Holistic chiropractic clinic opens in Pelican Rapids

A new holistic chiropractic clinic, Zest4Life, has opened in Pelican Rapids. Dr. Zena Stussy, owner and practitioner, brings three decades of chiropractic experience to the clinic, located at 57 North Broadway.

A Twin Cities native, Stussy is familiar with the Pelican Rapids area, having regularly visited her family’s five-generation cabin on Prairie Lake since childhood.

Stussy attended and graduated from UCLA with a communications degree. She later returned to Minnesota and earned her chiropractic degree from Northwestern Chiropractic College in Bloomington. She worked at Kenwood Chiropractic and later Minnesota Concussion & Chiropractic Arts in St. Louis Park (founded by her husband, David), until moving to Pelican Rapids in 2020.

Along with chiropractic care, Stussy offers several other health care services, such as acupuncture and nutrition/diet supplement consulting. Metabolism, hormone balance and brain health are additional areas of emphasis.

“I’m so pleased to be in Pelican Rapids on a full-time basis, and I’m excited to serve the people of this area with my range of chiropractic and related care,” Stussy said in a press release.

She can be contacted at 310-499-3870 or via email at drzest4life@gmail. She also maintains a website, keepthezestforlife.com .

Pension provision to aid Minnesotans

On Friday March 19, Sen. Tina Smith hosted a press conference to highlight a provision in the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed by President Biden that will help more than a million retired Americans.

The $86 million aid package will help participants of hundreds of employer-union pension plans avoid large cuts. This includes over 22,000 Minnesotans.

Smith helped champion the addition of this to the stimulus bill after speaking with constituents facing the negative side effects of the looming pension cuts.

"These are not folks that are living 'high on the hog,' as my grandmother would say," Smith stressed. "They are folks that have saved and are doing fine as long as they have that pension that they counted on. And without it, there's not a plan B."

These pension plans are typically found in small businesses, construction, food stores and entertainment industries.

MN unemployment rate at 4.5% in January

Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 4.5% in January, down from 4.7% in December, according to numbers released in mid-March by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

Once again, the decline was due to people leaving the labor force from both employment and unemployment. The number of unemployed fell 7,652 and the number of employed fell 14,851 for a total decline of 22,503 in Minnesota’s labor force. The national unemployment rate fell to 6.3% in January from 6.7% in December.

The deepest impacts of the pandemic are felt by Minnesotans who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Based on 12-month moving averages, the unemployment rate for Black Minnesotans was 9.5% in January; the Latinx unemployment rate was 7.3% in January. White Minnesotans were at 5.8%.

Starting this month, DEED data has reverted to a 12-month moving average rather than the 6-month moving averages previously used. This means the higher months of unemployment rates from earlier in the pandemic are included in the averages.

In January, Minnesota gained 51,800 jobs, that is up 1.9%, replacing all but 1,000 of the jobs lost in December. January estimates are from the same week that bars and restaurants were able to again seat customers indoors, starting January 11.

“The recovery of over 51,000 jobs in January is a promising sign for Minnesota,” said DEED Commissioner Steve Grove. “We have a lot of work ahead to grow our economy, and as this report shows, we must focus on those hit hardest by the pandemic – people of color, people with disabilities, lower wage workers, and small businesses.”

Of the 416,300 jobs lost from February through April 2020, the state has gained back 191,400 jobs. Find more information at mn.gov/deed .