NEW LONDON, Conn. – A Navy electronics technician who was arrested within minutes of last year’s robbery at the Navy FCU branch at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery in the case.

LANSING, Mich. – Gabriels Community CU has signed with CU*Answers to convert to the company’s CU*Base online processing system.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Community Promise FCU, a new community development credit union chartered to serve residents of the low-income Edison Neighborhood, held a grand opening.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – Ongoing Operations yesterday announced a partnership with SimpleSignal to provide SimpleSignal’s fully-managed voice integration hosted by Microsoft Lync.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Affinity Plus FCU, which serves several area college campuses, invited students at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Augsburg College, Hamline University, and Macalester College to change banks during the “Move Your Money Day” event yesterday.

LAS VEGAS – A federal jury yesterday convicted a Henderson businessman of obtaining a $7.5 million member business loan from California’s Lockheed FCU, now Logix FCU, under false pretenses and skimming more than $1 million for his personal use.

WASHINGTON – Before sending credit unions off to lobby Congress yesterday, Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, became the latest to express her support for two credit union bills at CUNA’s GAC.

WASHINGTON – Credit unions all around the country are preparing special loan deals and other financial assistance in preparation for the massive federal layoffs and budget cuts – known as sequestration – expected to take place tomorrow as the stalemate between President Obama and Republicans in Congress continues.

HUNT VALLEY, Md. – Point Breeze CU, the one-time telephone workers credit union, said this afternoon it hired Bernard McLaughlin, head of $140 million Members First CU in Manchester, N.H., as president and CEO of the $725 million credit union.

WASHINGTON – Despite bipartisan ambitions in the House to repeal the Durbin amendment there is virtually no chance of the cap on debit fees being repealed in this Congress because the Senate—where the issue was fought over bitterly last year—has no interest in revisiting the matter.

Scenes from CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference

WASHINGTON – Sen. Elizabeth Warren, widely credited with creating the idea of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ripped her new Republican colleagues in the Senate during CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference this morning for their continued efforts to block a vote on the new agency’s director until they get a deal to change the structure of the fledgling consumer agency.

WASHINGTON – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, whose nomination is being held up in the Senate, told attendees to CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference this morning that credit unions are not the target of the new consumer cop on the block and he asked for their help in selling the fledgling agency to the public.

RANCOCAS, N.J. – ABCO CU has renewed its contract with Harland Financial Solutions’ Cavion products and added several new ones.

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio – MidUSA CU has chosen CU*Answers Network Services as its managed technologies service provider, utilizing the Complete Care and Virtual Branch Business Continuity services.

PEORIA, Ill. – CEFCU has implemented Veros Real Estate Solutions’ valuation management platform, Sapphire.

FLINT, Mich. – Security CU has adopted Financial Management Solutions Inc.’s Teller Management System to help it identify peak periods of staff needs at its nine branches.

LOS ANGELES – A former state California Assemblyman on Monday pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges in connection with a scheme to claim almost $200,000 in credit card transactions he conducted were those of someone who stole his identity.

WOODBURY, Minn. – Postal CU yesterday said it paid its most loyal members a bonus dividend totaling $535,000 as part of its VIP Program.

WASHINGTON – CUNA reported a $2.5 million operating margin for 2012, up from $1.6 million in 2011.