Education Freedom Tax Credits, AI Scam Warnings, and Primary Election Takeaways

On the March 17, 2026 broadcast, Kim Monson celebrates St. Patrick’s Day and Evacuation Day with Brad Beck in studio while welcoming children’s book author Ben Monson, Epoch Times Capitol Hill correspondent Nathan Worcester, Boesen Law founder Jon Boesen, and Colorado House District 43 candidate Nathan Marsh.

A Children’s Book Born from Persistence and Faith

Start listening at 19:00 – Hour 1

Ben Monson introduces his debut children’s book Hoback the Backhoe, a hero’s journey adventure featuring a backhoe named after Hoback, Wyoming, and his two friends Grizz the grizzly bear and Gray the wolf. The trio falls through a portal to another dimension and must rely on persistence, teamwork, and faith to find their way home. Monson spent three and a half years writing and rewriting the book, drawing on life changes and creative inspiration along the way.

The book carries a subtle Christian theme through a guardian angel character, reinforcing the message that showing up and working hard matters, but faith in something greater sustains us. Monson also recommends Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art as essential reading for anyone pursuing creative work, quoting Pressfield: “Creative work is a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

“As much as we need to show up and we need to work hard and we need to put one foot in front of the other, at the end of the day, you just have to remember that there’s something out there helping us out.”

Ben Monson, Author of Hoback the Backhoe

Colorado’s Attempt to Undermine Federal Education Freedom Tax Credits

Start listening at 33:33 – Hour 1

Brad Beck highlights HB26-1292, a Colorado bill targeting scholarship granting organizations created by the federal education freedom tax credit in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The federal program allows taxpayers to direct up to approximately $1,750 toward scholarships for students at private, religious, or public schools of their choice. Colorado’s bill would impose new requirements on participating schools, including compliance mandates and enforcement mechanisms that could suspend a school’s eligibility for up to five years.

Beck argues the bill represents an effort by teachers’ unions and the legislature to maintain control over education funding at the expense of parental choice. Kim Monson notes that Governor Jared Polis has supported charter schools and the federal program, but the legislature appears determined to add strings that could gut the opportunity for Colorado families. A hearing is scheduled for March 26 in the House Education Committee.

“It is the right and responsibility of parents for the upbringing of their children. And it’s not the school, and it’s not the school board, or it’s not the teacher. It is the parents.”

Brad Beck, Co-Founder of Liberty Toastmasters

AI-Powered Scams Targeting Seniors with Cloned Voices

Start listening at 63:20 – Hour 2

Jon Boesen of Boesen Law warns listeners about a surge in sophisticated AI-powered scams. Criminals are using artificial intelligence to clone the voices of grandchildren, then calling grandparents with fabricated emergencies demanding immediate wire transfers or Zelle payments. The scammers can even spoof caller ID to display the grandchild’s actual phone number, making the deception nearly impossible to detect.

Boesen recommends families establish two secret code words known only to family members to verify identity during emergency calls. Kim Monson shares her own experience receiving a social engineering text from “Harper in Los Angeles” designed to extract personal information, illustrating how these scams target people through multiple channels.

“I am seeing more sophisticated scams, use of AI in a very devious, just horrible way. I think the AI programs are capturing our voices to keep them for future use in a scam.”

Jon Boesen, Founder of Boesen Law

Five Takeaways from the Primary Elections

Start listening at 74:49 – Hour 2

Nathan Worcester, award-winning Epoch Times journalist covering Capitol Hill, breaks down the key results from the March 3 Texas and North Carolina primaries. In the Texas Republican Senate race, Ken Paxton and John Cornyn head to a May runoff after Representative Wesley Hunt’s 12.9% prevented either from reaching 50%. Hunt has refused to endorse Cornyn, signaling grassroots conservative voters may tilt toward Paxton.

On the Democratic side, State Representative James Talarico defeated Jasmine Crockett despite Crockett’s last-minute endorsement from Vice President Kamala Harris. Worcester notes Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian from Austin, is positioning himself as a moderate but carries a lengthy liberal public record on abortion and gender ideology. In North Carolina, former Governor Roy Cooper secured the Democratic Senate nomination, while Trump-backed Michael Watley won the Republican primary. Worcester also examines Dan Crenshaw’s loss to Steve Toth, attributing it to Crenshaw’s hawkish foreign policy positions and his failure to align with the Trump movement.

“If voters don’t see these issues delivered on, you can’t entirely blame them for feeling a little bit cynical once Election Day rolls around, once it seems like these marquee items have not been delivered on in the way that they expected their representatives to deliver on them.”

Nathan Worcester, Epoch Times Capitol Hill Correspondent

A Prosecutor’s Case for Rebalancing Colorado’s Criminal Justice System

Start listening at 103:35 – Hour 2

Nathan Marsh, a Douglas County prosecutor running for Colorado House District 43, describes a criminal justice system that has been reshaped over the past decade to favor offenders over victims. Marsh testifies that he routinely tells victims of domestic violence and child abuse that the system cannot deliver justice for them because of legislative changes that prioritize early release over victim finality.

Marsh highlights a bill he testified against in the Senate that would create a new process modeled on California and Washington, D.C. to release habitual violent criminals and multiple murderers early from prison. He also warns about a bill creating a de facto gun registry in Colorado, arguing these measures represent unconstitutional infringements on Second Amendment rights at the very moment the legislature is making communities less safe by releasing dangerous offenders.

“So what we can give victims is finality. We can say, hey, I know this person is going to spend X percentage. But right now, what Democrats are trying to do is saying, hey, let’s release more of these people. And we strip the one thing away that we can give victims is this finality.”

Nathan Marsh, Douglas County Prosecutor and Candidate for HD43