First GLANCE

Cuba

Nation expects as much as $150 million in new U.S. trade

HAVANA Communist Cuba expects to sign contracts for much as $150 million in American agricultural goods this week at the largest gathering of U.S. farm producers here since Fidel Castro fell ill last summer.

Pedro Alvarez, chairman of the island's food import company Alimport, said talks should produce enough deals to ensure that Cuba buys as much U.S. goods in 2007 as it did last year. About 100 American farm groups and companies from 22 U.S. states are participating.

Washington maintains a 45-year-old trade embargo on the island, but U.S. food and agricultural products can be sold directly to Cuba under a law passed by Congress in 2000.

California

Jack In The Box sued over TV ads poking fun at Angus

LOS ANGELES CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast food chains, wants a federal court to order rival Jack In The Box Inc. to stop suggesting that CKE uses cow anus to make its Angus beef hamburgers.

Carpinteria-based CKE sued Jack In The Box in U.S. District Court on Friday over two TV ads, including one in which executives laugh hysterically at the word "Angus" and another where the chain's mascot Jack is asked to point to a diagram of a cow and show where Angus meat comes from.

"I'd rather not," Jack replies.

The employee asking the question traces a circle in the air with his pen while pronouncing the word Angus.

The lawsuit claims that the ads create the misleading impression that Jack In The Box's new 100 percent sirloin hamburgers use a better quality of meat than the Angus beef used by Carl's Jr. and Hardee's.

HUD suit claims real estate brokers took kickbacks

LOS ANGELES Federal regulators sued Coldwell Banker, Prudential and other real estate giants, contending that their brokers took kickbacks for steering Californians to a company that reports on earthquake and other hazards for homes being sold.

Brokers got $25 out of each $100 fee that Property I.D. charged home sellers for creating a report, according to the suit filed last week in federal court.

"There are thousands of referrals," said Brian Sullivan, spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "We estimated this could be several million dollars."

State law requires sellers to disclose to potential buyers whether a home is in an area that is at risk from earthquakes, fires and other hazards.

HUD contended that real estate brokers formed "sham" joint ventures with a hazard report company, Property I.D., that shared bank accounts, had no employees and existed only to refer customers to the company.

New business

John Pelkola of Ventura provides residential heating and air conditioning system design and installation, as well as high-efficiency systems, air filtration products and ducting.