• The National Weather Service in Houston described the flooding as an "incredibly dangerous, life-threatening situation" on Thursday morning.
• Highly populated areas in Texas including Houston, Port Arthur and Beaumont are facing roughly 2 feet of water as of 5 pm EST, according to the Post — and "excessive rainfall is expected to continue into Thursday evening in Galveston and locations to the south."

The big picture: Imelda is the first major storm to test Texas since Harvey unloaded more than 60 inches of rain over southeastern Texas in 2017, as the storm stalled its center over the state's coast for 4 days, according to NOAA.

Go deeper: Harvey's extreme rainfall due to climate change

Where it stands: 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.

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

"In the absence of that whistleblower law, there is no lawful mechanism for an intelligence community employer, detailee or contractor to raise a complaint about serious misconduct. The whole point of the whistleblower statute is not only to encourage those to report problems, abuses, violations of laws, but also to have a legal mechanism to do so and not to disclose classified information — because there's no other remedy. That whole purpose is being frustrated here because the director of national intelligence has made the unprecedented decision not to share the complaint with Congress."

What we know: On Aug. 12, a whistleblower filed a complaint with Atkinson, who serves as the watchdog for the U.S. intelligence community, that he deemed was "credible and urgent within the definition of the law." The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that the complaint concerned a communication between Trump and a foreign leader in which the president made some kind of "promise."

• Acting director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to turn over the complaint to Congress, as is usually required by law. Schiff said Thursday that he does not know whether press reports about the nature of the Trump conversation are accurate, but that the Department of Justice was involved in the decision to withhold the complaint.

White House records show that Trump interacted with the following 5 foreign leaders in the 5 weeks preceding the complaint, though it's not clear if any of them are involved, according to the Post:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin
• North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un
• Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
• Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte
• Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

What's next: Schiff said he is consulting with the House general counsel to determine whether to take the Trump administration to court in order to obtain the complaint. Schiff also said he is considering using Congress' "power of the purse" to exert leverage over the DNI.

• Maguire will testify in open session before the House Intelligence Committee next week under threat of subpoena.

What Trump is tweeting:

"Another Fake News story out there - It never ends! Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem! Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially "heavily populated" call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!"

The bottom line: The lack of communication between Trump's top intelligence official and the Democratic-led House is the "latest in a series of fights over information" from the White House, per the New York Times. It could be the most significant one yet.