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Political Brew: Election challenges, hazard pay, Maine's biggest cash crop, and investigating Hunter Biden

President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter confirmed this week that the Justice Department is investigating his finances over business dealings with China.

MAINE, USA — It's over, cue the fat lady at the opera. That's how Ethan Strimling characterizes President Trump's efforts to overturn the election results now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to take up a suit by the state of Texas to toss the results in four battleground states.

On Monday, the Electoral College votes will officially be cast in the presidential election. At the State House In Augusta, Maine's electors will cast three votes for Joe Biden and one for Donald Trump.

"This baby is over. It's done," says Strimling.

He believes the efforts by Trump and his allies have been damaging to democracy.

"The Supreme Court thoroughly threw this out. Thank goodness it's over, Joe Biden won. Hopefully now the Republican party will embrace these results."

Phil Harriman agrees that the results are not going to change, and Trump will have to accept that. But he says the court "didn't opine on whether or not Texas' reason for filing the suit was legitimate. So the political side of this will carry-on."

Last month, voters in Portland gave strong approval to a referendum calling for workers to get "hazard pay" during an emergency, such as this pandemic. Some businesses are already paying it, others are not.

RELATED: Portland Whole Foods workers file motion asking courts to enforce voter-approved hazard pay initiative

RELATED: Portland will not enforce emergency wage of $18 for workers until 2022

Strimling says the city council made a terrible mistake with its interpretation of the regulations.

"It's a dangerous game for those businesses that are not paying hazard pay," Strimling said. "They could very well have to pay a lot of back pay."

Harriman agrees it is a mess caused by the city government, adding, "I don't think we've seen the end of the repercussions that family businesses are going to experience with this referendum that pushed wages up much higher than the market."

The Portland Press Herald reported this week that medical marijuana has become Maine's biggest cash crop -- and recreational pot sales are off to a big start, too.

RELATED: Marijuana is now Maine’s biggest agricultural commodity

Harriman believes Maine lawmakers and regulators have done a good job getting the industry up and running, but he says, "There's still a missing piece because at the federal level this is illegal. So, these businesses are having difficulty with financing and banking laws. The federal government needs to go to the next step and determine once and for all is this a legal product or not."

Strimling says regulations often have to be adjusted, and he points out that Portland voters rejected some city regulations "because they were really trying to limit the market too much and not giving small shops as much of an opportunity as big shops."

President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter confirmed this week that the Justice Department is investigating his finances over business dealings with China.

Ethan Strimling says this is a "lose-lose" situation for Joe Biden. He says the president-elect has to "create some kind of special counsel with complete separation. There's simply no way, when your son is being prosecuted by your justice department, it will not be seen as some kind of bias."

Phil Harriman agrees. 

"There should be a special prosecutor identified, so that Joe Biden's presidency doesn't start off under this cloud," Harriman said.

Our analysts also discuss Gov. Janet Mills' new executive order strengthening enforcement of a mask mandate in public places, and President-elect Biden's choice of Gen. Lloyd Austin for Secretary of Defense.

Political Brew airs Sundays on The Morning Report.

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