Local:

• Tom Chan, who has taught math at SF's Lowell High School for over 20 years, has been forced to resign over an uproar over his off-color way of writing math problems. Students said that for years he would write quiz questions about things like the relative cost of dating girls based on their weight, and sometimes questions that had nothing to do with math, like "When was the last time you gave candy to a fat kid?" [Chronicle]
• Some sort of big-budget film production is happening on Telegraph Hill Thursday, and we'll be looking into what this is. Multiple street closures with temporary no-parking notices have gone up around the picturesque intersection of Montgomery and Vallejo streets. [KRON4]
• A cliff rescue took place Wednesday afternoon near the Cliff House, after a person became stranded on some rocks near the water. [KRON4]
• And that evacuation this afternoon at Stonestown Galleria was apparently becuause of a threat that was called in to the SFPD's non-emergency line, which led to police sweeping the mall for three hours.

National:

• The bill to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security has hit a snag in Congress, with Democrats now pushing for a specific curb on ICE agents. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans announced they had struck a deal to end the partial government shutdown that has hobbled TSA checkpoints at airports nationwide, but Wednesday, Democrats said that any deal needed to not only remove ICE funding, but add "meaningful" restrictions to how ICE agents operate. [New York Times]
• Speaking of Republicans, apparently Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport has some of the worst TSA wait times in the country due to the shutdown. [CNN]
• And Republicans may, thankfully, be giving up hope of passing Trump's SAVE Act, which would add strict voter ID requirements ahead of the November midterms, likely disenfrancising poorer voters. [New York Times]

Video:

• Self-proclaimed Lord of the Rings superfan Stephen Colbert has got a soft landing in his future following the end of the Late Show in May. Director Peter Jackson and Colbert revealed in a video announcement today, seen below, that Colbert will be joining the writing team on a new film installment of the LOTR franchise, tentatively titled Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, which will be based on chapters three through eight of Fellowship of the Ring, set 14 years after the death of Frodo. [Deadline]

Top image: The view from Vallejo and Montgomery streets, via Google Street View