COLU @ CONCEPTS

LaVar Ball has upped the ante. The outspoken father of former UCLA star Lonzo Ball said Wednesday on Fox Sport 1′s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” that it will now cost a shoe company $3 billion to make a deal with his Big Baller Brand. “If they want to talk to me now, it just went up to $3 billion. Triple Bs — billion, billion, billion,” LaVar said. He also repeated that he wants Lonzo to play only for the Los Angeles Lakers, the hometown team that got the No. 2 pick Tuesday night in the NBA draft lottery. “Now that Lonzo’s headed to Los Angeles, what they should have done is give me a billion dollars and let me be on my way,” LaVar said. LaVar said he has sold 400 to 500 pairs of the $495 ZO2 shoes, and has no need to market his products to women. Source: www.apnews.com   By The Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — Death is inevitable but it doesn’t have to be bad for the environment. Caskets made of paper and wicker coffins on display at a recent Hong Kong funeral industry trade highlighted a trend toward “green burials” in an industry booming as Asia’s population rapidly ages. Chinese businessman Alex Sun’s company, Shandong Ecoffin International, makes wicker and seagrass coffins, which first became popular in the West and are now catching on in Asia. Basket-weaving dates to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) in northeast China’s Shandong province, where Sun’s factory uses fast-growing willow reeds to make caskets that are an eco-friendly alternative to wood. “Eco funerals are a global trend,” said Sun. “European customers already know about this product, while Asian customers are also interested in it and would love to learn more,” he said. Interest is especially high in the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam as well as mainland China, he said. The mood was bright, not...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas police officer used a stun gun seven times and a mixed martial arts chokehold to subdue an unarmed man who died after a foot chase through a casino over the weekend, authorities said Wednesday. Officer Kenneth Lopera thought the man had tried to carjack a pickup truck with two people inside before the officer fired the stun gun in a series of staccato bursts and used the chokehold — a tactic that is not approved by the department — early Sunday at The Venetian resort, Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said. McMahill showed video from Lopera’s body camera during a news conference on the incident. Police posted  video  of the news conference including edited body camera and Venetian security footage to the Internet. “Don’t move! Get on your stomach!” Lopera can be heard telling the man who the Clark County coroner identified as Tashii S. Brown. Police have used the name Tashii Farmer. His mother said he sometimes hyphenates his last...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested last year to fellow top Republicans that Russian President Vladimir Putin was paying Donald Trump, according to a published report. A spokesman for McCarthy says the remark was a bad joke. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that it heard a recording of the conversation, which occurred last June 15. Trump, at the time a GOP presidential candidate, formally received his party’s nomination the following month. McCarthy backed his candidacy. The McCarthy quip came during a campaign when Trump frequently praised Putin as a strong leader. “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” said McCarthy, R-Calif., according to the report. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., has said policymakers in Washington have been too harsh on Russia and should work more closely with Moscow to fight extremist groups. McCarthy’s comment prompted laughter from some Republicans in the room. House Speaker Paul Ryan...

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A jury on Wednesday acquitted a white Oklahoma police officer who says she fired out of fear last year when she killed an unarmed black man with his hands held above his head. The family of Terence Crutcher burst into tears and expressed outrage after jurors found Tulsa officer Betty Jo Shelby not guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the Sept. 16 shooting. About 100 demonstrators later gathered outside the courthouse and some briefly blocked a main street. “Let it be known that I believe in my heart that Betty Shelby got away with murder,” Crutcher’s father, the Rev. Joey Crutcher, said after the verdict was announced. A white Tulsa, Oklahoma police officer was acquitted of first-degree manslaughter, in the shooting death of an unarmed black man. Betty Jo Shelby testified that she shot Terence Crutcher out of fear when she thought he was reaching for a gun. (May 18) A lawyer for Shelby said the officer was “elated” that the jury found her not gu...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at the appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations that his campaign collaborated with Russia to sway the 2016 election, tweeting Thursday that it is “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” The Justice Department on Wednesday appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to lead the investigation. Mueller will have sweeping powers and the authority to prosecute any crimes he uncovers. The Justice Department has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee a federal investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. (May 17) The surprise announcement to hand the probe over to Mueller, a lawman with deep bipartisan respect, was a striking shift for Trump’s Justice Department, which had resisted increasingly loud calls from Democrats for an outside prosecutor. It immediate...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is facing a crisis he can’t manage with a tweet or a taunt. The appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel overseeing the federal government’s Russia investigation has dramatically raised the legal and political stakes and put Trump’s young presidency in dangerous waters just four months after he was sworn into office. White House and campaign records may be subpoenaed, and Trump’s presidential privilege to keep West Wing conversations private could be challenged. Current and former staffers will likely have to hire pricey lawyers and sit for interviews. Trump himself may have to answer questions. The Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller Wednesday as a special counsel to oversee the federal investigation into allegations that Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign collaborated to influence the presidential election. (May 17) And even if Trump’s campaign is ultimately cleared of ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Mueller has been given sweeping power to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, an acknowledgment of growing public demands to place the politically charged inquiry into the hands of an outside investigator with bipartisan respect. The former FBI director has a broad mandate that could encompass any questionable actions of President Donald Trump’s associates and possibly even the circumstances of last week’s abrupt firing of James Comey. “I accept this responsibility and will discharge it to the best of my ability,” Mueller said in a statement. In a statement released by the White House, Trump said: “As I have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know — there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. I look forward to this matter concluding quickly.” As special counsel, Mueller will direct an FBI counterintelligence investigation examining whether Russia coordinated...