Vaccine Liability Shield, the Communist Manifesto, and Cherry Creek’s Resignation

On the May 1, 2026 broadcast Kim Monson hosts Children’s Health Defense Military Director Pam Long for a deep dive on Senate Bill 26-032 and Colorado’s climate-housing-energy agenda, opens a new book club with Producer Joe and Producer Luke on Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, takes a phone call from Spartan Defense owner Teddy Collins on two firearms bills awaiting Governor Polis’s signature, and gets a Cherry Creek School District update from parent advocate Molly Lamar.

SB26-032 Becomes Law and the Climate-Housing Agenda Beyond It

Start listening at 30:15 – Hour 1

Pam Long, Military Director with Children’s Health Defense and a West Point graduate, walks through SB26-032, which Governor Jared Polis signed into law this session. Long calls the bill a Trojan horse named for vaccine access that actually removes liability for any vaccine the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend, after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. trimmed the federal schedule. Colorado is now following the American Academy of Pediatrics schedule rather than the CDC schedule, which Long argues is the most aggressive vaccine schedule in the world at 72 doses from birth to age 18.

Long warns that the law also lets pharmacists administer vaccines to children 12 and older without parental consent after House and Senate Democrats rejected amendments adding a parental consent requirement, and reads language inside the bill that anticipates new mRNA cancer therapies and an expanded adult schedule. Prime sponsors are Senators Lindsey Daugherty and Kyle Mullica and Representatives Lisa Feret and Kyle Brown. Long describes the legislation as a state bailout for the pharmaceutical industry, written by pharma lobbyists and not requested by any constituent.

The conversation widens to a four-part comparison of progressive Democrat and conservative agendas heading into the next election. On housing, Democrats push transit-oriented development with high-density units near light rail, accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and townhomes that Long compares to communist-block construction; conservatives prefer local control and single-family suburbs. On transportation, Democrats expand the Regional Transportation District, subsidized at billions a year while fares cover only 4.4 percent of costs and ridership has dropped 46 percent; conservatives prioritize fixing roads. Long cites a 53 percent rise in violent crime at RTD bus and train terminals from 2019 to 2023. On energy, Long contrasts the Democrat goal of 100 percent renewable power by 2040 with closure of all coal plants by 2030 and elimination of natural gas in Denver against a conservative case that wind and solar are heavily subsidized and not cost-effective. Kim Monson connects the comparison to Walt Johnson‘s A Climate Conversation documentary sequel, which is in production, and to apartment-building density visible along South Broadway near Dry Creek.

“This is the only product on the market that does not have liability. And I always tell parents, take that into consideration that this is a product that has been shielded from liability.”

Pam Long, Military Director, Children’s Health Defense

USMC Memorial Foundation Golf Tournament Two Weeks Out

Start listening at 17:14 – Hour 1

Paula Sarlls, President of the USMC Memorial Foundation, gives a brief update that the Foundation’s annual golf tournament is two weeks away with a hole-in-one challenge for a 2026 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck. A few foursomes are still available and lunch-only contributions can be made for those unable to play. Proceeds support the Marine Memorial at Sixth and Colfax in Denver and the foundation’s planned remodel.

“I have a hole-in-one challenge with this 2026 Chevy Colorado.”

Paula Sarlls, President, USMC Memorial Foundation

Two Firearms Bills Await a Veto on Governor Polis’s Desk

Start listening at 1:04:33 – Hour 2

Teddy Collins, owner of Spartan Defense and Republican candidate for Colorado Senate District 4, urges listeners to ask Governor Jared Polis to veto two firearms bills sitting unsigned on his desk. SB26-043 would require background checks for transferring a firearm barrel through a private party or licensed dealer; HB26-1126 expands firearms dealer regulation in a way Collins describes as creating a duplicative state registry layered on top of federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives requirements.

Collins gives the constituent services number for the Governor at 303-866-2885 and notes that the Governor must physically veto the bills, because anything left unsigned becomes law. Collins also flags that he is the only Republican on the November ballot for Senate District 4, the seat being vacated by Senator Mark Baisley.

“He has to physically veto it. If it sits on his desk without a signature, it can go into effect without his pen.”

Teddy Collins, Owner, Spartan Defense

The Communist Manifesto: A Book Club with the Young Guns

Start listening at 1:13:36 – Hour 2

Kim Monson welcomes Producer Luke and Producer Joe to the studio to open a third book in their on-air reading group. After Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson and Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, Producer Joe chose Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s The Communist Manifesto. The episode covers only the introduction by Soviet-era television journalist Vladimir Pozner, written in January 1992. Producer Luke draws a sharp distinction between the popular understanding of communism as authoritarian state ownership and Marx’s textual definition of communism as the abolition of private property in favor of public ownership without a state, classes, or money.

Producer Luke quotes Pozner’s confession that the shortcomings of other societies could not justify those of the Soviet Union, and reads Pozner’s claim that the Cold War was a struggle between two forms of capitalism, bourgeois and state, rather than between democracy and communism. Producer Joe answers by reading a working definition of real communism as a stateless, classless, moneyless society where production is held in common. Pam Long ties the textual conversation to lived stakes by asking whether the Colorado General Assembly’s push toward dependence on government services and away from private property ownership is itself a quiet move toward the same dispossession.

“It is the forceful overthrow of a pre-established government to then create a foundation by which it is public ownership, not state ownership, which I wasn’t super familiar with.”

Producer Luke, Producer, Kim Monson Show

Cherry Creek School Board Director Terry Bates Resigns

Start listening at 1:45:23 – Hour 2

Molly Lamar reports that Cherry Creek School District board director Terry Bates resigned the previous Friday, effective immediately, following allegations of racist and sexist comments toward district staff and families. Some of the comments were made at the district’s Golden Heart Awards ceremony, which honors educators who serve students with special needs. Administrators filed formal complaints, and the board’s first instinct was to handle the matter behind closed doors.

The seat will be filled by board appointment within 60 days through an application and interview process; if the board cannot agree, the board president selects, and the seat goes on the 2027 ballot, expanding that election from three to four seats. Lamar also reports that despite an earlier superintendent resignation, the district has produced no formal resignation letter or retirement documentation for Chris Smith, an absence she calls negligence given Cherry Creek’s billion-dollar budget and 52,000 students.

“It just represents a culture of protected bad behavior at the very top for Cherry Creek schools. We had administrators who felt unsafe enough to file complaints.”

Molly Lamar, Cherry Creek Schools Parent Advocate