LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — An internal investigation has found that a Veterans Affairs medical center in Leavenworth used unauthorized wait lists, but didn’t substantiate claims the lists were used to falsify wait times for veterans.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the Veterans Affairs Inspector General’s Office investigated falsified wait list claims following a 2014 complaint. Their report was released Tuesday.

Inspectors say Leavenworth eye clinic scheduling staff used wait lists that had not been approved by the VA. The report also says that staff members weren’t trained to use the VA-approved electronic wait lists.

The Veterans Health Administration, a component of the VA, doesn’t track wait times for cataract surgery so inspectors concluded the Leavenworth facility didn’t use unapproved lists to distort its wait times, as a complaint had claimed.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tech company LockerDome says it is more than doubling its dowtown St. Louis office space and planning to hire up to 300 workers within five years.

LockerDome CEO and co-founder Gabe Lozano tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the 45-employee, 7-year-old company has outgrown its 6,800-square-foot digs into which it moved in 2012. LockerDome plans to occupy an 18,000-square-foot building a block away.

The company started as a sports social media platform but evolved into an interest-based social platform for gaming, music and politics.

Since its 2008 founding, LockerDome has raised more than $18 million from dozens of investors, including Cultivation Capital and St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III.

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a father has accidentally shot and wounded a southeast Missouri teen with a muzzleloaded gun.

The Daily American Republic reports that 17-year-old Kaitlyn Elise Pullam, of Poplar Bluff, was taken to St. Louis Children’s Hospital in critical condition after Monday’s shooting.

The girl’s mother told officers she had brought home two .50-caliber muzzleloaded guns from a cabin.

Butler County sheriff’s investigator Randle Huddleston said the girl’s father thought they were unloaded. He picked one of them up, and while handling the firearm, he inadvertently squeezed the trigger, and it went off.

Authorities say the bullet went through the wall of the girl’s bedroom. Butler County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brandon Lowe says the bullet went through the girl’s shoulder and that shrapnel hit her in the face and chest.

TROY, Mo. (AP) — An eastern Missouri woman has been charged with striking and killing her boyfriend with a sport utility vehicle.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a grand jury issued the tougher second-degree murder charge last week in the case against 52-year-old Paulette Lee Eaker, of Winfield. It replaces a charge of involuntary manslaughter that was filed in April.

Her public defender, Thomas Crocco, described the death “a tragic accident” but declined to comment further.

Eaker is accused of leaving the scene of an accident in the death of 52-year-old William Solomon Horstman. He was found unconscious inside his vehicle along the side of the road near his home on Graves Lane.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri appeals court is wading into the legal battle over what to do with frozen embryos created by a couple that later splits up.

Jalesia McQueen and Justin Gadberry had two twin boys through in vitro fertilization before divorcing in 2014.

A St. Louis County trial court ruled that the couple jointly owns the two remaining unfertilized embryos.

McQueen, who wants to use the embryos to have more children, appealed that ruling to the Missouri Court of Appeals.

Her ex-husband wants the embryos destroyed or donated to research or an infertile couple.

McQueen is scheduled to discuss the case at Wednesday afternoon news conference in downtown St. Louis.

Missouri Right to Life and two other anti-abortion groups are petitioning the appellate court to argue on McQueen’s behalf.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas Highway Patrol trooper has been convicted of threatening his wife and children.

The Great Bend Tribune reports that Darrin Hirsh was convicted Tuesday in Barton County District Court of aggravated assault, criminal threat and domestic battery. He was found not guilty of witness intimidation and violating a protective order.

Hirsh was accused of threatening his wife with a handgun and verbally threatening the life of her and their children on March 12, 2013, and with violating a protective order on March 11 and 12, 2014.

The witness intimidation counts alleged he tried to keep his wife from reporting the crime.

DALLAS (AP) — Airlines are shifting the timing of thousands of flights, even adding dozens of redeyes, as they try to avoid delays while hauling millions of passengers from now through the Christmas weekend.

Success or failure could all depend on the weather.

Airlines expect about 38 million passengers over a 17-day period spanning Christmas and New Year’s, an increase of about 3 percent, according to an industry trade group, Airlines for America. The group says the average flight could be 90 percent full.

Crowds like that mean that any hiccup in the system — delays at a major airport, a technology glitch — can ripple across the country and leave tens of thousands of passengers standing in airport lines.

“The biggest factor is always weather,” said American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein.

Back-to-back storms led to more than 4,300 canceled flights around Christmas 2012. This time the Northeast corridor not only should be free of snow and ice, it should be relatively balmy with temperatures on Christmas Day in the 60s from New York to Boston. But rain and snow are forecast through Thursday in parts of the West, and the South and Ohio Valley could see severe storms before Christmas.

Airlines have been helped recently by the El Niño pattern that has brought above-average temperatures to northern states. “We saw that through the Thanksgiving holiday season, and we’ve seen that through November and December,” said Steve Hozdulick, Southwest Airlines’ managing director of operational performance.

United posted its lowest flight-cancellation rate ever for a Thanksgiving week, and Southwest had its best on-time performance ever for the day before the holiday, which helps reduce other problems such as lost or delayed bags.

From 9 percent to 19 percent of flights were delayed over the peak five-day Thanksgiving period, according to tracking service FlightAware.com. A year earlier, when the weather was worse, delays ran between 12 percent and 31 percent.

Besides the vagaries of weather, airlines in recent years have done a better job of adjusting schedules for peak holiday periods.

According to Mark Duell of FlightAware, U.S. airlines added up to 700 flights a day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, compared with the same days last week. They cut about 4,400 flights on Christmas Eve and 5,700 on Friday, Christmas Day, when fewer people want to travel, he said.

Delta Air Lines and its Delta Connection affiliate scheduled 5,253 flights next Sunday, compared with fewer than 5,000 on a typical winter Sunday. Southwest expected Wednesday to be its busiest day, with more than 3,800 flights.

The peak day was last Friday for American, with 6,900 flights, and United, nearly 5,000, but both will also operate increased flights each of the next two Sundays.

Some of the additional flights are late at night, which gives travelers more options — and sometimes a lower fare. American and United successfully used the redeye tactic over Thanksgiving.

“Hubs like Houston, Chicago and Denver will see large increases of flights departing after 10 p.m. — very similar to what we did over Thanksgiving,” said United Airlines spokesman Charles Hobart. American added night flights at Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix and Charlotte.

At Delta, some extra flights will connect big cities that get heavy traffic all the time, while others will go to warm-weather destinations, said spokesman Morgan Durrant. Delta will occasionally use bigger planes. Through Jan. 3 there is an Atlanta-Salt Lake City round trip using a 293-seat Airbus A330 instead of smaller planes such as Boeing 737s with just 160 seats.

The airlines say they will have enough employees on hand to handle the extra passengers.

The Transportation Security Administration is also adjusting staffing, said spokesman Mike England. Wait times at security checkpoints have increased this year, and passengers can expect longer delays during the holidays, he said. Holiday travelers slow the process when they overstuff carry-on bags, which makes them harder to screen.

Many travelers are bound to be stressed out. Patience will be a valuable commodity. Along with portable chargers for phones and other gadgets.

(Missourinet) – State sales tax would not be charged on new firearms purchased in Missouri the Saturday following July fourth under a bill being offered by Representative Jered Taylor (R-Nixa).

“It’s difficult sometimes to purchase a firearm, just the cost. So, I want to make it a bit little easier for those who decide they want to carry and they want to protect themselves if the need arises,” said Taylor.

He chose the Saturday after Independence Day for a reason.

“The July fourth weekend was a great weekend to do that,” said Taylor. “It highlights the freedoms that we have and the freedoms that we’ve been given.”

Taylor expects an increase in revenue from a sales tax holiday on firearms.

“I think it could definitely increase purchases of new firearms in the state of Missouri,” said Taylor. “I think there are probably residents of other states that would come to Missouri for this. There are few, if any, states that have similar legislation.”

Taylor said local governments could opt out of charging local sales tax.

“I know that there is always going to be opposition to second amendment issues,” said Taylor. “I think that there are law abiding citizens who desire to have a firearm for their safety and their family’s safety.”

This is the first time that Taylor has offered this bill. His proposal would not apply to gun accessory and ammunition sales.

“I know that there is always going to be opposition to second amendment issues,” said Taylor. “I think that there are law abiding citizens who desire to have a firearm for their safety and their family’s safety.”

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has named Jefferson County Circuit Judge Lisa Page to a state appeals court.

Nixon on Tuesday announced he appointed Page to the Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals. Page will replace Judge Clifford Ahrens, who retired in August after serving nearly 25 years on that court.

Page has served as a circuit judge in Jefferson County since January 2007. She was appointed as a special judge for two Missouri Supreme Court cases and also has been appointed as a court of appeals special judge.

The Festus resident previously served as a municipal judge for Crystal City and DeSoto. Her law degree is from Saint Louis University School of Law.