Fiery Baker Slams Party's Efforts To Contest Election: Patch PM

Today is Jan. 4. Here are some of the top stories we're covering:

A fiery Gov. Charlie Baker declared Joe Biden won the presidential election "fair and square" and excoriated efforts to contest that fact at a time when he said all of Washington's focus should be on coronavirus vaccine distribution.

Baker's frustration boiled over when he was asked about GOP senators and representatives who say they will object to the Electoral College results when they are presented to Congress to officially declare Biden the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday if a commission is not set up to investigate unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud.

"The noise, and the accusations, and the commentary about challenging this or that is an affront to democracy," Baker said, "and to the voice of the people who turned out in record numbers in this election to support a whole bunch of candidates up and down the ticket.

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Other top stories

Not Your Average Joe's Closes 4 MA Locations For The Winter

Not Your Average Joe's, a chain restaurant based in Milton, has closed four Massachusetts restaurants for the winter, a company executive tells WBZ-TV. Locations in Arlington, Burlington, Methuen and Randolph were in the process of shutting down on Monday.

A total of 96 employees in Massachusetts are being furloughed. Not Your Average Joe's Chief Financial Officer Joe McGuire said the shuttered restaurants will hopefully reopen, depending on customer behavior and the performance of their other restaurants.

Not Your Average Joe's has locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. A restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland is also closing for the season.

MA State Dinosaur? Framingham Lawmaker Seeks Designation

For the new year, one local lawmaker wants to take Massachusetts back to the Jurassic period.

State Rep. Jack Lewis (D-Framingham) is planning to file legislation in January to designate a Massachusetts state dinosaur. With help from local paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts, Lewis has picked two possible dinosaur types, which both once roamed the prehistoric New England landscape.

The two species are the Podokesaurus holyokensis and the Anchisaurus polyzelus. Lewis is asking for local students to help him pick which one to nominate via an online survey.

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