WEST, Texas – The credit union community escaped damage from the enormous explosion at a fertilizer plant here that killed numerous people and injured more than 150.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Dolores Cox, who was a grass-roots leader in the growth of Texas credit unions, died Friday at 80.

MADISON, Wis. – CUNA Mutual Group said its CUNA Mutual Foundation is contributing $100,000 to the Clean Lakes Alliance to help fund the “Renew the Blue” project cleaning Madison-area lakes.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – A young man who often carried a snowboard under his arm while he robbed as many as 12 area credit unions and banks – including two at SchoolsFirst FCU branches – on Friday was ordered to stand trial.

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio – Emerald Group CU said John Martin, its CEO of 41 years, is retiring June 30 from the $50-million credit union.

WICHITA, Kan. – A federal judge has set a hearing for April 29, when he will consider whether to delay as many as eight of NCUA’s suits claiming recompense from Wall Street banks over the corporate credit union debacle and whether the cases should be consolidated.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA on Friday reported it has approved an application from Ohio Catholic FCU in Akron, Ohio, to serve 1.3 million parishioners, students and employees in Catholic churches in Columbus, Steubenville, Youngstown, Toledo and Cincinnati, one of the biggest faith-based expansions ever granted.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA on Friday said it approved 34 mergers in March – the most for any one month in almost a decade – as an increasing numbers of troubled credit unions are being combined with healthier institutions.

MONROE, Mich. – Residents paying water bills, parking tickets, recreation program fees and other in-person payments to the city now must visit the Monroe County Community CU branch in city hall to do so, instead of the nearby clerk-treasurer’s office, as a result of an outsourcing contract with the credit union.

ERIE, Penn. – Erie General Electric FCU, one of three surviving GE credit unions ordered to relinquish the corporate moniker, announced a new name at its annual meeting Saturday – Widget FCU, but will do business simply as Widget Financial.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees’ CU announced this afternoon its SECU Foundation will provide $435,000 in funding for continuing education scholarships to help retrain the state’s burgeoning unemployed and underemployed workforce.

BOSTON—With much of the greater Boston area locked down this morning in the manhunt for the alleged bombers of the Boston Marathon, credit unions are dealing with a mass police presence and the shutdown of schools and public transit—and in some cases, entire towns.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said it failed to recover any payments on insurance held by WesCorp FCU, U.S. Central FCU or any of the other three corporate credit union failures, despite millions of dollars in directors and officers premiums paid by the failed corporates.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – AllSouth FCU, whose members have been solicited for their account numbers over the past few weeks, filed a civil suit against the unknown perpetrators in an unusual attempt to stem the expanding phishing attacks.

NEWARK, Del. – Sallie Mae reported a tripling of first quarter net income to $346 million on another big swing in the company’s financial derivatives trading.

PLANO, Texas – InTouch CU has agreed to acquire Dr. Pepper Employees FCU, a single-branch, $3.2-million credit union also located in Plano.

CANTON, N.C. – Champion CU has selected TRC Interactive’s First Line of Defense ~ Fraud Detection and Loss Prevention Challenge, an online interactive experiential exercise for credit unions.

DALLAS – Credit Union of Texas has implemented Financial Management Solutions Inc.’s Teller Management System.

DOVER, Del. – Dover FCU said it has added Fiserv’s Popmoney person-to-person money transfer service for its members.

WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates headed lower again this week amid weak consumer spending data, according to Freddie Mac.