By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 460 laid-off employees at the nation’s top public health agency received notices Wednesday that they are being reinstated, according to a union representing the workers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed reinstatement notices went out to the former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees, but provided few details.

About 2,400 CDC employees lost their jobs in a wave of cuts across federal health agencies in early April, according to a tally at the time.

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Whole CDC programs were essentially shut down, including some focused on smoking, lead poisoning, gun violence, asthma and air quality, and workplace safety and health. The entire office that handles Freedom of Information Act requests was shuttered. Infectious disease programs took a hit, too, including programs that fight outbreaks in other countries, labs focused on HIV and hepatitis in the U.S., and staff trying to eliminate tuberculosis.

An estimated 200 of the reinstated workers are based in the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, HHS officials confirmed. Staffers at a CDC lab that does testing for sexually transmitted diseases are being brought back, said one CDC employee who wasn’t authorized to discuss what happened and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Also reinstated are an estimated 150 employees at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, including people staffing a lab that works on lead poisoning, according to the union and employees.

Layoffs at federal agencies were challenged in lawsuits, with judges in some cases ordering federal agencies to halt terminations of employees.

Officials at HHS have never detailed how they made the layoff decisions in the first place. And they did not answer questions about why the notices went out, or how decisions were made about who to bring back.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the agency was streamlining operations and that “the nation’s critical public health functions remain intact and effective.”

“The Trump Administration is committed to protecting essential services — whether it’s supporting coal miners and firefighters through NIOSH, safeguarding public health through lead prevention, or researching and tracking the most prevalent communicable diseases,” he said.

This is not the first time that employees at the Atlanta-based agency were told they were being terminated only to then be told to come back. After an earlier round of termination notices went out in February, about 180 CDC employees in March were told to come back.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

If you’re looking for a good example of making some sour lemons into the sweetest of lemonades, consider the origin story of “Legally Blonde.” When Amanda Brown entered law school at Stanford University, she concluded pretty quickly that it was a bad fit for her, a fashion-loving, blond-haired, bubbly young woman who took notes with a fluffy pink pen.

But Brown turned those experiences into a comic novel that she shopped around, her pink-papered manuscript eventually pulled out of a literary agent’s slush pile and soon the focus of a Hollywood studio bidding war. The 2001 film was a big hit and was adapted into a Broadway musical six years later.

A tour has brought that musical to St. Paul’s Ordway Music Theater, and, if you’re looking for breezy, light-hearted fare that makes you feel as if summer is officially here, this show’s for you. The spousal songwriting team of Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin unapologetically embraces silliness, and this tour’s cast strikes a fine balance between being convincing and cartoonish in a briskly paced and consistently fun production.

So fun, in fact, that you’ll probably have a really good time even if you make out only about a third of what seem to be very clever lyrics. On opening night, the audio was inconsistent and the orchestra out of balance with it. Which makes a good argument for going later in the run, when the bugs will presumably be eradicated.

Director Cynthia Ferrer and choreographer Dana Solimando keep the action fleetly flowing as you follow the story of Elle Woods, a UCLA fashion merchandising major who seeks to win back her ex-boyfriend by following him to Harvard Law School. There, she impresses a professor and eventually lands on the defense team for a high-profile murder case. (Please suspend disbelief, legal eagles.)

O’Keefe and Benjamin’s score puts the pedal to the metal as soon as you hop in, the whirlwind of exposition flying forth with the peppy rocker, “Omigod You Guys,” and continuing with “What You Want,” a stylistic smorgasbord of rock, pop, funk, reggae and, finally, a law school admissions interview with full marching band and dance squad. Like I said, silly, as are the mock boy-band ballad, “Serious,” and an out-of-nowhere spoof of “Riverdance.”

Things sag a bit in the second act, when we spend way too much time debating the sexual orientation of a character whose ties to the plot seem tenuous at best. But, just as in the first act, Kathryn Brunner’s Elle is there to pull us out of the lull with a big-voiced ballad that underlines the character’s determination or discouragement.

Brunner makes for a magnetic center to the story, her Elle an easy-to-root-for underdog with an effervescent aura, a sweet voice and a chihuahua in tow. She’s complemented well by a large, high-energy cast, among the standouts Anthea Neri-Best as her comic cosmetologist, Nicholas McDonough as a smarmy careerist and Edward Staudenmayer as the kind of condescending professor that most former college students may recognize.

Adorned in brightly colored lighting, set pieces and projections (with pink as a dominant hue), there’s a lot of dessert-without-the-entree to “Legally Blonde,” but this cast sells it well, making it as bubbly as its engaging protagonist.

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‘Legally Blonde’

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

Tickets: $164-$45, available at 651-224-4222 or ordway.org

Capsule: A sweet, silly confection for a summer night.

By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press

Eight female athletes filed an appeal Wednesday of a landmark NCAA antitrust settlement, arguing that women would not receive their fair share of $2.7 billion in back pay for athletes who were barred from making money off their name, image and likeness.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken approved the settlement last week, clearing the way for direct payments from universities to athletes and the end of the NCAA’s amateurism model.

The athletes who appealed the settlement competed in soccer, volleyball and track. They are: Kacie Breeding of Vanderbilt; Lexi Drumm, Emma Appleman, Emmie Wannemacher, Riley Hass, Savannah Baron and Elizabeth Arnold of the College of Charleston; and Kate Johnson of Virginia. They have standing to appeal because they previously filed objections to the proposed settlement.

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Ashlyn Hare, one of the attorneys representing the athletes, said in a statement that the settlement violates Title IX, the federal law that bans sex-based discrimination in education.

“We support a settlement of the case, but not an inaccurate one that violates federal law. The calculation of past damages is based on an error that ignores Title IX and deprives female athletes of $1.1 billion,” Hare said. “Paying out the money as proposed would be a massive error that would cause irreparable harm to women’s sports.”

The House settlement figures to financially benefit football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, who are likely to receive a big chunk of the $20.5 million per year that colleges are permitted to share with athletes over the next year. Some athletes in other sports that don’t make money for their schools could lose their partial scholarships or see their roster spots cut.

“This is a football and basketball damages settlement with no real benefit to female athletes,” Hare said. “Congress has expressly rejected efforts to exempt revenue-generating sports like football and basketball from Title IX’s antidiscrimination mandate. The NCAA agreed with us. Our argument on appeal is the exact same argument the conferences and NCAA made prior to settling the case.”

The appeal was filed by the law firm Hutchinson Black and Cook of Boulder, Colorado, and was first reported by Front Office Sports. It would be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY, Associated Press

All 12 members of the board overseeing the prestigious Fulbright scholarships on Wednesday resigned in protest of what they call the Trump administration’s meddling with the selection of award recipients, according to a statement.

A statement published online by the board members said the administration usurped the board’s authority by denying awards to “a substantial number of people” who already had been chosen. Another 1,200 award recipients who were already approved to come to the U.S. are undergoing an unauthorized review process that could lead to their rejection, the board members said.

“To continue to serve after the Administration has consistently ignored the Board’s request that they follow the law would risk legitimizing actions we believe are unlawful and damage the integrity of this storied program and America’s credibility abroad,” the statement reads.

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Congress established the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago to promote international exchange and American diplomacy. The highly selective program awards about 9,000 scholarships annually in the U.S. and in more than 160 other countries to students, scholars, and professionals in a range of fields.

A message seeking comment was left with the State Department, which runs the scholarship program.

The resignations were first reported by The New York Times.

The intervention from the Trump administration undermined the program’s merit-based selection process and its insulation from political influence, the board members wrote.

“We believe these actions not only contradict the statute but are antithetical to the Fulbright mission and the values, including free speech and academic freedom, that Congress specified in the statute,” the statement said. “It is our sincere hope that Congress, the courts, and future Fulbright Boards will prevent the administration’s efforts to degrade, dismantle, or even eliminate one of our nation’s most respected and valuable programs.”

Award recipients are selected in a yearlong process by nonpartisan staff at the State Department. The recipients who had their awards canceled are in fields including biology, engineering, medical sciences, and history, the board members said.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration ratchets up scrutiny of international students on several fronts. The administration has expanded the grounds for revoking foreign students’ legal status, and recently paused scheduling of new interviews for student visas as it increases vetting of their social media activity. The government also has moved to block foreign students from attending Harvard as it pressures the Ivy League school to adopt a series of reforms.

The Associated Press’ education 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.