ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM IN LINE FOR $50,000 FEDERAL GRANT

Rock In Prevention's spending and effectiveness have been questioned.

Des Moines' controversial anti-drug program Rock In Prevention may
soon receive an additional $50,000 in taxpayer money.

U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, a Des Moines Democrat, acknowledged last
week that he is responsible for a federal earmark that would route
$50,000 in taxpayer money to Rock In Prevention Inc. The organization
hopes to receive final approval for the money in the next few months.

Boswell's communications director, Susan McAvoy, issued a statement
last week that said, "Over the years, Congressman Boswell has
consistently supported efforts to keep kids away from drugs, and he
is greatly disturbed and disappointed by recent reports concerning
Rock In Prevention. Taxpayers have an expectation that public funds
will be used in a legal and reasonable manner."

Rock In Prevention was the subject of Des Moines Register articles
last summer and last week. Those stories detailed the manner in which
the nonprofit, tax-exempt organization spends public and private
money to combat drug use among schoolchildren. The organization uses
rock music, delivered though live performances and compact discs, to
persuade students not to use drugs, tobacco or alcohol.

In fiscal year 2005, the organization paid its executive director,
Pat McManus, $315,732 -- an amount that represents 39 percent of the
agency's total spending. More than $192,000 of that represents
payments to Mission From God Records, a for-profit venture run
exclusively by McManus. Those payments were for compact discs of
McManus' inspirational music, which are distributed to children at
Rock In Prevention rallies. The organization's board members say 23
percent of the payments to Mission From God represent a "profit" for McManus.

Board member Jim Stafford said Friday that the organization has not
yet received the $50,000 in federal money secured by Boswell, but is
"hopeful of receiving formal approval on the grant within the near future."

In recent years, the government has been Rock In Prevention's single
biggest contributor. The biggest private donor has been Don Lamberti,
the father of Senate Republican Co-President Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny.
The senior Lamberti is founder of Casey's General Stores and last
year gave the charity $98,392 in Casey's common stock.

Like Boswell, Jeff Lamberti has been a supporter of Rock In
Prevention. He is opposing Boswell in the congressman's 2006 bid for
re-election as representative of Iowa's 3rd District.

In 2003, Lamberti was instrumental in winning approval for
legislation that routed $400,000 of state money to Rock In Prevention
through a sole-source, no-compete contract.

A few months later, when Iowa Department of Public Health workers
tried to let other prevention agencies compete for the $400,000,
Lamberti personally intervened.

He sent a fax to McManus at the Rock In Prevention offices, attaching
a copy of a letter that he intended to send to the Department of
Public Health and asking McManus to make any necessary revisions to
the letter before it was sent out. Later that same day, Lamberti sent
the department his letter, which was signed by himself and Sen. Matt
McCoy, a Des Moines Democrat.

In that letter, Lamberti and McCoy told department officials that
legislators clearly intended to "provide an opportunity for Rock In
Prevention to access state funding," and they objected to a bidding
process that they felt would prevent Rock In Prevention from
collecting the $400,000. They also objected to the department's
attempts to have applicants for the money backed by research, saying
Rock In Prevention would be unable to meet that standard.

Department officials agreed to reverse course, and Rock In Prevention
was awarded the $400,000.

Lamberti said last week that his intent was to help a program that
was well-established and innovative and had the potential of
addressing drug use by teens. At the time, Rock In Prevention was
faced with a funding crisis: Federal officials had withdrawn some of
their financial support for the agency, citing a lack of scientific
evidence of success.

"They were in a real crunch, and there was a real question as to
whether or not they were going to be able to continue," Lamberti
said. "And so we did provide them with funding to allow them to move forward."

Lamberti said that his attitude changed last year after Rock In
Prevention's effectiveness was questioned.

"Once those questions were raised, I made the decision that we were
no longer going to provide any specific line-item (funding) and
everybody was going to have to compete for those dollars," he said.

The comments from Bos-well's spokeswoman about Rock In Prevention are
almost identical to comments the congressman made in an April news
release regarding Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium.

In referring to CIETC, Boswell said then that he was "greatly
disturbed and disappointed" by reports of a payroll scandal at CIETC.
He added that "taxpayers have an expectation that public funds be
spent in a legal and reasonable manner, and entrust their faith in
people to act accordingly."