US Domestic News Roundup: Steel delivers unwelcome Christmas surprise to Michigan town; Verdict in Bayer's Roundup case to be reversed 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.

U.S. government says verdict in Bayer's Roundup case should be reversed

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer AG liable in the case of a California man who blamed its Roundup weed killer for his cancer. The government said in a friend of the court brief filed on Friday that glyphosate, the weed killer's active ingredient, is not a carcinogen and as a result, a warning on the label was not required as California state law demands.

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.

'Bull's-eye' landing caps Boeing's faulty astronaut capsule test mission

Boeing Co's Starliner astronaut spacecraft made a "bull's-eye" landing in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, a successful ending to a crewless test mission that two days earlier failed to reach the orbit needed to dock with the International Space Station. The 7:58 a.m. ET (1258 GMT) landing at the White Sands desert capped a turbulent 48 hours for Boeing's botched milestone test of an astronaut capsule that is designed to help NASA regain its human spaceflight capabilities.

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 up front, 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.

Thirty-five people injured in 63-vehicle pileup on Virginia highway

Thirty-five people were hurt in a 63-vehicle, chain-reaction crash on a foggy and icy stretch of a Virginia highway early on Sunday, state police said. All westbound lanes of Interstate 64 in York County, Virginia, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Richmond, remained closed Sunday afternoon as authorities worked at the scene of the pileup, which began shortly before 8 a.m. EST, the Virginia State Police said on Twitter.

Party to honor Chicago shooting victim ends with 13 wounded: police

Thirteen people were wounded in a shooting at a party on Chicago's south side intended to honor the victim of an earlier shooting, police said, adding that they have taken into custody two people they consider of interest to the investigation. It was the latest in a string in violent crimes in Chicago, where the number of murders reported annually remains higher than the combined figure from New York and Los Angeles, two much larger cities.

Democrat Bloomberg opens campaign offices in three battleground states

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. president, on Saturday opened campaign offices in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, three battleground states crucial in next year's election. The campaign of the former New York mayor said in a statement that it was also funding digital advertisements against Republican President Donald Trump and would be registering voters in the three swing states.

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.