PHILADELPHIA – Freedom CU is offering members an opportunity to Skip-A-Payment on their personal, vehicle, or closed-end home equity loan during the holidays.

DUNEDIN, Fla. – City commissioners last week gave preliminary approval to a $127,000 package of financial incentives to Achieva CU which helped lure the $1 billion credit union from Clearwater to build its new headquarters.

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Pioneer CU said its Brown County branch will be accepting property tax payments for the county.

CLEVELAND – Two more local businessmen were charged last week in the massive fraud that led to the 2010 collapse of St. Paul Croatian FCU.

DETROIT -- A boxer whose bloody nose swab led to criminal charges was convicted Friday of a 2009 armed robbery at Monroe County Community CU in the town of Temperance.

WASHINGTON – The credit union lobby is making a last-ditch effort to attach the long-sought member business loan bill to what may be the last train to leave the station this Congress, the Transaction Account Guarantee bill that would extend the guarantee on all non-interest-bearing bank and credit union accounts.

TEMPERANCE, Mich. – The former manager and sole employee of tiny United Catholic CU pleaded guilty this morning to embezzling $2.1 million from the now-failed credit union, which never claimed more than $500,000 in assets, over more than 20 years.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA this morning named Larry Blankenberger, associate director of operations in Southwest Region 4, as Director of its Northeast Region 1.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – A state court yesterday approved a request from the South Carolina Revenue Department to notify credit unions and banks of the 3.3 million bank account numbers compromised when someone hacked department tax files, allowing the depositories to determine which accounts may be at risk.

FORT BEND, Texas – A father and his two teenagers who were arrested for an Oct. 1 armed robbery of 1st Community CU were indicted by a Fort Bend County grand jury for aggravated robbery.

COLUMBIA, S.C./RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina CU League and South Carolina CU League have begun negotiating to combine the two organizations.

WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates ticked up slightly this week but remain near record lows, according to Freddie Mac.

LOCKPORT, N.Y. – Cornerstone Community FCU announced plans to open a new branch in the Village of Lewiston, inside the former HSBC building.

SEATTLE – School Employees Credit Union Of Washington has signed with Vertifi Software LLC to offer the CUSO’s DeposZip mobile remote deposit capture to its members.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A Salvation Army employee in Highpoint will have her rent paid for the next year as winner of the Truliant FCU and FOX8 (WGHP) “Mortgage for a Year” contest, which awarded either mortgage or rent payments for 12 months.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Police say a man deposited tens of thousands of dollars into an Idaho Central CU account he opened using another person’s identity.

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – The Power House Theatre will be renamed the Gesa Power House Theatre as part of a $1 million naming rights deal with $1.6-billion Richland-based Gesa CU.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame FCU said it succeeded in savings members $1 million in interest payments, fulfilling a pledge it made the beginning of the year under its Million Dollar Savings Challenge.

VINELAND, N. J. – Bay Atlantic FCU said today that Gail Marino, who began her career at the credit union 24 years ago as a teller, is being promoted to CEO of the $50 million credit union.

Featuring credit unions’ efforts in their communities.