Kreuscher (CROY'-shir) says the new name would symbolize the help God gave him through tough times.

The 57-year-old man also told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald he's worried that atheists may succeed in removing the phrase "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency.

He recalls that the phrase "God Reigns" was removed from the Zion city seal in 1992 after courts deemed it unconstitutional. Zion was founded as a theocracy — by a sect that believed the Earth was flat.

The school bus driver and amateur artist in the northern Chicago suburb says he has filed a petition to change his name in Lake County Circuit Court.

Torkelsen, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing on an unrelated case, pleaded guilty to one count of perjury in connection with a 1999 declaration to a San Jose federal court, according to U.S. prosecutors in Philadelphia. He faces up to five years in prison on the charge, and is set to be sentenced on Aug. 5. An attorney for Torkelsen was not immediately available for comment.

Prosecutors said the law firms told courts and class members that Torkelsen was being paid as an independent expert but secretly paid him a share of the proceeds of the cases.

"I write to express my sincere regret for pursuing claims against you that were determined to be without merit," San Mateo Superior Court Judge Carol Mittlesteadt wrote in an apology to Siebel that was released Thursday.

Mittlesteadt, who was appointed to the bench in 1998, also acknowledged her actions "may have caused substantial expense and inconvenience, and damage to (Siebel's) reputation and good name."

The apology was part of a settlement that ends a 12-year legal odyssey that began after business software maker Siebel Systems Inc. fired its top sales representative, Debra Christoffers.

Representing Christoffers, Mittlesteadt filed a wrongful termination and sex discrimination lawsuit against Siebel as well as the company. A court ruled the charges against Siebel were unfounded.

Siebel, who is worth an estimated $1.9 billion, hopes the judge's public penitence teaches lawyers not to fabricate claims against wealthy individuals or large companies in hopes of extracting a large settlement.

He said in an interview that he's surprised Mittlesteadt is a judge.

Banc of America Investment Services Inc, a unit of Bank of America Corp, has settled charges it failed to disclose it favored affiliated mutual funds, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday. The SEC said Banc of America Investment Services Inc (BAISI), a broker-dealer, and Columbia Management Advisors have agreed to pay $9.8 million to settle the charges.

The agency said BAISI from July 2002 through December 2004 did not tell clients that, in selecting investments for discretionary mutual fund wrap fee accounts, it favored two mutual funds affiliated with BAISI.

Columbia, a successor to Banc of America Capital Management, was charged with aiding and abetting and causing some of BAISI's violations, the SEC said. An attorney for BAISI declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the company could not immediately be reached for comment.

"BAISI's selection of mutual funds for wrap fee clients was compromised when it favored its own proprietary funds over non- affiliated funds," said SEC enforcement director Linda Thomsen in a statement. "By using a method to select funds that was at odds with information it provided to clients, BAISI violated its duty of loyalty to its clients."

The SEC said the $9.8 million in disgorgement and penalties will be put into a fund to benefit BAISI's affected clients.

Under the agreement, Parmalat will issue to class members 10.5 million existing shares "in full satisfaction of any and all claim asserted against it in the class action, worldwide," the company said in a statement. Those shares would be valued at $36.8 million at the current market price.

Parmalat will also pay up to 1 million euros ($1.55 million) of the cost of notifying the class members of the settlement, the statement said.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of former Parmalat shareholders and other investors, who claimed they were damaged by Parmalat's 2003 collapse.

The settlement removes the threat of a suit that had been weighing on the Italian company's stock. Parmalat shares jumped on the news and by late morning they were trading up 2.6 percent at 2.25 euros ($3.50), outperforming an overall positive market.

Oregon's high court ruled unanimously Thursday that smokers must show actual harm to make a negligence claim against cigarette manufacturers — not just the possibility they will be harmed.

The lawsuit, brought by Patricia Lowe on behalf of about 400,000 Oregonians, argued the tobacco companies were negligent because they "knew or should have known that their cigarettes contained toxic and hazardous substances likely to cause lung cancer."

Lowe argued the industry should pay for tests to detect lung tumors at their earliest and most treatable stage.

The court ruled instead that Oregon law has long recognized that "a threat of future physical harm is not sufficient" grounds for a legal claim.

James Coon, who represents Lowe, said the ruling shows the law is trailing behind science.

"Certain toxic products put people at risk for future injury," Coon said, but "medical monitoring is a concept that ancient common law has trouble dealing with, and the court in this case applied old common law concepts without flexing them in any way."

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who specializes in torts, or damage claims, agreed.

"It doesn't fit in the box of traditional tort law," Tobias said. "Tort law by definition is after the fact. It aims primarily to compensate for past harm — not to prevent future harm."

But Tobias noted that Justice Martha Lee Walters, in a concurring opinion, left open the possibility the law could change "when science and medicine are able to identify harm before it becomes manifest."

Such techniques may be coming soon, said Thomas Glynn, the American Cancer Society's cancer science and trends director.

"We're probably about two years away before we can say whether we can detect lesions early enough to know what the effect will be," Glynn said.

Ben Zipursky, a Fordham University School of Law professor who specializes in product liability, said it was ironic the ruling came from the same court that recently affirmed a nearly $80 million punitive damages award against tobacco giant Philip Morris after it was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This is the very court that has most aggressively ruled against Philip Morris," Zipursky said.

The ruling was similar to those in state courts around the nation in similar cases, despite a move toward loosening the definition of actual harm, he said.

Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., two of the five companies named in the lawsuit, welcomed the ruling in a statement released Thursday.

The other companies were Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and Liggett Group Inc.