MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is one step closer to launching its newest spacecraft designed for humans.

Workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida gathered by the dozens if not hundreds to watch as the Orion capsule emerged from its assembly hangar Thursday morning.

The capsule — sealed for protection — slowly made its way to its fueling depot atop a 36-wheel platform. The capsule and its attached service module and adapter ring stretched 40 feet high.

Orion will make its space debut in December on an unmanned test flight. It will shoot 3,600 miles into space and take two big laps around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph and parachuting into the Pacific.

NASA intends to put astronauts aboard Orion in 2021 for deep space exploration.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Railroads are hauling more than a dozen trains weekly through Missouri carrying volatile crude oil from the Northern Plains that’s been involved in multiple fiery accidents.

Notifications about the shipments submitted by railroads were released by state officials on Thursday in response to a public records request by The Associated Press.

They show Union Pacific hauls about 10 oil trains weekly through southeastern Missouri. Each carries at least 1 million gallons of oil and passes through three counties.

BNSF Railway is the other major hauler, with shipments through 34 Missouri counties. Some of those counties have had up to nine oil trains in a week.

BNSF also reported moving oil trains through heavily populated St. Louis and Jackson counties. Jackson County includes Kansas City.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The latest government forecast on Kansas crop production is painting a far rosier picture than had been anticipated for most fall crops just a month ago.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service predicted Thursday that Kansas growers would bring in 578 million bushels of corn this season. That figure is 14 percent above last year’s production.

Higher yields that are averaging 154 bushels per acre are making up for the fact that harvested corn acreage this year is expected to be down 6 percent this year to 3.75 million acres.

Production of grain sorghum in Kansas is now estimated to come in at 182 million bushels, up 10 percent from a year ago.

Harvest of soybeans is forecast at 147 million bushels, up 15 percent from last year.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court will hold a hearing next week on a petition by the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate to get his name removed from the November ballot.

The court on Thursday scheduled arguments on Democrat Chad Taylor’s petition for 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said in a two-page order that the court was hearing the case without a review by a lower court because of the need for an authoritative ruling.

Taylor dropped out of the Senate race last week. But Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Taylor’s withdrawal letter didn’t comply with a state law limiting when nominees’ names can be removed from the ballot.

Taylor’s withdrawal could boost the chances of independent candidate Greg Orman defeating three-term GOP Sen. Pat Roberts.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Jay Nixon has released $143 million of education funding that he had frozen, because lawmakers sustained most of his vetoes of tax-break bills.

Nixon announced the release of the money Thursday, after lawmakers concluded a veto session in which they overrode 47 line-item budget vetoes and 10 vetoes on other bills.

Despite their record number of overrides, lawmakers sustained most of Nixon’s vetoes on a package of bills that would have granted tax breaks to various businesses such as electric companies, computer data centers and fitness clubs.

The released funding includes $100 million for K-12 schools and $43 million for colleges and universities.

Nixon said he is evaluating whether to release any of the additional $700 million of spending that he has restricted because of concerns over state finances

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City woman is going to prison for embezzling more than $650,000 for the bank where she worked.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 54-year-old Lisa L. Taylor was sentenced Thursday to six years and six months without parole.

Taylor pleaded guilty in February to defrauding UMB Bank, where she worked as a closing account specialist from May 2006 until October 2010. Eleven of her friends and relatives in Missouri and Kansas also pleaded guilty to taking part in the conspiracy.

Taylor admitted generating 377 fraudulent checks, some of them payable to friends and relatives who cashed the checks and gave Taylor part of the proceeds.

The scheme also involved $97,000 worth of checks made payable to fictitious names. Taylor forged the signatures and deposited the checks into her own bank account.

OLATHE- Two people were injured in an accident just after 12-noon on Thursday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Chevy driven by Shawndra R. Barnes, 44, Fontana, was northbound on U.S.169 one mile south of 183rd Street in Olathe when it attempted to change lanes, almost striking a 2000 Honda Civic driven by Ashley D. Balleza-Rojas, 18, Overland Park.

The Chevy swerved back into its lane and the driver lost control of the vehicle. It left the right side of the roadway, reentered the roadway and struck the Honda in the side.

Barnes and Balleza-Rojas were transported to Olathe Medical Center. A passenger in the Honda was not injured.

The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

HOPE YEN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 120 members of Congress are urging the Supreme Court to recognize that pregnant workers are entitled to reasonable accommodations such as light duty. They say the protections are needed to ensure that expecting mothers are not forced out of their jobs.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Thursday, the Democratic lawmakers said UPS delivery driver Peggy Young of Lorton, Virginia, was unfairly treated when her employer asked her to take unpaid maternity leave, rather than provide a less strenuous position as her doctors advised.

Many of the lawmakers are pushing legislation to make the pregnancy protections explicit in federal law. They argue that the lower appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, ruled incorrectly by siding with UPS.

The case is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in December.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is attacking a key argument made by the Democratic candidate waging a legal battle to get his name removed from the ballot in the U.S. Senate race.

Kobach on Thursday released an affidavit from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brad Bryant contradicting a sworn statement from Democrat Chad Taylor.

Kobach provided a copy of Bryant’s statement exclusively to The Associated Press before posting it online and said it would be key evidence.

Taylor submitted his statement to the Kansas Supreme Court in petitioning it to force Kobach to remove his name from the ballot.

Taylor said Bryant assured him that a withdrawal letter Taylor wrote was sufficient to get his name off the ballot. In his statement, Bryant said he never did so.