You may not have noticed it, since aside from a few stray freakishly nice days it seems to be pretty chilly and dreary lately, but we're into April now. Which means the tax clock is ticking. And as if tax season wasn't financial headache enough, this year there's added strain on a lot of wallets with the rash of mortgage foreclosures. Good news from Maryland this morning on that front at least (that tax bill you owe is another matter entirely), as the state just passed a series of measures yesterday that the Post is calling some of the "most sweeping" in the country attempting to slow down the epidemic of foreclosures. Among the bills passed and likely to be signed swiftly into law by Governor Martin O'Malley are ones that make crimes out of a number of opportunistic mortgage lending schemes, and a huge extension of the amount of time needed to conduct a foreclosure. More legislation is on the schedule for this morning, and many of the laws could take effect immediately. Hopefully that provides some relief to homeowners currently having trouble.

O'Malley Looks to Speed Up Special Election: As we mentioned last week, the faithful Congressional representative of Maryland's 4th district turned out to be not so faithful, as Congressman Albert Wynn is resigning just months before his term is up. Facing a costly special election process to determine a replacement until the general election in November determines who will take the position for the next term of Congress, NBC4 reports that Governor O'Malley is attempting to streamline that process and save Maryland taxpayers some money by skipping the primaries and just holding one election to fill the seat. Of course, the most money saving alternative at all would be to skip the special election entirely and leave the seat open until January; but O'Malley feels it would be unfair to the residents of the Fightin' 4th to leave them without representation in Congress for so many months. Which is admirable, but we don't really have to point out that we know a few other people in the area who've been without Congressional representation for more than a few months now...

Fewer Kids in D.C. Public Schools: The Examiner reports this morning that a new audit of the D.C. schools shows that enrollment is down by over 5,000 students. It appears charter schools are picking up a lot of those, as their enrollment numbers were up by 2,000. But perhaps the most surprising piece of the story is that D.C. schools don't even have the technology to track students properly, and that initial numbers were inflated because hundreds of students were on the rosters of multiple schools. OK, maybe it's not that surprising, but troubling at any rate. If Michelle Rhee doesn't have this on her depressingly long checklist of things to fix already, time to add another bullet point.

The Nats Want to Kill Your Farecard: Everyone heading to the Nats first series at home next week could get more than they bargained for at Thursday's game against the Florida Marlins. The team is giving away free magnetic season calendars, as well as magnetic "W" logos, both stylish additions to your refrigerator, to be sure. But WTOP reports that the promotion could be a minor disaster for the trip home if people slip the magnets into their wallets next to their fare cards, which, of course, don't play well with magnets. To say nothing of your credit cards. SmartTrip cards are, of course, safe. Metro is hanging a banner at the Navy Yard Metro warning of the potential danger, but if there's a line from the turnstiles halfway back to home plate after Thursday's game, you'll know why.

Briefly Noted: 5th grader catches Smithsonian error; museum makes two more in acknowledging that he was correct... 15-year-old boy stabbed and killed near PG county high school... Metro may sometimes skip stations to stay on time...

This Day In DCist: Last year we reported on a new strategy employed by the hapless Teddy Roosevelt in the Presidents' race at the Nats' final opening day at RFK... the year before we salivated over heavenly Middle Eastern cuisine hidden in Northern Virginia.

Picture by Flickr user brandonwu.