Briefs January 18, 2011

Shelter leader will use head, heart

SANDPOINT - For newly-hired Panhandle Animal Shelter executive director Mandy Evans, her job requires a coordination of the head and the heart.

"We are extremely excited to have Mandy with us. She's already made great contributions to the shelter," PAS board of directors secretary Diana Dawson said. "Her great love for animals and her business background made her an ideal match."

With eight years as a contract event coordinator and experience as an incentive manager for Pacific Bell/SBC's 60,000 employees under her belt, Evans has overseen projects that have raised $750,000 for charity. PAS officials are hoping she can bring her knack for public relations, publicity and business management to the shelter.

"We've been informed that people have had trouble hearing about the fundraisers and initiatives that Panhandle Animal Shelter has put on," Evans said. "That's one thing that I'm really going to be working on in the near future."

PAS has 1,600 abandoned or abused animals under its care.

MLK Day full of tea party symbols

BOISE (AP) - It was Martin Luther King Jr.-Idaho Human Rights Day at the Capitol, where tea party activists outside decried federal spending while those inside who were honoring the murdered civil rights leader listened to Mariachi bands, gospel singers and a Holocaust survivor's words.

The mid-January holiday was for a second year also a tea party rally date in Idaho.

Outside, a tea party activist Monday displayed a sketch of President Barack Obama with Nazi swastikas in his eyes.

Inside, Rose Beal recalled being an 11-year-old Jewish girl in Hitler's Germany and how her family died in Europe's concentration camps.

Food stamps could be more available

BOISE (AP) - Idaho lawmakers are considering a rule change that would increase the asset limit for low-income families and residents seeking food stamps.

The state House Commerce and Human Resources Committee approved a rule change Monday to increase the amount of assets people can have and still be eligible from $2,000 to $5,000.

The measure will now go to the full House for consideration.

Idaho has waived the food stamp asset test amid the recession to help newly unemployed who needed the federally funded assistance but did not qualify.

Program manager Rosie Andueza says Idaho food stamp participation is up 41 percent this fiscal year.