US News Roundup: US Steel announces layoffs; US presidential campaign trails and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. Steel delivers unwelcome Christmas surprise to Michigan town

The mayor of a Michigan steel town was attending his grandchildren's Christmas play Thursday evening when he got an unwelcome voicemail from an official of the town's top employer: United States Steel Corp. U.S. Steel was about to send out a press release announcing layoffs for 1,545 workers and the idling of a significant portion of operations at the Great Lakes Works facility, according to the voicemail received by Michael Bowdler, mayor of River Rouge, a city of 7,500 that sits on the Detroit River roughly 10 miles south of Detroit.

After fiery debate, Democratic U.S. presidential hopefuls return to campaign trail

The Democratic U.S. presidential hopefuls headed back to the campaign trail on Friday after a debate that featured attacks on rising contender Pete Buttigieg's lack of political experience and fundraising from wealthy donors. With the first contest in the state-by-state battle for the party's nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election less than seven weeks away in Iowa, the candidates are running out of time to make a move in a Democratic race that opinion polls indicate is up for grabs.

Sign-ups for 2020 Obamacare insurance on HealthCare.gov fall to 8.3 million: CMS

Enrollments for 2020 insurance plans, under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), on the HealthCare.gov website fell by about 200,000 from last year to 8.3 million, the U.S. government said on Friday, citing preliminary data. The data, as of Dec. 17, includes consumers who were granted an extension because they were unable to complete the enrollment process on Dec. 15, the initial deadline for open enrollment.

Exclusive: Pentagon to stockpile rare earth magnets for missiles, fighter jets

The U.S. military plans to stockpile rare earth magnets used in Javelin missiles and F-35 fighter jets, according to a government document seen by Reuters, a step that critics say does little to help create a domestic industry to build specialized magnets now made almost exclusively in Asia. The Pentagon is seeking proposals to cache a rotating six-month supply of neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets, a type of rare-earth magnet essential to weapons manufacturing, according to the document, detailing the latest attempt to weaken China's control over the rare earths sector.

U.S. lawmakers gift-wrap an impeachment impasse ahead of holiday break

U.S. lawmakers who control the fate of President Donald Trump left Washington for a holiday break on Friday with no agreement over how they will handle the Senate trial to consider his impeachment charges in January. Trump stands little chance of being convicted and removed from office by the Republican-controlled Senate, which is due to take up the two impeachment charges that the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed in a historic vote on Wednesday.

U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

Earlier this week the United States Navy banned the social media app TikTok from government-issued mobile devices, saying the popular short video app represented a "cybersecurity threat." A bulletin issued by the Navy on Tuesday showed up on a Facebook page serving military members, saying users of government issued mobile devices who had TikTok and did not remove the app would be blocked from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

Exclusive: White House expected to nominate SEC lawyer for Democratic commissioner seat - sources

The White House is expected to nominate Caroline Crenshaw, a Democratic attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to fill an SEC seat being vacated next year by Democratic Commissioner Robert Jackson, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter. Crenshaw currently works as an attorney in Jackson's office. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has sent Crenshaw's name to the White House as a nominee for the post, the sources said.

PG&E creditors offer California wildfire victims $13.5 billion in cash upfront

PG&E Corp's creditors have sweetened their offer to California wildfire victims, saying they are now prepared to pay $13.5 billion in cash upfront, according to a letter sent on Friday to state governor Gavin Newsom. Current terms of the settlement deal, approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday, call for half of the settlement to be financed with stock in a newly reorganized PG&E.

Trump signs spending package to avert shutdown: White House spokesman

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion budget package for the fiscal year 2020 into law on Friday to avert a government shutdown, White House spokesman Judd Deere told journalists traveling with the president on Air Force One. Trump signed the package on the flight from Washington to Florida. He had been expected to sign the bill into law after the government's spending plans were hammered out by Congress this week, and his signature was needed before midnight to avert a shutdown.

Boeing's Starliner astronaut capsule fails key test to reach space station

Boeing Co's new astronaut capsule failed after liftoff on Friday to climb high enough in orbit to reach the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission in the embattled aerospace giant's race to send humans to the orbital outpost. The CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, but an automated timer error, which Boeing could not immediately explain, prevented the spacecraft from attaining the orbit that would have put it on track to rendezvous and dock with the space station, NASA said.