17 states hit Trump administration with endangered species lawsuit

• U.S. presidents don't normally ask other world leaders to intervene in American politics — especially immediately after being asked about next steps for securing military aid from the U.S.

In the call, President Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak with Rudy Giuliani — who works for Trump, not the U.S. government — and Attorney General Bill Barr.

• Trump asked for Ukraine's help on 2016 election interference: "I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it."
• And he urged investigation into the Biden family: "There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great."

Sometime in August, the director of national intelligence referred a whistleblower complaint involving a conversation between Trump and Zelensky to the Justice Department to investigate as a possible campaign finance violation.

• DOJ declined to further investigate, stating after a review that "there was no campaign finance violation and that no further action was warranted."
• The Justice Department denies that Trump ever spoke with Barr about having Ukraine investigate Biden and says Barr has never discussed this matter with Giuliani.

Between the lines: Media reports last week said a whistleblower came forward in alarm after a "promise" was made on a phone call between Trump and a world leader, the WashPost first reported.

• A promise isn't clear in the non-verbatim memo out today. But the whistleblower report isn't public and we don't know whether other calls or exchanges happened that are in the report.
• We also don't know the extent of exchanges between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials — although Ukraine's president noted their existence in the call.

What they're saying:

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "The transcript and the Justice Department's acting in a rogue fashion in being complicit in the President’s lawlessness confirm the need for an impeachment inquiry."
• Trump on Pelosi: "As far as I’m concerned, unfortunately, she’s no longer the speaker of the House."

Go deeper: Read the memo

Details: Dozens of companies, trade groups and a number of individuals signed an open letter to Congress that was just made public. Among the trade groups are TechNet, CompTIA, the Consumer Technology Association and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Companies that signed include chip designer Arm, security company HID Global and NEC Corp. of America.

What they're saying: "Facial recognition technology is one of many technologies that law enforcement can use to help keep communities safe. Facial recognition systems have improved rapidly over the past few years, and the best systems perform significantly better than humans," the group's letter says.

Instead of a ban, the group urge the imposition of appropriate safeguards against misuse of the technology.

"We encourage you to continue to work with these experts to find solutions and compromises that will allow law enforcement agencies to adopt and test this important technology with appropriate oversight," the group wrote.

Meanwhile: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company is drafting its own proposed legislation, per Vox.

The big picture: In the correspondence, which CNN first reported, the whistleblower's lawyer Andrew P. Bakaj outlines that they would be willing to meet if Acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire permits security clearances for their legal counsel to be present —prompting House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to request the official expedite approval.

• Schiff said earlier Wednesday after reviewing the complaint in private that the materials he viewed "exposed serious wrongdoing" and provided the committee with information to follow up on.
• In contrast, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), who sits on the intelligence committee, tweeted, "I have reviewed the whistleblower complaint made available to the House Intelligence Committee. I do not believe this alone warrants the impeachment of President Trump. This complaint should be declassified and made available to the public."

Read the letters:

Editor's note: This article has been updated with all of the letters released by the whistleblower's lawyer.

Go deeper:

• Schiff calls Trump-Ukraine call a "classic Mafia-like shakedown"
• Trump vents frustration that Ukraine drama overshadowed UN trip

What they're saying: Schiff added that "the idea that the Department of Justice would have intervened to prevent it from getting to Congress, throws the leadership of the department into further ill repute."

• Both Swalwell and Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), a loyal defender of President Trump, called on the whistleblower to testify.
• Ratcliffe said he didn't think the report was that damaging, and that the information in it doesn't justify impeachment. He did say the report provided information that went beyond the transcript.
• Ratcliffe also said lawmakers don't know who the whistleblower is. Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) did not comment to reporters.
• Sen. Ben Sasse called out Democrats for rushing to use the word "impeach," but added: "Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons to say there’s no there there when there’s obviously lots that’s very troubling there."
• Rep. Joaquin Castro described the whistleblower report as "bigger than I thought."

Worth noting: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was seen entering the restricted area where the report is being reviewed. She told reporters that she couldn't discuss the whistleblower complaint in detail because it had been "retroactively classified" by the Trump administration.

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who as a member of the Gang of 8 was also permitted to view the complaint, said: “I’m even more worried about what happened than when I read the memorandum of the conversation. There are so many facts that have to be examined. It’s very troubling."

What to watch: Swalwell told reporters the committee did not receive the full inspector general report that accompanies the whistleblower complaint, but said the whistleblower "invokes other witnesses to the disturbing conduct." Acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire is expected to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in open session on Thursday.

Go deeper: Schiff calls Trump-Ukraine call a "classic Mafia-like shakedown"

This story has been updated with additional comments from Schiff and Ratcliffe.

The latest: Trump said he’d be willing to release details of a prior call with Zelensky, as well as communications between Zelenksy and Vice President Pence. He also said he had told House Republicans he supports “transparency” concerning the whistleblower, whose concerns about the call sparked the controversy — but he claimed the complaint was based on “supposedly secondhand information.”

Trump described his trip to the UN this week as “tremendous” and “very busy,” and he began with references to his bilateral meetings with about a dozen world leaders.

• He bemoaned the fact that it was all overshadowed by the frenzy back in Washington over impeachment. “The witch hunt continues,” he said with frustration.
• Trump insisted there was “no quid pro quo” whereby Zelensky would be “pressured” to investigate Biden in exchange for the release of U.S. military aid, which he'd frozen days before the call.
• He said, with no evidence, that there was such a quid pro quo in Biden’s actions in Ukraine. There's no evidence Biden intervened improperly in an investigation into his son's business dealings in Ukraine, as Trump claims.

The bottom line: Trump was asked whether he was now prepared for a prolonged impeachment saga. He said that after the Mueller report came out, “I thought we won. I thought it was dead.” He didn’t hide his frustration that it isn’t.

A new report from the Council on Foreign Relations identifies the areas in which China is rapidly closing the gap with the U.S. "Slowing down China is not enough," says Adam Segal, an expert on emerging technologies and national security at CFR. "The U.S. needs to do significantly more at home."

• China is vastly outpacing the U.S. in planning for and investing in critical research, and it is producing more and more top minds in AI and quantum computing. By 2030, China will likely be the world's leading spender on research and development, per the report.
• Compare that to the U.S., where the share of government money spent on research has dwindled from 1.1% of GDP to 0.7%. Restoring that to historical levels is crucial, as about a third of patented American inventions in the last decade have leaned on federally funded research, the report notes.

What to watch: The U.S. needs to pull in scientists from around the globe to compete, Segal says. "China is producing 3 times as many STEM graduates at the undergrad level."

• But increasingly restrictive immigration rules may keep Chinese scientists — as well as scientists from other foreign countries — at home.

Go deeper: Facebook to buy a leading brain interface startup

Where it stands: 2 deaths have occurred in Kansas, 2 in California and 1 in Indiana, Minnesota, Oregon, Missouri, Illinois and Georgia. The CDC maintains that no single e-cigarette product or compound has been linked to the pulmonary illnesses and says there is no evidence that an infectious disease is the culprit.

• Nearly three-quarters of affected patients are male, and two-thirds are 18–34 years old, the CDC says.
• A Kansas man over age 50 with "underlying health conditions" died from a lung-related illness linked to vaping, according to Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
• A Missouri man in his mid-40s died from the illness, according to the state's Department of Health and Senior Services. The deceased in Kansas were both over 50 years old. 1 of the deceased in California was 40.

What they're saying: "This cluster of illnesses represents an emerging clinical syndrome" and points to a "worrisome" trend, physicians and health officials wrote on Sept. 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• “We’re all wondering if this is new or just newly recognized,” the CDC's Dana Meaney-Delman told reporters also on Sept. 6, per AP.
• "It is possible that some of these cases were already occurring and we were not picking them up" prior to the agency's investigation into the illnesses, the director for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, Mitch Zeller, said last month.

Go deeper: U.S. investigates fatality from vaping as lung-related illnesses rise

ZELENSKY: "I think you read everything. I think you read text. I'm sorry, but I don't want to be involved to democratic open ... elections. Elections of USA. No. Sure, we had, I think, good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things, and I — so I think and you read it that nobody pushed me."

TRUMP: "In other words, no pressure."

The big picture: The memorandum released by the White House confirmed that Trump asked Zelensky to work with his attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate unsupported corruption allegations against Joe Biden.

• Trump doubled down on the allegations in his press conference with Zelensky, claiming that Giuliani has "every right" to try to track down the origins of the Russia investigation in Ukraine and noting that Zelensky ran on an anti-corruption platform.
• Responding to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's support of a formal impeachment inquiry in response to the Ukraine controversy, Trump attacked Pelosi for being "taken over by the radical left."
• "As far as I’m concerned, unfortunately, she’s no longer the speaker of the House," he added.

Go deeper: Ukraine president's efforts to flatter Trump on display in July phone call

"The people who are thriving in the knowledge economy want walkable, mixed-use, interesting environments. They want the village square experience. At the same time, they want affordable housing."

The big picture: Suburban growth slowed down in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Millennials just graduating from college headed to big cities, where the jobs concentrated. Now, they're in a different stage of life, priced out of many cities and, thanks to the good economy, have more location flexibility.

• Suburbs with good jobs, relatively easy access to nearby city centers and moderate weather are growing twice as fast as the closest cities, per census data.
• These suburbs and smaller metros will see clusters of dense, mixed-use developments, where people may rely more on public or shared transportation.
• That's driven in part by the massive student loan debt that has pushed home-ownership later in life for younger generations, PwC partner Mitch Roschelle noted at last weeks' Urban Land Institute conference. "Especially with student debt, do you really want a car payment?"

"Millennials are people too. There was this idea that theirs was going to be a fundamentally different way of living that was going to last forever. Turns out it's impossible to live in New York City with three kids."

It's not just young couples and families spurring the suburbs to evolve. Baby boomers and empty nesters are opting to stay in the suburbs and also pushing to make them more hip with recreation, retail and restaurants. (Brew pubs, coffee shops and yoga studios seem to be bare minimum requirements.)

What's happening: Major cities including San Francisco, Chicago and New York serve as anchors for smaller communities that can be dubbed "hipsturbias," according to the Urban Land Institute.

• Universities are often key to bringing in a constant supply of young people and employers, who are looking for that talent pipeline often found in urban downtowns. This is true of Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and Stanford in Silicon Valley.
• Near Atlanta, Decatur and Alpharetta are among those trying to fit the formula.
• Around NYC, the communities of Yonkers and New Rochelle fit the bill, as do the New Jersey towns of Hoboken and Summit.

Flashback: In early 2013, a NYT story famously coined the "hipsturbia" term when young creatives fled Brooklyn's growing affluence for communities like Dobbs Ferry or Tarrytown. It's now happening more in other cities as the younger cohort of millennials move into the next stage of life.

The bottom line: The "back to the 'burbs" trend won't happen across the board, and big cities will still attract young post-millennials. But suburbs with the right downtown-mimicking attributes can expect renewed attention from real estate developers and investors.

Go deeper: Millennials are moving to the exurbs in droves