web1_barber2_faa.jpg

Barber raises money for Laflin fire victims’ funeral services

Luzerne County restaurant inspections

WASHINGTON (AP) &#8212; President Donald Trump says he should have left three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China in jail.Trump&#8217;s tweet Sunday comes after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimized Trump&#8217;s involvement in winning the players&#8217; release in comments to ESPN.&#8220;Who?&#8221; LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump&#8217;s involvement in the matter. &#8220;What was he over there for? Don&#8217;t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.&#8221;Trump has said he raised the players&#8217; detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the leaders&#8217; recent meeting in Beijing.The players returned to the U.S. last week. They have been indefinitely suspended from the team.Says Trump: &#8220;Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!&#8221;The younger Ball, along with fellow freshmen Jalen Hill and Cody Riley, aren&#8217;t with the rest of the No. 23 Bruins, who are in Kansas City to play in the Hall of Fame Classic on Monday and Tuesday. The trio isn&#8217;t allowed to suit up, be on the bench for home games or travel with the team.The players were arrested and questioned about stealing from high-end stores next to the team&#8217;s hotel in Hangzhou, where the Bruins stayed before leaving for Shanghai to play Georgia Tech.UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said last week the players stole from three stores.&#8220;As long as my boy&#8217;s back here, I&#8217;m fine,&#8221; LaVar Ball told ESPN. &#8220;I&#8217;m happy with how things were handled. A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. Like I told him, &#8216;They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes.&#8217;&#8220;I&#8217;m from LA. I&#8217;ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses. My son has built up enough character that one bad decision doesn&#8217;t define him. Now if you can go back and say when he was 12 years old he was shoplifting and stealing cars and going wild, then that&#8217;s a different thing,&#8221; he said.&#8220;Everybody gets stuck on the negativity of some things and they get stuck on them too long. That&#8217;s not me. I handle what&#8217;s going on and then we go from there.&#8221;

Trump says he should have left UCLA basketball players in China