By CLAIRE SAVAGE

NEW YORK (AP) — To billionaire Elon Musk and his cost-cutting team at the Department of Government Efficiency, Karen Ortiz may just be one of many faceless bureaucrats. But to some of her colleagues, she is giving a voice to those who feel they can’t speak out.

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Ortiz is an administrative judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — the federal agency in charge of enforcing U.S. workplace anti-discrimination laws that has undergone tumultuous change since President Donald Trump took office. Like millions of other federal employees, Ortiz opened an ominous email on Jan. 28 titled “Fork in the Road” giving them the option to resign from their positions as part of the government’s cost-cutting measures directed by Trump and carried out by DOGE under Musk, an unelected official.

Her alarm grew when her supervisor directed administrative judges in her New York district office to pause all their current LGBTQ+ cases and send them to Washington for further review in order to comply with Trump’s executive order declaring that the government would recognize only two “immutable” sexes — male and female.

Ortiz decried management’s lack of action in response to the directive, which she said was antithetical to the EEOC’s mission, and called upon some 185 colleagues in an email to “resist” complying with “illegal mandates.” But that email was “mysteriously” deleted, she said.

The next day, after yet another frustrating “Fork in the Road” update, Ortiz decided to go big, emailing the EEOC’s acting chair Andrea Lucas directly and copying more than 1,000 colleagues with the subject line, “A Spoon is Better than a Fork.” In it, Ortiz questioned Lucas’s fitness to serve as acting chair, “much less hold a license to practice law.”

“I know I take a great personal risk in sending out this message. But, at the end of the day, my actions align with what the EEOC was charged with doing under the law,” Ortiz wrote. “I will not compromise my ethics and my duty to uphold the law. I will not cower to bullying and intimidation.”

Ortiz is just one person, but her email represents a larger pushback against the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to federal agencies amid an environment of confusion, anger and chaos. It is also Ortiz’s way of taking a stand against the leadership of a civil rights agency that last month moved to dismiss seven of its own cases representing transgender workers, marking a major departure from its prior interpretation of the law.

Right after sending her mass email, Ortiz said she received a few supportive responses from colleagues — and one calling her unprofessional. Within an hour, though, the message disappeared and she lost her ability to send any further emails.

But it still made it onto the internet. The email was recirculated on Bluesky and it received more than 10,000 “upvotes” on Reddit after someone posted it with the comment, “Wow I wish I had that courage.”

“AN AMERICAN HERO,” one Reddit user deemed Ortiz, a sentiment that was seconded by more than 2,000 upvoters. “Who is this freedom fighter bringing on the fire?” wrote another.

The EEOC did not feel the same way. The agency revoked her email privileges for about a week and issued her a written reprimand for “discourteous conduct.”

Contacted by The AP, a spokesperson for the EEOC said: “We will refrain from commenting on internal communications and personnel matters. However, we would note that the agency has a long-standing policy prohibiting unauthorized all-employee emails, and all employees were reminded of that policy recently.”

A month later, Ortiz has no regrets.

“It was not really planned out, it was just from the heart,” the 53-year-old told The Associated Press in an interview, adding that partisan politics have nothing to do with her objections and that the public deserves the EEOC’s protection, including transgender workers. “This is how I feel and I’m not pulling any punches. And I will stand by what I wrote every day of the week, all day on Sunday.”

Several veteran budget hawks are giving DOGE mixed reviews, including some who say Musk’s early targets demonstrate success and show more potential than previous efforts to downsize the government. A January poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that about 3 in 10 U.S. adults strongly or somewhat approve of Trump’s creation of DOGE while about 4 in 10 Americans oppose eliminating a large number of federal jobs.

Ortiz said she never intended for her email to go beyond the EEOC, describing it as a “love letter” to her colleagues. But, she added, “I hope that it lights a fire under people.”

Ortiz said she has received “a ton” of support privately in the month since sending her email, including a thank-you letter from a California retiree telling her to “keep the faith.” Open support among her EEOC colleagues beyond Reddit and Bluesky, however, has proven more elusive.

“I think people are just really scared,” she said.

William Resh, a University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy professor who studies how administrative structure and political environments affect civil servants, weighed in on why federal workers may choose to say nothing even if they feel their mission is being undermined.

“We can talk pie in the sky, mission orientation and all these other things. But at the end of the day, people have a paycheck to bring home, and food to put on a table and a rent to pay,” Resh said.

The more immediate danger, he said, is the threat to one’s livelihood, or inviting a manager’s ire.

“And so then that’s where you get this kind of muted response on behalf of federal employees, that you don’t see a lot of people speaking out within these positions because they don’t want to lose their job,” Resh said. “Who would?”

Richard LeClear, a U.S. Air Force veteran and EEOC staffer who is retiring early at 64 to avoid serving under the Trump administration, said Ortiz’s email was “spot on,” but added that other colleagues who agreed with her may fear speaking out themselves.

“Retaliation is a very real thing,” LeClear said.

Ortiz, who has been a federal employee for 14 years and at the EEOC for six, said she isn’t naive about the potential fallout. She has hired attorneys, and maintains that her actions are protected whistleblower activity. As of Monday morning, she still has a job but she is not a lifetime appointee and is aware that her health care, pension and source of income could all be at risk.

Ortiz is nonetheless steadfast: “If they fire me, I’ll find another avenue to do this kind of work, and I’ll be okay. They will have to physically march me out of the office.”

Many of Ortiz’s colleagues have children to support and protect, which puts them in a more difficult position than her to speak out, Ortiz acknowledged. She said her legal education and American citizenship also put her in a position to be able to make change.

Her parents, who came to the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico in the 1950s with limited English skills, ingrained in her the value of standing up for others. Their firsthand experience with the Civil Rights Movement, and her own experience growing up in mostly white spaces in Garden City on Long Island, primed Ortiz to defend herself and others.

“It’s in my DNA,” she said. “I will use every shred of privilege that I have to lean into this.”

Ortiz received her undergraduate degree at Columbia University, and her law degree at Fordham University. She knew she wanted to become a judge ever since her high school mock trial as a Supreme Court justice.

Civil rights has been a throughline in her career, and Ortiz said she was “super excited” when she landed her job at the EEOC.

“This is how I wanted to finish up my career,” she said. “We’ll see if that happens.”

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The district attorney of Los Angeles County said Monday that he does not support the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez because the brothers have repeatedly lied about why they killed their parents at their Beverly Hills home in 1989.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters his decision hinged on whether the brothers’ had exhibited “insight and complete responsibility” into lies told during their trial, including their original claim that they did not kill their parents. He said their repeated argument that they killed their parents in self-defense does not match the facts of the case that showed premeditated steps to plan the killings and make it look like a gang hit.

“They have lied to everyone for the last 30 years,” Hochman said.

Hochman compared the Menendez case to that of Sirhan Sirhan, who shot and killed U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. He noted that, like the Menendez brothers, Sirhan had many letters of support and was determined to be a low-risk inmate. However, Gov. Gavin Newsom blocked his parole in 2022, saying he still poses an unreasonable threat to the public.

Hochman called it an “instructive case” because the Menendez brothers also “fell short” of taking full responsibility for their crimes.

The county’s top prosecutor said he would support resentencing in the future if the brothers “finally come clean with the court, with the public, with the DA’s office, with their own family members and acknowledge all these lies.”

A resentencing hearing has been scheduled for later in March and Hochman said the court may move forward with it.

Hochman, who took office in December, said last month that he opposed a new trial for the Menendez brothers. The siblings were convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

FILE – This combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP, File)

In October, then-District Attorney George Gascón recommended the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life, which would make them immediately eligible for parole. Hochman called his predecessor’s recommendation a “desperate political move.”

The brothers, who are now in their 50s, were found guilty in the murders of their entertainment executive father Jose Menendez and mother Kitty Menendez.

They began their bid for freedom in recent years after new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged, and they have the support of most of their extended family. Family members didn’t immediately comment Monday after Hochman’s news conference.

Newsom last month ordered the state parole board to investigate whether the brothers would pose a risk to the public if they are released.

The brothers have another pathway to freedom. They have also submitted a clemency plea to Newsom, who has said he would not make a decision until Hochman reviewed the case.

Hochman rejected arguments by a relative of the brothers that he is biased against them. Tamara Goodall, a cousin of the siblings, has asked that he be removed from the case.

“I will follow the facts and the law wherever they take us,” Hochman said.

By ELENA BECATOROS

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Panagis hauls himself out of the pool at a rehabilitation center in Greece and scurries over for a delectable lunch: whole mackerel. It’s been about three months since the orphaned seal pup was found struggling in the coastal waters of Cyprus. Soon, he’ll be well enough to go home.

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Panagis is one of dozens of Mediterranean monk seals, or Monachus monachus, that have been nursed back to health by Greece’s MOm, a charity dedicated to the care and protection of the rare marine mammal whose population had dwindled so dramatically that at one point it faced extinction.

Thanks to conservation efforts, the seals with the big, round eyes and prominent whiskers are now making a remarkable comeback. Nearly half of their estimated global population of 800 live in Greek waters, where the extensive coastline offers an abundance of sea caves that provide shelter for females to rear their young.

From near extinction to recovery

Sleek and remarkably fast in the water, the monk seal is a skillful hunter and can consume up to 3 kilograms (6 pounds) of fish, octopus and squid a day. But it’s not averse to a ready meal, and can rip through fishing nets to steal fish — which led fishermen to view them as pests.

For decades, they were hunted, contributing to a major population decline between the 1960s and 1980s that led the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, to list them as critically endangered.

Nikitas Vogiatzis, prepares to feed Panagis, a mediterranean monk seal, at the Attica Zoological Park, in eastern Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

When conservation efforts began in the 1980s, combined with outreach programs to educate the public — and fishermen — “society gradually began to change … and the population began to recover,” said Panagiotis Dendrinos.

Dendrinos, a marine biologist and coordinator of the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal — or MOm — that has pioneered the Monachus monachus conservation program, says the monk seal is the only seal species in the Mediterranean Sea and also “one of the rarest species of seal and marine mammal in the world.”

“To protect an animal like the Mediterranean monk seal in its natural environment, you essentially have to protect the entire marine ecosystem,” he said.

Nikitas Vogiatzis feeds Panagis at the Attica Zoological Park, in eastern Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Conservation efforts have paid off, and in recent years, the species climbed down a notch on the IUCN’s Red List of threatened species to “endangered.” About a year ago improved one step further, to “vulnerable.”

A unique seal rehab

Usually contacted by members of the public who find an animal in distress, MOm specialists tend to adult seals on location where possible, and transport young seals to the organization’s rehabilitation center housed in the grounds of Athens’ zoo, the Attica Zoological Park, on the outskirts of the Greek capital.

There, the young mammals are looked after by veterinarians, fed a special diet to provide them with the best nutrition and hone their swimming skills in a pool.

Panagis, a monk seal, swims at the Attica Zoological Park, in eastern Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Their carers give them names — often after the people who found them — but make sure contact with humans is kept to a minimum to prepare the animals for their return into the wild.

The young seals typically stay in the rehab center for several months, until they’ve put on enough weight and their natural hunting instinct kicks in, allowing them to fend for themselves. They are then tagged so they can be tracked, and re-introduced into the wild.

MOm, the only center of its kind in the region, has cared for about 40 seals from far and wide, both on location and in its facilities, Dendrinos said.

“This year, we had a really pleasant surprise,” he said. A female seal that had been treated and released four years ago was spotted nursing a pup.

Planes, boats and cars to the rescue

Panagis was found in Cyprus, near where the body of his mother had been found a few days earlier. Alerted by locals, the organization arranged for the seal to be flown to Athens.

“Transportation is carried out with whatever is available,” said veterinary assistant Nikitas Vogiatzis, shortly after feeding Panagis. “Either by plane, or by boat, or even by taxi. “Konstantina came in a taxi, Panagis by plane, Renos came on a boat,” he said, listing MOm’s most recent wards.

Weighing just under 15 kilograms (33 pounds) when he arrived, the now 3-month-old seal has reached over 40 kilograms (88 pounds). Panagis is nearly ready for his return trip home, which MOm experts hope will happen in May.

Back into the wild

Renos — short for Renos-Pantelis — was found in November in the small Aegean island of Anafi by a nurse and a military conscript whom he was named after.

The seal pup was shipped to MOm’s facility. He got medical treatment and was put on a special diet until he was old enough to move on to solid fish — the mackerel that Panagis is so fond of.

Renos-Pantelis, a five-month old mediterranean monk seal, dives into the water after its release at a beach on the tiny Aegean Sea island of Gyaros, Greece, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

He recovered and on a cold, sunny February day, it was his turn to head back into the wild. MOm personnel loaded him into a crate and whisked him by speedboat to the uninhabited islet of Gyaros, the closest marine protected area to Athens.

The release location is chosen “based on there being enough food, and there being no disturbance by people, which is very important,” said Vogiatzis, the veterinary assistant.

The crate is placed near the water, he said. Then, “you open the door, you say a prayer and you say: ‘So long’.”

Renos’ crate was deposited on a beach and the door opened. The young seal sniffed the air timidly, and waited. Slowly, he inched his way out of the crate, then picked up speed as he belly-hauled his way down the beach, splashed into the sea and was gone.

Associated Press photographer Thanassis Stavrakis in Gyaros, Greece, contributed to this report.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

Climate change is already causing all sorts of problems on Earth, but soon it will be making a mess in orbit around the planet too, a new study finds.

MIT researchers calculated that as global warming caused by burning of coal, oil, gas continues it may reduce the available space for satellites in low Earth orbit by anywhere from one-third to 82% by the end of the century, depending on how much carbon pollution is spewed. That’s because space will become more littered with debris as climate change lessens nature’s way of cleaning it up.

Part of the greenhouse effect that warms the air near Earth’s surface also cools the upper parts of the atmosphere where space starts and satellites zip around in low orbit, That cooling also makes the upper atmosphere less dense, which reduces the drag on the millions of pieces of human-made debris and satellites.

That drag pulls space junk down to Earth, burning up on the way. But a cooler and less dense upper atmosphere means less space cleaning itself. That means that space gets more crowded, according to a study in Monday’s journal Nature Sustainability.

“We rely on the atmosphere to clean up our debris. There’s no other way to remove debris,” said study lead author Will Parker, an astrodynamics researcher at MIT. “It’s trash. It’s garbage. And there are millions of pieces of it.”

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Circling Earth are millions of pieces of debris about one-ninth of an inch (3 millimeters) and larger — the width of two stacked pennies — and those collide with the energy of a bullet. There are tens of thousands of plum-sized pieces of space junk that hit with the power of a crashing bus, according to The Aerospace Corporation, which monitors orbital debris. That junk includes results of old space crashes and parts of rockets with most of it too small to be tracked.

There are 11,905 satellites circling Earth — 7,356 in low orbit — according to the tracking website Orbiting Now. Satellites are critical for communications, navigation, weather forecasting and monitoring environmental and national security issues.

“There used to be this this mantra that space is big. And so we can we can sort of not necessarily be good stewards of the environment because the environment is basically unlimited,” Parker said.

But a 2009 crash of two satellites created thousands of pieces of space junk. Also NASA measurements are showing measurable the reduction of drag, so scientists now realize that that “the climate change component is really important,” Parker said.

The density at 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth is decreasing by about 2% a decade and is likely to get intensify as society pumps more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, said Ingrid Cnossen, a space weather scientist at the British Antarctic Survey who was not part of the research.

Cnossen said in an email that the new study makes “perfect sense” and is why scientists have to be aware of climate change’s orbital effects “so that appropriate measures can be taken to ensure its long-term sustainability.”

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.