RENO, Nev. – Another ailing Nevada credit union may disappear through merger with a proposed deal for $114-million Great Basin FCU to acquire $13-million Sparks City Employees FCU.

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Community CU is now offering business loans for local small business owners.

NASHUA, N.H. – Triangle CU is now offering check deposit by mobile phone and a new iPad application.

HAMMOND, Ind. – Two men charged with the Feb. 7 armed robbery of a Tech CU branch in East Chicago used some of the stolen money, stained by a dye pack tellers placed in the bag, to gamble at a Hammond casino.

MADISON, Wis. – Summit CU has announced the winner of its $10,000 Project Money savings competition, Penny Duane, a bookkeeper at Bethel Lutheran Church and a single mother.

WASHINGTON – Long-term mortgage rates jumped higher this week from the record lows of the previous three weeks, according to Freddie Mac.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Bank of America, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, yesterday announced it has stopped selling new loans to Fannie Mae as the two continue to battle in court over billions of dollars worth of mortgages gone bad the banking giant sold to Fannie.

IRVINE, Calif. – Organizers of several “Occupy” demonstrations are putting together plans for what they are calling a “federation” of credit unions.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Home Loan Bank system, which has emerged as a critical credit union backstop, has made a pitch to NCUA that could tap the credit union movement for tens of billions of dollars in new funds.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -- Live testing of CO-OP NextGen ATMS, which will allow all shared branching customers to conduct all of the same transactions at a Diebold machine, is underway at CO-OP’s headquarters lobby, the credit union-owned cooperative announced this morning.

HOUSTON – PULSE Network and Obopay said this morning they will enable real-time money transfer capabilities for PULSE credit union and bank participants.

SUMTER, S.C. – SAFE FCU inaugurated a new student-run branch at Lee Central High School in Bishopville.

MANITOWOC, Wis. – Shipbuilders CU has signed with Vantiv to provide it with ATM and debit card transaction processing, ATM driving, card production and network gateway access.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A brand-new resource to assist credit unions in growing and serving members is making its debut this week: CUllaborationNation.com.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue FCU is offering young members, those five through 14, the opportunity to win a $100 shopping spree when they open a Savers & Sense Club account.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – AmeriCU Credit Union has implemented IBM’s new online security software, the QRadar Security Intelligence Platform.

OSHKOSH, Wis. – CitizensFirst CU has named Kevin Ralofsky, president of Ohio’s Vacationland FCU, as president and CEO of the $350-million credit union.

TAMPA, Fla. – GTE FCU has chosen Colo5 LLC to provide it with co-location/disaster recovery services.

CLEVELAND – One of the straw borrowers in the massive fraud that sunk St. Paul Croatian FCU on Wednesday was sentenced to one day in prison and ordered to pay $260,000 in restitution to NCUA after pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud.

TUMWATER, Wash. – O Bee CU, chartered as the credit union for Olympia Brewing Co., returned to its roots by issuing a gold Visa credit card with the image of the Olympia beer logo, with its trademark horseshoe, Tumwater Falls, the expression “good luck,” and the classic “Olympia” lettering.