Small business owners with criminal record shut out of aid program

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Paycheck Protection Program is supposed to be a lifeline for small businesses, helping them stay afloat and keep employees on the payroll during the coronavirus pandemic.But government guidelines say that businesses are ineligible if anyone who owns at least 20 percent of the company is incarcerated, under indictment, on probation or parole or had been convicted of a felony within the last five years.Would-be applicants and their advocates say the restrictions are a s