US Domestic News Roundup: Several injured in Washington, D.C., pride parade; women opioid addiction and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

New York man plotted killing police, attacking Times Square: prosecutors

A New York man who prosecutors say plotted an attack on Times Square, spoke about killing police officers and praised Islamic militants appeared in court on firearms charges on Friday and was denied bail. Ashiqul Alam, 22, from Jackson Heights in the city's Queens borough, was charged with illegally acquiring firearms as part of the attack plan, federal officials said.

Biden still leads in 2020 Iowa poll, three others fight for second

Former Vice President Joe Biden still leads the Democratic pack of presidential contenders in a poll of Iowa voters released on Saturday, with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg in a tight battle for second place. Biden is the first choice of 24% of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, the state that kicks off the presidential nominating race next February, in the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll.

California utility to cut power to 27,000 customers to reduce wildfire risk

Utility PG&E Corp planned to proactively shut off power on Saturday to 27,000 customers in Northern California due to an increased risk of wildfires, officials said. The shut down would begin at 9 p.m. local time in and around the Sierra Foothills, an area spanning parts of Butte, Yuba, Nevada, El Dorado and Placer counties northeast of San Francisco and near the border with Nevada, the utility said on Twitter.

Woman with opioid addiction to get regular methadone treatment in prison

A Massachusetts woman will become the first known person to win approval from the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to receive ongoing methadone treatment for her heroin addiction while she serves a sentence in federal prison. The decision by the BOP to buck its own policy and provide Stephanie DiPierro with methadone on a regular basis could pave the way for other federal inmates who also have opioid addictions to receive treatments to help block cravings and avoid painful withdrawal symptoms.

Democratic candidate Buttigieg: 'No going back' in fight for LGBTQ rights

Democrat Pete Buttigieg, running to become the first openly gay U.S. president, told activists at an Iowa Pride festival on Saturday there was "no going back to normal" in fighting discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Buttigieg, speaking at a rally on the steps outside the Iowa state capitol in Des Moines, said rights for the community were still under threat from Republican President Donald Trump, and he warned against complacency.

House panel weighs holding Trump Cabinet members in contempt over census

The U.S. House Oversight Committee plans to vote next week on holding Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for stonewalling a probe into an alleged scheme to politicize the 2020 U.S. Census. On Friday, the committee's majority Democrats released a memo alleging that the White House "interfered directly and aggressively" with an attempt by the panel to interview Kris Kobach, a former Kansas Secretary of State, about a plan by President Donald Trump's administration to add a question on citizenship to next year's U.S. Census questionnaire.

Under pressure, Biden drifts leftward on abortion, climate change

The Joe Biden Express to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination went a bit off track this week. Since Biden joined the race in April, his campaign has worked to craft an aura of inevitability around the former vice president's bid. Biden has engaged President Donald Trump more often than his Democratic rivals, while speaking in broad, thematic outlines rather pinpointing policy.

Several injured in Washington, D.C., pride parade from gun scare

Several people were injured at a gay pride parade in Washington on Saturday when some in the crowd ran to escape what they thought was gunfire, and a man was later arrested when police found a firearm near him, officials said. Police, at the outset of the incident, received a report of a man with a gun at a park, Washington police Commander Guillermo Rivera told reporters.