PHOENIX – Desert Schools FCU has re-signed Arizona Cardinals All-Pro receiver Larry Fitzgerald with an ad campaign promoting the credit union’s debit card with his name and photo.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. – Redwood CU and Community Action Partnership Sonoma rolled out a collaborative lending program that aims to provide up to $1 million in loans to microbusinesses and start-ups for graduates of CAP Sonoma’s microbusiness development program.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Credit Union 1 announced that Leslie Ellis, its president for 30 years, is retiring at year-end and Tom Newins, chief operating officer for the $860-million credit union, will succeed her.

JACKSON, Miss. – HOPE CU is offering free members and financial counseling to African-American recipients of the $1.2-billion Black Farmers Discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is being distributed in payments of $50,000 by the federal government to 7,500 claimants in the midSouth.

TAMPA, Fla. – A prolific tort lawyer who has filed dozens of suits against credit unions in Texas, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Tennessee over access to ATMs for the visually impaired, has set his sights on Florida, where a new client has filed 18 purported class action suits under the Americans With Disabilities Act against credit unions and banks in the last four weeks.

WAUSAU, Wis. – Connexus CU said it has purchased Financial Institution Lending Options LLC, a company that provides financial institutions with auto loans through pool sales, participation pools or whole loan flow sales.

SAN FRANCISCO – The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco will recommence participation in the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program and again purchase conventional, conforming, fixed-rate mortgage loans and FHA/VA-insured mortgage loans from member credit unions and banks in California, Arizona and Nevada.

CHICAGO – Alliant CU is one of the first financial institutions to incorporate Google’s “Save to Drive,” which it said enables members of the $8-billion credit union to save their account statements, tax forms and other credit union records directly to a secure location on Google Drive with the click of a single button.

WASHINGTON – Consumer advocates on Wednesday pressed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to crack down harder on credit card issuers – despite recent regulations that largely curtailed hidden fees and predatory practices.

WASHINGTON—A government shutdown wasn’t enough to put a damper on CUNA’s “Don’t Tax My Credit Union,” campaign. The association held a “virtual rally” online Wednesday to highlight the importance of the CU tax exemption.

SEATTLE--School Employees CU of Washington announced the hiring of Scott Adkins, vice president of lending at Spokane Teachers CU, as president and CEO of the $950 million credit union.

EL PASO, Texas – GECU introduced a new branching concept this week combining a credit union branch with a local tea and coffee café.

Is your CU really listening to members, or falsely believing that it does? Here's some advice on how to find out from the recent CUNA Mutual-sponsored "Battle for the American Consumer: A Symposium on Member Centricity."

MADISON, Wis. – CUNA reported that credit union loans, membership and savings all rose in August.

ATLANTA—Public health insurance exchanges, the cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act, debuted to a great deal of consumer interest yesterday, but little of that came from credit union execs.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Teachers FCU opened its 25th branch – and first in Nassau County – in Merrick, signaling a new marketing push for New York’s second-largest credit union.

HOUSTON – First Community CU has deployed NCR’s APTRA Interactive Teller at its new branch in an H-E-B grocery store.

FAIRBORN, Ohio – Wright-Patt CU has acquired the 137,000-square-foot former Computer Sciences Corp. building in nearby Beavercreek for $22.75 million and plans to relocate its headquarters there.

ROCKVILLE, Md. – NeighborBench, a compliance start-up serving a number of credit unions, has won a U.S. patent protecting aspects of its automated compliance system known as CRISP, or Compliance Risk Information Systems and Platform.

NEW YORK – A group of the nation’s biggest retailers, including Target, Kohl’s, TJX Cos., Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Office Depot, urged a federal judge to keep alive their interchange fee antitrust class action against Visa and MasterCard, rejecting arguments from the credit card giants that the merchants’ claims are barred by the terms of a settlement in a previous suit.