To place an obituary, please include the information from the obituary checklist below in an email to obits@pioneerpress.com. There is no option to place them through our website. Feel free to contact our obituary desk at 651-228-5263 with any questions.
General Information:
Your full name,
Address (City, State, Zip Code),
Phone number,
And an alternate phone number (if any)
Obituary Specification:
Name of Deceased,
Obituary Text,
A photo in a JPEG or PDF file is preferable, TIF and other files are accepted, we will contact you if there are any issues with the photo.
Ad Run dates
There is a discount for running more than one day, but this must be scheduled on the first run date to apply.
If a photo is used, it must be used for both days for the discount to apply, contact us for more information.
Policies:
Verification of Death:
In order to publish obituaries a name and phone number of funeral home/cremation society is required. We must contact the funeral home/cremation society handling the arrangements during their business hours to verify the death. If the body of the deceased has been donated to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program, or a similar program, their phone number is required for verification.
Please allow enough time to contact them especially during their limited weekend hours.
A death certificate is also acceptable for this purpose but only one of these two options are necessary.
Guestbook and Outside Websites:
We are not allowed to reference other media sources with a guestbook or an obituary placed elsewhere when placing an obituary in print and online. We may place a website for a funeral home or a family email for contact instead; contact us with any questions regarding this matter.
Obituary Process:
Once your submission is completed, we will fax or email a proof for review prior to publication in the newspaper. This proof includes price and days the notice is scheduled to appear.
Please review the proof carefully. We must be notified of errors or changes before the notice appears in the Pioneer Press based on each day’s deadlines.
After publication, we will not be responsible for errors that may occur after final proofing.
Online:
Changes to an online obituary can be handled through the obituary desk. Call us with further questions.
Payment Procedure:
Pre-payment is required for all obituary notices prior to publication by the deadline specified below in our deadline schedule. Please call 651-228-5263 with your payment information after you have received the proof and approved its contents.
Credit Card: Payment accepted by phone only due to PCI (Payment Card Industry) regulations
EFT: Check by phone. Please provide your routing number and account number.
Cash: Accepted at our FRONT COUNTER Monday – Friday from 8:00AM – 3:30PM
Rates:
The minimum charge is $162 for the first 10 lines.
Every line after the first 10 is $12.20.
If the ad is under 10 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162.
On a second run date, the lines are $8.20 per line, starting w/ the first line.
For example: if first run date was 20 lines the cost would be $164.
Each photo published is $125 per day.
For example: 2 photos in the paper on 2 days would be 4 photo charges at $500.
Deadlines:
Please follow deadline times to ensure your obituary is published on the day requested.
Hours
Deadline (no exceptions)
Ad
Photos
MEMORIAM (NON-OBITUARY) REQUEST
Unlike an obituary, Memoriam submissions are remembrances of a loved one who has passed. The rates for a memoriam differ from obituaries.
Please call or email us for more memoriam information
Please call 651-228-5280 for more information.
HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (CLOSED WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS)
Please submit your memoriam ad to memoriams@pioneerpress.com or call 651-228-5280.
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel defended the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files Wednesday as he returned to Capitol Hill for a second day to face intense questioning from Democrats over his promises of transparency surrounding the wealthy financier’s criminal case.
The political blowback over the Trump administration’s decision in July not to publicly release more investigative files from Epstein’s case was at the center of Patel’s five-hour appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.
It followed an at-times raucous hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday during which Democrats focused their attention on their criticism that Patel has politicized the bureau and turned it into a weapon against Trump’s perceived enemies.
Here’s a look at some key takeaways from Wednesday’s hearing:
Tense moments surrounding the Epstein files
Some of the most explosive exchanges centered around the Justice Department’s handling of files related to the Epstein sex trafficking investigation as well as the FBI director’s past comments that raised conservatives’ hopes that the Trump administration would unearth new bombshells.
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, played a clip from a 2023 interview in which Patel said that the FBI had Epstein’s “black book” with client names. After a lengthy review, the Justice Department in July said there was no evidence a so-called “client list” existed and it would not be publicly releasing any more files in its possession.
“How did you go from being a crusader for accountability and transparency for the Epstein files to being a part of the conspiracy and cover up?” Raskin said.
In another heated moment, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California peppered Patel with questions about whether he told Attorney General Pam Bondi that Trump’s name was included in the Epstein files.
When Patel didn’t immediately answer, Swalwell asked again more slowly, prompting Patel to snap back: “Why don’t you try to spell it out if you’re going to mock me? Use the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F.”
The FBI director repeatedly defended his handling of the files and insisted the FBI had released everything that it was “legally allowed” to. He pointed to judges’ rulings denying Justice Department requests to unseal grand jury transcripts in the case. Those rulings, however, don’t bar the Justice Department from releasing other investigative files related to the case.
FBI may look into Epstein birthday letter signature
Patel signaled that the FBI would investigate Trump’s claim that a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein purportedly carrying the president’s signature was forged. The letter was released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee earlier this month after being handed over by the Epstein estate.
Trump has denied writing the letter bearing his name and what appears to be his signature includes text framed by a hand-drawn outline of a curvaceous woman. The president and the White House have repeatedly said it’s not his signature. The letter was included in a book prepared for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
The FBI director’s comment came in a line of questioning from Democrat Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who pushed Patel to say whether he would be “opening up an investigation into the Epstein estate for putting out a fake document.”
Patel initially responded: “On what basis?” But when Moskowitz asked again, Patel responded: “Sure, I’ll do it.” It’s not clear, however, whether the FBI would formally open an investigation and what such a probe would look like.
‘You have been a disgrace to the American people’
As was the case with Patel’s appearance one day earlier before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Wednesday’s hearing featured fiery — and, in at least one instance, expletive-marked — exchanges with Democrats.
That includes a shouting match with Swalwell, who said that a federal judge in New York had called “(expletive)” on the Justice Department by rejecting a request to unseal grand jury testimony in the cases against Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Patel repeated that expletive back to him when Swalwell asked him whether he would recuse from any investigations or adverse actions into any of the people, like himself, who were singled out as “members of the Executive Branch Deep State” in a book that Patel wrote before he became director earlier this year.
“I’m going to borrow your terminology and call (expletive) on your entire career,” Patel angrily shouted. “You have been a disgrace to the American people.”
Praise from a Democrat on crime
Trump was roundly supported, as expected, by Republicans but picked up praise during a deeply polarized political climate from Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee for the FBI’s participation in a law enforcement surge in Memphis called Operation Viper.
Trump on Monday announced with Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee that National Guard troops would be deployed to the city to combat crime and join a special task force in the city comprised of officials from various federal agencies, including the FBI and DEA.
Lee has said the goal was to “accelerate the positive momentum of Operation Viper,” a federal crime-fighting mission in Memphis.
“You did a good job. The police director and the mayor have told me that has been helpful, the FBI working with the police,” Cohen said. “They know Miranda rights. They know how to do policing, and they do a good job working with the police.”
The White House posted on social media that the Memphis total crime rate was higher than the national average and suggested that it had increased since last year, bucking national trends. That’s despite Memphis police recently reporting decreases across every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in previous years. Overall crime hit a 25-year low, while murder hit a six-year low, police said.
“We’ve got some crime, but it’s not a troubled city. We’re not troubled,” Cohen said.
‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ became a notable moment
Republicans focused attention on one of Trump’s chief grievances, the long-concluded federal investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump has derided the investigation as a “hoax,” “witch hunt” and “Russia, Russia, Russia,” and Patel on Wednesday said the fact that it was launched at all was a “massive scandal.”
The investigation did not establish criminal collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, but multiple government reviews — including reports from the Justice Department inspector general and former special counsel Robert Mueller — found that the investigation had been opened for a legitimate purpose and that Russia interfered in sweeping fashion in that year’s election.
Patel confirmed to lawmakers that the FBI was investigating different aspects of the Trump-Russia investigation, including leaks to the news media, the discovery of documents from the probe that were found in so-called “burn bags” inside FBI headquarters and the production of an intelligence community assessment that was published in January 2017 and that documented Russian interference.
It is not clear whether any of these inquiries will produce charges or what crimes agents and prosecutors think may have been committed, if either.
Asked during the hearing if there was “more to be done to uncover the depths and origins of the Russia collusion hoax?”
“There is,” Patel replied, “and we’re doing it.”
Originally Published: September 17, 2025 at 3:46 PM CDT