Photo by mofo

Good morning, Washington, and happy federal fiscal new year! Oct. 1 is arguably one of the happiest days in many a D.C. office, as the race to exhaust budgets by the end of September finally comes to a close. It’s also a time when many laws passed earlier in the calendar year go into effect. For instance, in case you missed it yesterday, the D.C. general sales tax is now 6 percent, up from 5.75 percent, as of today. And in Maryland, texting while driving is now against the law.

Students Rally for D.C. Voucher System: Both the Washington Times and the Examiner cover Wednesday’s rally in favor of the endangered D.C. school voucher program. Democrats in Congress have indicated they’d like to see the program fade out of existence entirely.

SmarTrip Machines Malfunction Systemwide: In a case of severely bad timing that coincided with both the beginning of the month and the start of the fiscal year, WMATA’s SmarTrip machines weren’t accepting credit or debit cards systemwide early this morning, WTOP’s Kristi King is reporting. The malfunction, which was first reported around 6 a.m., appears to have already righted itself, but Metro is continuing to monitor the situation.

Briefly Noted: Audit: $100k in D.C. health grants misspent … Attempted child abductions suspected in Laurel … Near drowning Wednesday night at Rumsey Aquatic Center … Water main break floods homes in Hyattsville … Man who shot wife outside Silver Spring church set to be sentenced.

This Day in DCist: In 2008, a grenade was found in Rock Creek Park, and in 2007, we saluted visiting Toronto soccer fans.