Why does it say pending in the newspaper when he died 2 weeks ago?

Years ago, newspapers had full-time writers who did nothing but handle the obituaries (death notices). These days, unless the person who died was famous locally or nationally, many newspapers rely on the family to submit the information about the deceased, and then a writer is assigned to create the obituary (or "obit"). It is not unusual for an obituary to run even a month after the person died, since the newspaper might be waiting for the family to send further information. I would suggest that you contact the newspaper and ask who writes their obituaries. They may not have all the information they needed, so they said it was "pending."