Texas restaurants and small businesses get the shaft on COVID-19 loans

A federal aid package for restaurants and other small businesses ran out of money — but not before some big businesses got cut checks, while small businesses got cut out entirely. Part of the CARES Act stimulus program, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a $350-billion package administered by the Small Business Administration and designed to help companies with 500 employees or less. But lawmakers expanded eligibility for companies as long as they had 500…