Photo by Rukasu1

>> Today is the special election in Ward 5 to replace former Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. Find your polling place here.

>> Maryland lawmakers are just a few steps away from raising taxes on the state’s rich people, dead people and smokers, with the state senate poised to join the General Assembly in passing a package of tax hikes that will close a fiscal 2013 budget gap, the Post reports. The tax increases will hit incomes about $150,000, tobacco products and even death certificates.

>> Forget the argument over whether or not the dishes served up by the Fojol Bros. food trucks are any good—they’re good enough for a truck, if sometimes insufficiently spicy—but is the truck itself racist? Huffington Post D.C. looks into complaints lodged by people who find the turbans Fojol Bros. employees wear to be racist. Then again, one letter in objection to the food truck is prefaced: “Dear Idiots.”

>> Lydia DePillis checks out eight tech start-ups that might not be terrible.

>> WUSA9 follows on our story about another ripped-off bike owner who found her ride for sale on Craigslist.

Briefly Noted: Catania is still down on Mayor Vince Gray’s people … DCPS and teachers’ union strike deal on retirement benefits … D.C. police shoot man in Southeast D.C. incident … Guardian Angels on the beat in Columbia Heights. Where’s Dan Zak when they need him?

This Day in DCist: Last year, we bought some radishes. In 2010, Tony Plush got a meme.