By JACK DURA

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Marilyn Hagerty, a North Dakota newspaper columnist whose earnest review of her local Olive Garden restaurant became a social media sensation, died Tuesday. She was 99.

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Hagerty died at a hospital in Grand Forks from complications related to a stroke, according to her daughter Gail Hagerty. She remembered her mother as a journalist at heart who was more interested in giving readers an honest assessment of what to expect from a restaurant than in being critical.

Her 2012 Olive Garden piece was “unique and authentic, coming from a grandmother in North Dakota,” Gail Hagerty said.

In the review, she famously wrote in praise of the chain’s chicken Alfredo as “warm and comforting on a cold day.”

“As I ate, I noticed the vases and planters with permanent flower displays on the ledges,” she wrote. “There are several dining areas with arched doorways. And there is a fireplace that adds warmth to the decor.”

It spread on social media and drew national media attention to Hagerty.

“She was everywhere and she loved it and it was a wonderful experience, although she had to ask my brother what does it mean if you go viral. She didn’t know that,” Gail Hagerty said. “She used to say that if you were going to have 15 minutes of fame and if you were 86, you had to do it soon. You couldn’t wait.”

The media attention even drew in famed chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who defended Hagerty on Twitter from those who ridiculed her embrace of the Olive Garden chain’s food. He met with her and went on to publish a book of her columns, also writing its foreword.

In a 2014 interview conducted by oral historian Teri Finneman, Hagerty said the response to her review was unbelievable, including countless emails and phone calls as well as TV interviews and a tour of New York City.

“But most of all, it was people feeling in defense and people praising me for the way I write the Eatbeat. And — I wrote that Eatbeat column so fast one day that I never expected it to be repeated all over the country, but that’s what happened,” she said in the interview.

Hagerty was born May 30, 1926, in Pierre, South Dakota. Her newspaper career began while she was in high school, when she assisted the editor of the Pierre Capital Journal and wrote city briefs, according to her oral history.

She earned a journalism degree from the University of South Dakota, of which she was quite proud, her daughter said. She added that Hagerty was a journalist at heart who took the effort to get to know people and the community and was actively writing for more than 70 years.

Hagerty was beloved in Grand Forks due to her long career and community involvement, and in 2002 a lift station was dedicated and named in her honor. Hagerty arrived at the ceremony on a restaurant owner’s motorcycle, her daughter said.

“I’m going to leave some flowers there this evening,” Gail Hagerty said.

Hagerty was writing at least occasionally for the Grand Forks Herald until last year.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — The identities of two women once listed as potential co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein will remain sealed for their safety and privacy, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

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In a written decision, Judge Richard M. Berman rejected an NBC News request to make their identities public after lawyers for the women and the U.S. Justice Department opposed the unsealing request. He wrote that threats to the safety of the individuals persist and releasing their names would threaten their safety and privacy.

In requesting the unsealing, attorney Alexander Ziccardi for NBC News cited the First Amendment and said there was a “presumptive right of access” requiring that the names redacted from a July 2019 government letter to Berman be released publicly.

The 2019 letter, filed by prosecutors opposing bail for Epstein, was written in part to answer questions the judge had raised at a bail hearing about two unidentified individuals prosecutors cited in their arguments against granting Epstein bail.

Prosecutors acknowledged that their names had been publicly associated with Epstein and his alleged sexual assault on girls and young women over two decades. Epstein obtained protection for both individuals in a nonprosecution agreement he signed with federal prosecutors in Florida in 2007.

Prosecutors said in the letter that Epstein paid one potential co-conspirator $100,000 and the other $250,000 in late 2018 after the Miami Herald focused fresh attention on Epstein’s abuse and the deal he made with federal prosecutors in Florida a decade earlier that spared him from federal charges.

Federal authorities in New York, insisting that they were not bound by the 2007 nonprosecution agreement, arrested Epstein in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.

In their 2019 letter, prosecutors said the woman who was paid $250,000 was one of the Epstein employees identified in the indictment.

The indictment alleged that she and two other employees facilitated Epstein’s trafficking of minors in part by contacting victims and scheduling their sexual encounters with Epstein at his Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, residences, the letter noted.

But lawyers for the women recently adamantly opposed the release of their names. A lawyer for the woman who Epstein paid $100,000 told Berman that his client was the subject of death threats because of misinformation about her and was investigated by the FBI and found to be credible, the judge noted.

A lawyer for the second woman told Berman that investigators found that both women were “severely victimized by Jeffrey Epstein … and should be afforded the same protections that have been afforded to all other victims.”

As he awaited trial in New York, Epstein died in a federal jail in August 2019 in what was ruled a suicide. His former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of sex trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Messages for comment sent to NBC and Ziccardi were not immediately returned.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor declined comment.

NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, Publishers Clearing House doled out hefty checks on the doorsteps of hopeful consumers across the U.S., including prizes that boasted lifetime payouts. But some of those winners are now facing an end to the “forever” money they were once promised.

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The turmoil arrives amid PCH’s ongoing bankruptcy process. The sweepstakes and marketing company filed for Chapter 11 in April, citing growing financial strain that spanned from rising operational costs and changes in consumer behavior.

In July, gaming platform ARB Interactive purchased certain assets from PCH for $7.1 million and established “PCH Digital,” a new platform that hosts sweepstakes opportunities. But under the terms of that deal, ARB says it’s not responsible to pay out prizes issued by PCH prior to July 15 — meaning that the company will not pay people who won sweepstakes before that date, with an exception of two unawarded “SuperPrizes” still being promoted.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, ARB recognized the disappointment for past winners that it said was caused by the bankruptcy process — and noted that it was “committed to restoring and preserving the trust” of the PCH brand going forward.

ARB added that it was “taking decisive steps to ensure that every future prize winner can participate with absolute confidence.” The company pointed to plans for a paying structure “that stands separate from ARB to ensure that all future PCH prizes are honored, regardless of ARB’s financial status.”

PCH did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many past winners of PCH sweepstakes were no longer seeing “forever” checks. At the time of April’s Chapter 11 filing, PCH listed 10 unidentified prize winners among its creditors with the largest unsecured claims — totaling millions of dollars, court documents show.

And for some, trouble bubbled up before the Chapter 11 filing. One man, who won a $5,000 a week “forever” award from PCH in 2012, told The New York Times and KGW that he didn’t receive his annual check from the company back in January — which has since caused him to scramble to pay his bills without the money he’s learned to rely on.

PCH’s roots date back to 1953 — when Harold and LuEsther Mertz and their daughter, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore, formed a business out of their Long Island, New York home to send direct-to-consumer mailings that solicited subscribers for a number of magazines through one single offering.

The company later grew with chances for consumers to win money — first launching a direct mail sweepstakes in 1967 — and expanded its offerings to a wide variety of merchandise, from collectible figurines to houseware and “As Seen on TV” accessories, in the years that followed. Its in-person “Prize Patrol” team was formed in 1989.

PCH became known for surprising prize winners with oversized checks, which was often filmed and featured in TV commercials.

But its operations didn’t come without financial strain, particularly in recent years. When filing for Chapter 11 in April, PCH said it was working to “finalize a shift away” from its legacy direct-mail business and instead transition to a “pure digital advertising” model — citing rising competition, expensive operating costs and changes in consumer behavior.

Over the years, PCH also faced some scrutiny from regulators who previously raised concerns about consumers mistakenly believing that making purchases from the company would improve their chances at winning its sweepstakes. As a result, PCH has racked up several costly legal settlements.

The five candidates running for mayor of St. Paul have agreed to participate in a forum that will be held Wednesday at Johnson Senior High School by the League of Women Voters St. Paul. The event will mark the first time all five mayoral candidates appear together on stage.

The St. Paul Neighborhood Network will livestream the forum on its YouTube channel and replay the broadcast on its cable access channel multiple times on select future dates. The forum — featuring Mayor Melvin Carter, Yan Chen, Adam Dullinger, state Rep. Kaohly Her and Mike Hilborn — will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The high school is located at 1349 Arcade St.

The high school auditorium holds more than 800 people. The League has requested a neutral atmosphere and that no one enter the auditorium wearing partisan clothes, hats or issue-related gear. FairVote Minnesota will man a table in the foyer to remind voters that the election is ranked choice.

Each candidate will deliver a two-minute opening and closing statement, as well as one minute to answer each question from the audience presented by a panel of facilitators. The event is co-sponsored by six district councils representing the South East, Greater East Side, Dayton’s Bluff, Como, St. Anthony Park and Union Park areas.

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