Copyright St. Paul Pioneer Press
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 at this time. 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. Rates: The minimum charge is $162 for the first 12 lines. Every line after the first 12 is $12. If the ad is under 12 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162. Obituaries including more than 40 lines will receive a 7.5% discount per line. On a second run date, receive a 20% discount off both the first and second placement. Place three obituaries and the third placement will be free of charge. 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 SYLVIE CORBET, Associated Press BOBIGNY, France (AP) — A French court on Wednesday postponed the trial of a suspect in the Louvre jewels heist in a different case due to media attention and other issues that may impede the fairness of the proceedings. A court in Bobigny, north of Paris, said the suspect’s trial on charges of damaging public property will take place in April. His four lawyers said the highly publicized Louvre robbery did not allow them to properly prepare for the trial. Maxime Cavaillé, one of the lawyers, told reporters: “We’ll be extremely vigilant about several points, first of all the respect of the presumption of innocence… and the respect of (judicial) proceedings.” Cavaillé said the lawyers will make sure the “privacy” of their client is respected despite the “extraordinary nature” of the Louvre case. They declined to provide further details. The prosecutor agreed the case must be judged in “serene conditions” that were not met Wednesday due to “mediatization and recent events.” The 39-year-old man is suspected of breaking into the Louvre and stealing the $102-million worth Crown Jewels. He was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers, a suburb north of Paris where he was born, six days after the Oct. 19 robbery. He faces preliminary charges of theft by an organized gang and criminal conspiracy. In total, four suspects are in custody as part of the investigation, including three believed to be members of the team of four that was filmed using a freight lift to reach the museum’s window to gain access. A judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly about the case, identified him as Abdoulaye N. Authorities did not disclose the identities of the other suspects nor their details, citing the secrecy of the investigation. The suspect is believed to be one of the two thieves who broke into the Apollo Gallery with power tools, cutting into display cases to steal the jewels. His DNA was reportedly found on one of the cases and on items they left behind. Le Parisien newspaper and BFM TV news broadcaster reported that the suspect was known on social media as “Doudou Cross Bitume” and has released videos since the end of the 2000s on Youtube and Dailymotion, and more recently on TikTok. They show him performing tricks on motocross in Paris and Aubervilliers. The suspect had been initially scheduled to stand trial Wednesday on minor charges of breaking a mirror and damaging the door of the prison cell where he was detained in 2019 as part of a separate theft investigation, which later cleared him. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the man gave investigators “minimalist” statements and “partially admitted” his involvement in the Louvre heist. She said he was convicted in 2015 in Paris in the same theft case as another 37-year-old who was arrested last week, also in connection with the Louvre heist.
