TAUNTON, Mass. – Taunton FCU will be celebrating a grand opening for its new branch inside Trucchi’s Supermarket in Middleboro on Saturday.

WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates rose from near record lows this week after promising U.S. jobs reports, according to Freddie Mac.

WILMINGTON, Del. – The Delaware Community Reinvestment Act is opening a new credit union, Stepping Stones FCU, on the city’s East Side today.

CLEVELAND – Another straw borrower in the massive loan fraud at St. Paul Croatian FCU on Thursday was sentenced to two weeks in prison for borrowing $260,000 he never intended to repay from the ill-fated $240-million credit union.

WASHINGTON – The leading banking lobby threatened to pull its support from the JOBS Act if lawmakers added to it a provision for the long-sought increase to the member business loan limit for credit unions.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA on Thursday said it believes it has more than enough reserves in the National CU Share Insurance Fund and therefore moved $278.6 million from the NCUSIF to the Temporary Corporate CU Stabilization Fund, which will lower this year’s corporate assessment.

LAS VEGAS – A credit union representative called on Congress this afternoon to review a number of controversial pending NCUA regulations on loan participations, CUSOs, liquidity and troubled debt restructurings to ensure they will not further hinder the dwindling number of healthy Nevada credit unions.

WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised this morning he will let the Senate finally vote on a long-sought bill to double the limit on member business loans, despite continued opposition from the banks.

NEW YORK – CUNA and NAFCU joined a broad coalition of card issuers this morning in a brief opposing a lawsuit filed by merchants claiming the Federal Reserve did not go far enough in capping fees on debit transactions last year.

SALT LAKE CITY – The members, employees and board of directors of Pocahy Family Credit Union have voted to merge with Mountain America Credit Union.

LAUREL, Md. – Tower FCU employees and members raised $30,000 for the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, during the credit union’s annual “Have a Heart” fundraiser in February.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. – Members 1st CU said Judith Wisell, its president for the past 10 years, has retired and will be succeeded by Richard Chapin as new head of the $11-million credit union.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Fort Worth Community CU has signed with GoBankingRates.com to feature the company’s CareFree Checking campaign on the credit union’s website.

NORWICH, Conn. – CorePlus FCU has signed with eDOC Innovations to implement its CheckLogic document imaging system.

HILLSDALE, Mich. – American 1 CU is holding auditions for its annual Teen Idol contest, which raises money for charity.

CINCINNATI – Emery FCU said its Emery Financial Services CUSO has contracted to manage nearby Presidents FCU, a troubled $12-million credit union it has long partnered with.

SEATTLE – A foreign national this week pleaded guilty to leading an ATM card skimming ring that stole more than $320,000 from BECU and several other area financial institutions.

JACKSON, Miss. – Hope CU has acquired a former BancorpSouth bank branch in Utica, Miss., which will replace the credit union’s temporary branch in the Utica Town Hall.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a law that will expand access by the state’s credit unions to municipal and government entity deposits.

CLEVELAND – A local church – stuck with a $1.5 million loss after the failure of St. Paul Croatian FCU – has filed legal papers with a federal court to obtain rights to the lost funds from $3.3 million in restitution being channeled to NCUA.