LINDA SAuLS & ChuCk MCCurry

Does your company offer health insurance?

Probably not. Many small business owners and employees can’t afford it.

Attorney General Alan Wilson aims to expand small business health insurance. SC and 13 other states are backing US Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s proposal to let more small businesses into Association Health Plans. Federal rules require AHP members to be in the same industry.

About 11 million small business employees lack health insurance. The proposal will make more small businesses eligible to offer employees affordable insurance.

Business women get help

South Carolina ranks 4th in the nation for women starting businesses and is home to more than 160,000 existing woman-owned businesses. To help them, Columbia College’s new Women’s Business Center of South Carolina is financed by Google and the SC Department of Commerce.

The center plans to offer women statewide networking and education to help them grow their enterprises. It will be managed by McNair Center for Entrepreneurism executive director Katherine Swartz-Hilton and project manager Dr. Kasie Whitener.

Cafe Strudel opening

Cafe Strudel owners Trip and Marila Turbyfill plan to open their Lexington restaurant in the former Kovachi’s Restaurant at 309 S. Lake Drive. They will be open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, adding dinner and weekend hours later.

They opened their first Cafe Strudel 20 years ago on State Street in West Columbia with salads, sandwiches, wraps and such Southern delicacies as shrimp and grits.

Are we over-insured?

With the arrival of hurricane season next month, Lexington County residents are preparing for the worst. A SmartAsset analysts found our county 2nd only to York County in “Most Insured Places.” 80.5% of York residents are insured.

In Lexington County, 78.2% are insured with 91.2% carrying auto insurance, 89.1% health and 63.7% life insurance.

Richland County was 6th with 75.6% carrying insurance.

More Wells Fargo problems

Wells Fargo employees improperly altered information on customers’ documents, the Wall Street Journal reports.

This raises questions about Wells Fargo’s risk-management practices. Federal regulators have sanctioned the bank.

The employees in Wells Fargo’s so-called wholesale unit added or altered information without customers’ knowledge, according to bank observers.

The information varied from social security numbers to addresses to dates of birth for business-banking clients. Wells Fargo has reported it to regulators.

Bitcoin bandits

Hundreds of technology firms raising money for cryptocurrency providers are using fraudulent tactics to lure investors.

The Wall Street Journal found 271 of 1,450 digital coin offers plagiarized investor documents, promises of guaranteed returns and missing or fake executive names.

In one, “Jeremy Boker” is listed as co-founder of online-pay program Denaro. Investor documents claimed it raised $8.3 million. Boker’s biography had a stock photo of himself that turned out to be Jenish Mirani, a banker in Poland. And there was no evidence Boker exists and the rest of his team appears to be fictional.

The listed Denaro officers couldn’t be identified and attempts to reach the company went unanswered.