With loan money gone, restaurants are at mercy of coronavirus

NEW YORK (AP) - The check has arrived and beleaguered restaurant owners across America are looking down on their empty wallets.

Government coronavirus loans in the spring helped eating establishments rehire laid-off employees and ride out the pandemic's initial surge and wave of shutdown orders.

But that Paycheck Protection Program money has now been spent at many restaurants, leaving them in the same precarious position they were in during outbreak's early days: Thousands of restaurants are being forced to close down again on mandates from state and local officials combating the virus's resur...