Nick Gavrilides, owner of the Soup Spoon, poses at the restaurant in Lansing, Mich., Thursday, July 16, 2020. Restaurants, bars and other merchants struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic are desperately reaching out for a lifeline from insurers who say they are being miscast as potential saviors. The conflict is pitting thousands of small businesses against deep-pocketed insurers with potentially more than $1 trillion in claimed losses at stake in a legal and political battle that could determine whether once-bustling cafes, watering holes, clubs and shops will survive the pandemic. Insurers say pandemics are specifically excluded from the business interruption policies that they sell, but lawyers filing hundreds of lawsuits allege the industry is trying to dodge its commitments. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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