. Warrants were issued Friday, but police said they hadn’t been arrested as of Wednesday. Neither had listed phone numbers or attorneys.

Saldana-Banuelos and Wichita State’s Muslim student body vice president alleged that a man identified as Bryan called a black person a racial slur before the clash ensued.

Saldana-Banuelos is accused of provoking Bryan by shouting Sanders’ name and asking if the two of them were going to fight. The college students said Bryan rode away on a motorcycle after shouting Trump’s name.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has spurned a last-ditch effort to throw out before trial the lawsuit against an abortion opponent accused of sending a letter to a Wichita doctor saying someone might place an explosive under her car.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten on Wednesday rejected claims by anti-abortion activist Angel Dillard that a law guaranteeing access to abortion clinics is unconstitutional. Dillard faces a jury trial May 3 in federal court in Wichita.

The Justice Department sued Dillard in 2011 for sending the letter to Mila Means, who had been training to offer abortions. At the time, no doctor was performing abortions in Wichita in the wake of Dr. George Tiller’s murder.

Marten also ruled on what evidence jurors will hear to determine whether Dillard’s letter constituted a “true threat.”