In brief: Leaseholders fight evictions

WENATCHEE – Leaseholders of a small island in the Columbia River near Wenatchee are hoping federal regulators will prevent them from being evicted in 2012.

About 110 condo owners and 250 recreational-vehicle owners have leases on the 160-acre Crescent Bar Island, which also features a nine-hole golf course. Grant County Public Utility District commissioners decided in April not to renew the leases when they expire in 2012 because federal dam regulators no longer approve of private dwellings on public utility district lands.

Residents are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject the PUD’s proposed change to its land-use plan, saying the district’s dam license allows for existing private residential use, but not additional or expanded private use.

‘Bandit’ mom hires lawyer

SEATTLE – A Seattle entertainment lawyer who has represented the likes of Courtney Love and the family of Jimi Hendrix has a new client: the mother of the “barefoot bandit.”

O. Yale Lewis confirmed to the Seattle Times that his firm has been retained by Pamela Kohler, the mother of elusive teen burglar Colton Harris-Moore.

The 19-year-old is suspected in dozens of thefts since he walked away from a halfway house two years ago, and he is believed to be in the Bahamas.

Kohler said she needs an attorney to handle her “entertainment” interests, and she said a deal for a book about her son is in the works.