WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is trying to sort out whether states can prosecute immigrants who use fake Social Security numbers to get a job.

The justices heard arguments Wednesday in Kansas’ appeal of a state court ruling that threw out three convictions after concluding the state was seeking to punish immigrants who used fake IDs to obtain jobs.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the federal government has exclusive authority to determine whether an immigrant may work in the United States.

The justices seemed concerned that states shouldn’t be hampered in other identity-theft prosecutions when someone might use a stolen Social Security number to get a driver’s license or arrange for direct deposit of a paycheck.

The case arose from three prosecutions in Johnson County, a largely suburban area outside Kansas City where the district attorney has aggressively pursued immigrants under the Kansas identity theft and false-information statutes.

The convictions under state law could alter immigration status and lead to deportation.

The issue is whether Kansas is blocked from prosecuting those crimes because it is relying on information that is on a required federal work authorization form, the I-9. Kansas, backed by the Trump administration and 12 states, argues it can prosecute because the same information also appears on state work forms.

In 2012, the court ruled that portions of an Arizona law targeting immigrants without proper legal documents could not be enforced because federal law trumps state measures in the area of immigration. The three immigrants in the Kansas case say the high court’s Arizona decision should determine the outcome in their situation.

Kansas’ argument would render the Arizona decision meaningless, Justice Elena Kagan said in an exchange with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Schmidt disagreed. “We aren’t targeting folks because of their status. We are enforcing our identity theft laws,” he said.

Justice Samuel Alito made clear that he thought that Kansas did nothing wrong in prosecuting the three men who all were caught using fake IDs to get hired.

“This is not a situation like Arizona, where a state has criminalized something that is not criminal under federal law. It’s a case where the same conduct is criminal under federal law and, Kansas says, under Kansas law,” Alito said. Alito dissented from the relevant portions of the Arizona decision.

Several justices elicited answers from Paul Hughes, representing the immigrants, that indicated they could issue a narrow ruling in this case in favor of the immigrants without stepping on states’ ability to pursue traditional identity theft cases.

Such an outcome might please Chief Justice John Roberts, who was part of the majority in the Arizona case along with the four liberal justices. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired last year, wrote the 2012 opinion.

The court could end up deciding very little, Justice Neil Gorsuch said, because Kansas and other states would be sure to use documents other than work authorization forms in identity theft cases against immigrants.

“So we are deciding how many angels are dancing on the head of this pin? Is that what this case is about?” Gorsuch said.

A decision in Kansas v. Garcia, 17-834, is expected by late June.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a bank robbery and have released security camera images of the suspect.

Just before 3:30p.m. Wednesday, police responded to the Fidelity Bank  in the 2100 block of North Bradley Fair in Wichita, according to a media release.

The suspect walked into the bank, handed the teller a note, threatened a weapon but did not show one.

The suspect ran from the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash. There were no injuries.

The suspect is described as white man in his mid-30s and wearing brown face paint. He wore all black including black gloves. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

On September 16, a woman robbed the bank, according to police. Authorities have no reported an arrest in that case.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 45-year-old Lawrence man has been sentenced to 11 years and four months in a case in which the reasons for the charges remain unclear.

BJ Lauri was sentenced Wednesday for kidnapping and sexual battery. An affidavit detailing the allegations against Lauri were sealed after a judge determined the victim’s mental or emotional well-being could be jeopardized by its release.

Police previously said that in January, a woman told a Hy-Vee employee she had been held against her will and several “criminal events” occurred during that time. Lauri was originally charged with human trafficking and other more severe charges but pleaded no contest to the two charges.

Lauri’s co-defendant, 51-year-old John Brown, is cooperating with prosecutors. He is charged with kidnapping and two misdemeanors.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an aggravated assault and have made an arrest.

Just after midnight Monday, police responded to a vandalism call at a home in the 1600 Block of North Robin in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

An 80-year-old woman at the residence told police she heard a loud noise outside the home and found damage to a door of the attached garage, to a car parked inside the garage from a what appeared to be a shotgun.

An 18-year-old girl was also inside the home at the time of the incident, according to Davidson. There were no injuries.

Investigators learned that two 17-year-old boys were involved. Police located and arrested them Tuesday without incident. Officers also recovered the shotgun. The 18-year-old girl at the home and the boys arrested are acquainted, according to Davidson.

One of the boys is being held on requested charges that include discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling and criminal threat, according to Davidson. The other boy is being held on a requested charge of discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling.

WICHITA—Well known Wichita lawyer Brad Pistotnick was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to his role in a cyberattack against online sites that were critical of his work.

On Wednesday, Pistotnick’s attorney Mark Schoenhofer released a statement on his client’s change of plea in Federal Court.

“The U.S. Government dismissed all ten felonies listed in the original indictment against lawyer Brad Pistotnik in exchange for pleas to three misdemeanor “accessory after the fact” charges.

Mr. Pistotnik entered into a plea agreement whereby the government sought no prison time, no probation and Mr. Pistotnik would pay fines of $375,000.00 plus court costs and restitution.

The U.S. District Court accepted the plea deal. Mr. Pistotnik has paid his fines and restitution, and he is now done with this chapter of his life. He looks forward to continuing to assist Kansans who have been injured in serious accidents.”

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WICHITA, KAN. – A well known Wichita lawyer was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to being involved in a cyberattack, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said. He was ordered to pay a $375,000 fine and restitution of $55,200.

Bradley A. Pistotnik, 63, pleaded guilty to three counts of being an accessory after the fact to making an extortionate threat over the internet. In his plea, Pistotnik admitted he was contacted by attorneys from the legal firm Jaburg Wilk and Ripoff Report regarding cyberattacks launched against Ripoff Report, Jaburg Wilk and Leagle. He falsely denied knowing anything about the attacks.

In fact, Pistotnik knew co-defendant David Dorsett had initiated a flood of emails against the servers used by Leagle, RipoffReport and Jaburg Wilk. Dorsett had met previously with Pistonik offering web design and reputation management services. Dorsett sent emails demanding the removal of information that reflected badly on Pistotnik from their web sites. In one of the threatening emails, Dorsett said, “… if you don’t remove it we will begin targeting your advertisers…”

WASHINGTON —The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday approved the $26.5 billion combination of Sprint and T-Mobile on a 3-2 party-line vote.

The wireless merger still faces opposition from a coalition of state attorneys general, who argue the deal is bad for competition. The companies won’t merge while litigation persists.

The antitrust trial is scheduled to start in New York in December, an unusual situation given that the Trump administration’s Justice Department approved the deal.

The FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, a Republican, backed it months ago citing the companies’ promise to build out a next-generation 5G network to many rural areas, improving internet access.

The Democratic commissioners say going from four to three major wireless companies will mean higher prices for consumers. They say it will be difficult to enforce promises made by T-Mobile and Sprint.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Authorities say a kindergartner brought an unloaded gun to a Kansas City elementary school in a backpack, apparently without knowing it was there.

Kansas City Public Schools said in a news release that a teacher was notified after the Faxon Elementary School student found the weapon Tuesday. Police said that the school’s security then secured the gun. The student’s parents and state welfare officials were notified.

The district statement said, “There is every reason to think that the child was unaware that a firearm had been placed in the backpack.” The district said it was unable to comment further because of the ongoing investigation and student confidentially requirements.

DETROIT (AP) — Bargainers for General Motors and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative contract deal on Wednesday that could end a monthlong strike that brought the company’s U.S. factories to a standstill.

The deal, which the union says offers “major gains” for workers, was hammered out after months of bargaining but won’t bring an immediate end to the strike by 49,000 hourly workers. They will likely stay on the picket lines for at least two more days as two union committees vote on the deal, after which the members will have to approve.

Terms of the tentative four-year contract were not released, but it’s likely to include some pay raises, lump sum payments to workers, and requirements that GM build new vehicles in U.S. factories. Early on, GM offered new products in Detroit and Lordstown, Ohio, two of the four U.S. cities where it planned to close factories.

The company offered to build a new electric pickup truck to keep the Detroit-Hamtramck plant open and to build an electric vehicle battery factory in or near Lordstown, Ohio, where GM is closing an assembly plant. The battery factory would employ far fewer workers and pay less money than the assembly plant.

GM and the union have been negotiating at a time of troubling uncertainty for the U.S. auto industry. Driven up by the longest economic expansion in American history, auto sales appear to have peaked and are now heading in the other direction. GM and other carmakers are also struggling to make the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s trade war with China and his tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have raised costs for auto companies. A revamped North American free trade deal is stalled in Congress, raising doubts about the future of America’s trade in autos and auto parts with Canada and Mexico, which last year came to $257 billion.

Amid that uncertainty, GM workers have wanted to lock in as much as they can before things get ugly. They argue that they had given up pay raises and made other concessions to keep GM afloat during its 2009 trip through bankruptcy protection. Now that GM has been nursed back to health — earning $2.42 billion in its latest quarter — they want a bigger share.

If approved, the contract agreement will set the pattern for negotiations at Fiat Chrysler and Ford. It wasn’t clear which company the union would bargain with next, or whether there would be another strike.

The union’s bargainers have voted to recommend the deal to the UAW International Executive Board, which will vote on the agreement. Union leaders from factories nationwide will travel to Detroit for a vote on Thursday. The earliest workers could return would be after that.

In past years, it’s taken a minimum of three or four days and as long as several weeks for the national ratification vote. Workers took almost two weeks to finish voting on their last GM agreement, in October of 2015. Then skilled trades workers rejected it, causing further delays.

“The No. 1 priority of the national negotiation team has been to secure a strong and fair contract that our members deserve,” union Vice President Terry Dittes, the chief bargainer with GM, said in a statement Wednesday. The agreement, he said, has “major gains” for UAW workers.

This time around — with a federal corruption investigation that has implicated the past two UAW presidents and brought convictions of five union officials — many union members don’t trust the leadership and likely won’t want to return to work until they’ve gotten a chance to vote on the deal themselves.

In August, the FBI raided the suburban Detroit home of UAW President Gary Jones. He has not been charged and has not commented on the raid. Earlier this month, Jones’ successor as union regional director in Missouri was charged in a $600,000 embezzlement scheme, and another UAW official pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks from union vendors. Eight other people — including five UAW officials — have been convicted over the past two years of looting a jointly run Fiat Chrysler-UAW training center for blue-collar workers. Another official was charged in September.

There’s also no guarantee that the first contract deal with GM will pass. Some workers on the picket lines have said they may not vote for the first offer.

“We’re not just going to take the first thing that they give us,” worker Tina Black said last month from the picket line at an engine and transmission plant in Romulus, Michigan, near Detroit’s main airport.

But Louis Rocha, president of a UAW local in Orion Township, Michigan, said recently that union bargainers have taken strong positions against the company. “I think we’re going to be OK,” he said of the ratification vote.

The strike had shut down 33 GM manufacturing plants in nine states across the U.S. It was the first national strike by the union since a two-day walkout in 2007 that had little impact on the company.