A lawsuit filed this week in Polk County District Court seeks $871,202 in principal and accrued interest on a $1.5 million note issued in 2002 to Westwood Partners L.C., whose president at the time was Robert Myers, son of Regency co-founder Michael Myers. Westwood was a partner in the development of the Northpark retail center in Urbandale. Nichols Holding Co. LLC seeks additional interest of $167 a day since May 24. Westwood Partners assets recently were secured by Heather Enterprises II, a Regency-related limited partnership.

UAL Corp., which had been in talks with US Airways Group, will not pursue a merger at this time, UAL CEO Glenn Tilton said today in a message to employees, Reuters reported. The parent of United Airlines, the second-ranked U.S. airline, will take additional steps to “size the business appropriately,” Tilton said. The airline had been exploring merger possibilities as a way to better withstand soaring fuel costs and low-fare competition.

Airfarewatchdog, an Expedia Inc. company, will track fares out of the Des Moines International Airport and report low fares on the airport’s Web site: www.dsmairport.com. Advertising revenues will pay for the service, which is free to the airport.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc.is the best place to work among large companies in the life sciences industry, according to The Scientist magazine. Respondents to the magazine’s survey were asked to assess their working environment in areas that included internal communications, research environment and opportunities for training and development.

Countrywide Financial Corp. shareholders will vote June 25 on Bank of America Corp.’s proposed acquisition of the California-based mortgage lender, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. Shareholders of record as of April 28 will be eligible to vote. Charlotte-based Bank of America is slated to close on its $4 billion purchase of Countrywide in the third quarter. Countrywide recently reported a first-quarter net loss of $893 million, or $1.60 per share. In the same period last year, it posted a profit of $434 million, or 72 cents per share. The company’s provision for loan losses rose to $1.5 billion from $152 million a year ago.

Equilar Inc., an executive compensation benchmarking company, said the median overall compensation for chief financial officers increased by 5.2 percent from 2006 to 2007, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reported. California-based Equilar said it studied the compensation of 313 chief financial officers at Standard & Poor’s 500 companies who have had their jobs for at least two years. In 2007, median compensation for the study group rose to $2.9 million. In 2006, median pay for the same group of executives was $2.7 million. Total compensation includes base salary, discretionary bonuses, non-equity incentive plan payouts, the grant date value of stock and option awards and other compensation.

The Iowa Public Radio network has hired Jonathan Ahl to fill the newly created position of news director. Ahl was the news director at WCBU-FM in Peoria, Ill., where he also was an on-air host and producer. He also taught public affairs, broadcast news, basic reporting and journalistic writing at Bradley University. Ahl, who is the president of an organization representing public radio news directors across the country, will join Iowa Public Radio on July 1.