Rosemary Vandenbroucke, 28, of Hong Kong agreed to pay $385 in fines and $985 for damage to the "Biggest Little City in the World" arch and a fire hydrant, said Dan Wong, criminal division chief for the city attorney's office.

Tammy Riggs, a lawyer for Vandenbroucke, didn't immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment on the plea deal.

Reno Municipal Court Judge Jay Dilworth accepted the plea with no other penalties, Wong said.

Nobody was injured in the crash, but authorities said the 40-foot motorhome was substantially damaged.

Vandenbroucke was originally charged with three misdemeanors—vehicular hit-and-run, failure to maintain insurance and making an improper right turn.

The Labor Day crash occurred a day after the model was arrested at the Burning Man counterculture festival north of Reno and charged with possession of a controlled substance.

A preliminary hearing on the drug case is set for Feb. 9 in Lovelock.

Vandenbroucke maintains her innocence, Riggs has said. She will not have to appear at the upcoming hearing. A conviction could result in up to four years of probation.

Authorities said the model was arrested with a small amount of ecstasy at the festival that attracts about 50,000 people

Shares of regional banks advanced Friday after improving credit trends lifted quarterly results across the industry.

The positive news stemmed in part from improving credit trends, as SunTrust Banks Inc., Fifth Third Bancorp, Huntington Bancshares Inc. all reported easing loan losses.

In afternoon trading, SunTrust shares were up $1.61, or nearly 6 percent, at $29.48. Fifth Third stock gained 27 cents, or nearly 2 percent, at $14.49. Huntington shares rose 18 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $7.03.

On Friday, SunTrust easily beat Wall Street expectations with its second-consecutive quarterly profit. The Atlanta-based bank reported stronger interest and noninterest income, along with a steep drop in the money it set aside for loan losses.

Huntington Bancshares also said earlier this week that it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter as souring loans continued to decline. The bank based in Columbus, Ohio, said its results included a one-time charge of 7 cents a share for the deemed dividend resulting from Huntington's previously announced repayment of federal government aid during the financial crisis.

The state's public worker pension fund has settled a federal securities fraud lawsuit against Merrill Lynch & Co. and two former company officials for $4.25 million.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund had opted out of a similar class action suit and negotiated the settlement with Bank of America, which bought Merrill Lynch in 2008.

"The Fund was misled about the extent of Merrill Lynch's participation in the subprime mortgage fiasco; that is unacceptable," said state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the fund's sole trustee.

DiNapoli, a Democrat, said Thursday he was confident the settlement "makes up for a large part of the fund's losses" from Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin confirmed the settlement but declined to comment further.

The suit claimed the now-$133 billion fund lost money because of Merrill Lynch's role in the mortgage-backed securities market, saying it was deliberately covered up and artificially inflated the company's stock value. That value plummeted when the exposure became known publicly.

The settled lawsuit also had named E. Stanley O'Neal and Jeffrey N. Edwards, the company's former chief executive and chief financial officers.

The fund has more than 1 million members, employees and retirees from state and local governments. Its value dropped from its historic high of about $154 billion in spring 2008 to $110 billion a year later as the economy stopped growing and the stock market tumbled, in part from losses in mortgage-backed securities.

The major record labels have agreed to pay $45 million to settle claims they failed to pay songwriters and music publishers while including their works on compilation albums. Warner Music, EMI, Universal Music and Sony BMG were sued in 2008 in a class action by Canadian songwriters and music publishers.

Generally, labels had established a practice of including songs on compilations for which they had not yet secured proper rights, placing them on a "pending list" for later payment.

TorrentFreak noted that the pending list for unpaid tracks had reached 300,000 just in Canada.

In addition to the $45 million to be paid by the labels to artists, the proposed settlement "also establishes a new mechanism that will expedite future payments of mechanical royalties to music rights holders."

"This agreement with the four major labels resolves all outstanding pending list claims," said David Basskin, president and CEO the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA).

The Obama administration is exploring ways to boost tax incentives for corporate investment in the United States, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday, ahead of his meeting with chief financial officers from some of America's biggest companies.

"We're examining whether we can find political support for a comprehensive tax reform -- revenue neutral -- but that would improve incentives for investing in the United States," Geithner said in comments after a speech at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

Geithner is expected to meet with CFOs of major U.S. companies including Microsoft Corp and Cisco Systems on Friday to hash out ideas for simplifying and trimming the corporate tax -- nearly the highest in the industrialized world.

Corporate tax reform is the starting place for a conversation about broader tax reform, administration officials have said. However, a divided Congress will make it difficult to pass any meaningful reform over the next two years.

Several White House officials have said they agree with companies' main gripe that the federal corporate tax rate -- topping out at 35 percent -- is too steep. Both sides also say the tax code is way too voluminous and cumbersome.