5 Things (And a Marathon Meeting) Jan. 4

Today is Friday, Jan. 4, and here are the five things you need to know:

1. It should be a pleasant winter day in Salem. The National Weather Service is predicting that local residents can expect it to be partly sunny, with a high near 40. Tonight should be partly cloudy, with a low around 28. (sunrise, 7:13 a.m.; low tide, 9:46 a.m.; high tide, 3:55 p.m.; sunset, 4:24 p.m.)

2. Despite voting more than 250 times over a span of five hours at City Hall Thursday night, Salem City Council members were unable to pick a replacement for Joan Lovely and postponed the vote at 2:30 a.m. Click Here for our full story.

3. In case you didn't hear, Salem firefighters responded to the scene of a three-alarm fire on Andrew Road in Swampscott Thursday morning. Click Here to check out photos and videos from the blaze, which is believed to have originated in the home's kitchen and resulted in the death of the family dog.

4. Do you love North Shore food news? Are you always looking for a new restaurant to check out? Click Here for this week's round-up of area restaurant news published on Patch sites in a handful of surrounding communities.

5. Today in History: On Jan. 4, 1717, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France signed the Triple Alliance.

For more things going on in Salem today, check out our events calendar.