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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 EDDIE PELLS, Associated Press It will be a busy opening day of action at the Los Angeles Olympics for the fastest women in the world. As part of a seismic schedule change for the 2028 Games, track and field, and not swimming, will lead off the Olympics. In releasing the detailed schedule Wednesday, organizers revealed that the first day at the LA Coliseum, July 15, will include all three rounds of the women’s 100 meters. Sprinters normally run a maximum of two races in a day at a major event. It’s a change the men will not have to deal with, but that a women’s field that could include the last two world champions, Sha’Carri Richardson and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, and Olympic champ Julien Alfred are being given nearly three years to prepare for. “To be the pre-eminent event on the first night of competition in the historic LA Memorial Coliseum, I think when we presented it to the athletes that way, there was excitement,” said Janet Evans, the gold-medal swimmer serving as chief athlete officer for the Los Angeles Games. “A majority of athletes said to me, ‘Just let me know. Let me know early, and I’ll start training to run three 100s in one day.” Swimming to take place at SoFi Swimming has traditionally kicked off the Summer Games, but because the opening ceremony is taking place at SoFi Stadium, same as the swim meet, organizers decided to make the swap. It was not feasible to set up the pool in the stadium so quickly after the ceremony. Evans, who won four Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1992, said the prospect of swimming in what is largely considered LA’s best new stadium in front of 38,000 fans is an opportunity her sport embraced. Also, swimmers are often forced to miss the opening because they compete the very next day. “I could probably name on my two hands the swimmers I know who have actually been to opening ceremonies,” Evans said. Schedule not set up for McLaughlin-Levrone double The schedule also makes it virtually impossible for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to try to double in both the 400 meters and the 400 hurdles. McLaughlin-Levrone is the world-record holder and two-time defending champion in the hurdles. She took a year off from that to run in the 400 sprint this year, where at the world championships she became the first runner since 1985 to run the lap in less than 48 seconds (47.78). (Second-place finisher Marileidy Paulino also broke 48.) McLaughlin-Levrone’s coach, Bobby Kersee, had hinted at the possibility she might go for the double. In the past — most notably in 1996 when Michael Johnson won the 200 and 400 — organizers have tailored the Olympic schedule to allow marquee track athletes to try for extra medals. Not this time, though. The 400 hurdles semifinals and 400-meter final are each scheduled for July 20. Chief of Sport and Games Delivery Shana Ferguson said LA consulted with World Athletics in designing the schedule. “I can’t speak directly to any particular athlete’s schedule or how he or she is approaching the Games but we are arm and arm in the development of a contest schedule,” Ferguson said
