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 JOSH FUNK, AP Transportation Writer
The Transportation Department will immediately tighten up the requirements for non-citizens to get commercial drivers licenses after three fatal crashes this year that officials say were caused by immigrant truck drivers who never should have received licenses.
The nationwide audit of these licenses began after a fatal U-turn crash in Florida that killed two people caused by a truck driver who officials said was in the country illegally. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said fatal crashes caused by truck drivers who shouldn’t have had licenses were also found in Texas and Alabama earlier this year.
Duffy also threatened to revoke $160 million in federal funding for California because investigators found that one in four of the 145 commercial drivers licenses for non-citizens issued since June that they reviewed should have never been issued under the current rules. That state has 30 days to audit its program and come up with a plan to comply or it will lose funding.
Duffy said the current rules aren’t strict enough and a number of states aren’t following them. The audit found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.
“We have a government system designed to keep American families on the road safe. But that system has been compromised,” Duffy said.
Previously, Duffy threatened to pull some federal funding from California, Washington and New Mexico for failing to enforce English proficiency requirements for truckers that went into effect this summer. The Transportation Department is still reviewing the responses from those states.
All states must pause issuing commercial drivers licenses to non-citizens until they can comply with the new rules.
Officials said the new rules would mean that roughly 190,000 of the 200,000 non-citizens that currently hold one of these commercial licenses should never have received one, but the rules aren’t retroactive so those drivers won’t lose their licenses. Only drivers who have either an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa will now be eligible to get a commercial driver’s license. Just having an employment authorization document won’t be enough.
The Florida crash drew outrage from President Donald Trump and Duffy and inspired a political fight between the governors of Florida and California. It also put Sikh truck drivers in the crossfire because the truck driver in the Florida crash is a member of that faith.
On August 12, Harjinder Singh made the illegal turn from northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach, the Florida Highway Patrol said. A minivan that was traveling behind him was unable to avoid the truck’s trailer, which blocked the northbound lanes.
Two passengers in the minivan died at the scene and the driver died at a hospital. Singh and a passenger in his truck were not injured.
Singh lived in California but he was originally issued a commercial driver’s license in Washington before California issued him a license later. The fallout from the crash fueled a verbal tussle between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration.
Singh is charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. The federal government has asked that he be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after his criminal case is complete.
Singh faces an arraignment hearing Monday on charges of vehicular homicide and manslaughter, according to court records in St. Lucie County, Florida.
Singh has retained a private lawyer, Natalie Knight-Tai, to represent him, records show.
Associated Press Writer Jeff Martin contributed to this report.
Originally Published: September 26, 2025 at 10:25 AM CDT