NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Court records say DNA has connected a man to several rapes in Louisiana and Missouri spanning more than a decade.

34-year-old Daniel Meridy is jailed in New Orleans on $1.6 million bond on suspicion of four counts each of first-degree rape and aggravated kidnapping. There’s no record of an attorney for him.

New Orleans police say those four alleged assaults happened at gun or knifepoint from 2015 to 2018. Police say one woman was raped in an alley after getting off a bus, while another was assaulted after accepting a ride from Meridy.

Police also say DNA linked Meridy to three unsolved stranger sexual assaults in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2004 and 2005. No charges have been filed in Missouri, although prosecutors say it’s an open investigation.

DERBY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man shot himself in the head with a nail gun as he fell off a ladder, but was able to walk to the site of a traffic accident to ask law enforcement for help.

Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Myers says the man is in critical condition after the accident Wednesday morning in Derby, about 10 miles south of Wichita.

Myers said the man told sheriff’s deputies and a Derby police officer that he was renovating a house when he slipped off a ladder with the nail gun in his hands. When he landed, the nail gun hit him in the back of the head and the man “inadvertently pulled the trigger with his finger.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has easily passed the farm bill, a massive legislative package that reauthorizes agriculture programs and food aid.

The legislation has already passed the Senate and is now headed to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

The measure is the result of months of negotiations by lawmakers. It does not make any significant changes to the food stamp program that serves nearly 40 million low-income Americans. Trump and conservatives had pushed to create new work requirements for food stamps, but the Senate rejected the idea.

The bill reauthorizes agriculture and conservation programs, funds trade programs, expands support for struggling dairy farmers and legalizes the cultivation of industrial hemp. The House vote was 369-47.

NEWARK, N.J. – A former Bergen County, New Jersey, man was arrested today in Park City, Kansas, on charges that he defrauded at least 20 people by soliciting investments in what he claimed were highly successful financial instruments, but which was actually a Ponzi scheme, according to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.

Thomas Lanzana, 51, formerly of Midland Park, New Jersey, and now residing in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, was charged by complaint with one count each of wire fraud and commodities fraud. He is scheduled to have his initial court appearance today in Wichita federal court.

According to the criminal complaint:

As early as 2013, Lanzana fraudulently solicited approximately $900,000 from at least 20 customers to invest in algorithm-based trading pools in foreign currency derivatives (forex) and other financial instruments. He falsely claimed to prospective customers that he was a successful forex trader. Lanzana allegedly took several steps to keep his customers’ trust: he sent them false account statements; he posted false monthly account statements to his companies’ websites showing balances, some in excess of $800,000, for forex trading accounts that did not exist; and he sent false tax documents to customers reporting earnings that did not exist.

Lanzana misappropriated at least $350,000 in customer funds, using some to repay earlier investors in the manner of a Ponzi scheme and to pay for his personal expenses, including purchases on Amazon, payments to a luxury car dealer and a jewelry retailer, and golf expenses.

The count of mail fraud with which Lanzana is charged carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss caused by the scheme. The count of commodities fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million, or twice the gross gain or loss.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie, and special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of John R. Tafur, with the investigation leading to the arrest. He also thanked the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement for its role in the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David W. Feder of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Cyber Crime Unit.

The charges and allegations in the complaint are merely accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 29-year-old Kansas man is charged with posting a nude photograph of a former intimate partner online just months after pleading guilty in a similar crime.

Matthew David Delair, of Overland Park, was free on bond and scheduled to be sentenced next month after he pleaded guilty in August to three counts of breach of privacy for posting nude pictures of a woman online.

Delair was arrested Tuesday and on Wednesday was charged with a new count of breach of privacy. Court records indicate the charge involves the same woman from the previous case.

Delair’s bond in the new case is $50,000.

Johnson County records show Delair also is on probation in two indecent exposure cases involving four different victims in Olathe in 2017.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov.-elect Laura Kelly’s inaugural committee on Wednesday slashed the prices of premium seating for her inaugural ball after facing questions about 10-person packages it was offering for $10,000, which is five times the legal limit for contributions.

The Associated Press obtained an email in which the committee’s chairwoman said the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission had “reversed” its approval of the committee’s earlier plans. The commission’s executive director cited “confusion” about a long-standing rule on how the limits on contributions to inaugural festivities applied to tickets for the traditional ball and dinner.

The inaugural committee is now offering its “gold” package for $3,000, which gives the buyer a premium table with 10 seats and six tickets to a VIP reception with the new Democratic governor and Lt. Gov.-elect Lynn Rogers.

Kansas governors rely on private funding to pay for such festivities and a 1994 law limits contributions by a single individual, business or group to $2,000. The ethics commission said in a 1994 legal opinion that when tickets are sold, the value of food, entertainment and other services are subtracted from the ticket price to determine the size of the contribution.

Had the inaugural committee wanted to keep its $10,000 price, it would have had to value its food, entertainment, administrative costs and other services, such as security, at $800 per person.

“They’ve been reaching out very actively throughout the process and have worked with us pretty closely,” said Mark Skoglund, the ethics commission’s executive director. “I’m confident this is a good solution.”

Kelly is due to be sworn in Jan. 14 at a Statehouse ceremony and the ball will be held that evening, with a single ticket costing $100. The inaugural committee has said it is planning a VIP reception for the day before and a series of free community events and a day of service on Jan. 12.

The inaugural committee announced its change in ticket-package-prices the day after the AP reported on its plan to offer a $10,000 package.

Kelly’s staff on Tuesday provided to the AP a copy of a Dec. 7 email in which Skoglund said the text of a committee email to prospective donors outlining ticket packages “looks fine,” while including a link to a copy of the 1994 legal opinion online.

“We worked closely with their staff — including getting their written approval of our prices — to ensure it followed the law,” Kelly spokeswoman Ashley All said Wednesday. “Unfortunately, yesterday they reversed this approval causing us to revise the packages and ticket prices.”

Skoglund said the commission told the inaugural committee that any pricing plan was fine, so long as it was in line with the commission’s legal opinion.

“There was just some confusion about the application of that decision, which we helped them through, subsequently,” he said. “Everyone was aware of the rules. It was just a matter of making sure everyone was on the same page.”

The new pricing plan treats the first $2,000 of the $3,000 gold package’s cost as a contribution to the committee and the remaining $1,000 as covering the cost of 10 tickets. The committee’s email to donors notes that with a married couple, it still would be legal for the spouse of a person buying the package to contribute another $2,000 separately.

There are also “silver” and “bronze” packages worth $2,000 and $1,500, respectively, also for a 10-person table.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — A woman who embezzled a combined $1.5 million from Black & Veatch and Garmin International has lost her appeal of an eight-year prison sentence.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal filed by Patricia Webb. The 46-year-old claimed the sentence handed down in U.S. District Court in Kansas City was unreasonable. It was a departure from federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a maximum sentence of six years and nine months.

Webb was convicted of stealing more than $1.2 million from Garmin International while working in the Olathe-based company’s payroll department. After leaving Garmin, she was hired to a similar payroll position with Overland Park-based Black & Veatch, where she embezzled more than $300,000 from the company.