BOULDER, Colo. – Elevations CU has been chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy to administer a $25 million energy efficiency loan program called EnergySmart.

KYLE, S.D. – Organizers say they have received preliminary approval for the contours of a credit union that will serve the Lakota Indians, also known as the Sioux, at their Pine Ridge Reservation here.

TUKWILA, Wash. – BECU, the nation’s fourth-largest credit union, announced this afternoon its longtime president Gary Oakland is retiring and will be succeeded by Benson Porter, the former president of First Tech CU.

DES MOINES – The Polk County board of supervisors voted this morning on a compromise name change for Veterans Memorial Auditorium, altering a controversial $2.5-million deal by Community Choice CU to affix its own name name to the popular sports and events venue.

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge yesterday questioned NCUA’s claims of malfeasance in the sale of mortgage-backed securities to WesCorp FCU by RBS Securities and issued a preliminary ruling that the credit union regulator has failed to show the Wall Street bank and related entities disregarded their own underwriting standards in the creation of and sale of the MBS.

MASSENA, N.Y. – SeaComm FCU has made a $15,000, three-year pledge to St. Lawrence County’s FISHCAP initiative.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – Ongoing Operations, a business continuity and technology CUSO, on Monday said it has completed the acquisition of Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Cloudworks, one of the first and most experienced cloud-based solutions providers.

FAIRFAX, Va. – Apple FCU opened a new student-run branch in Tuscarora High School in Leesburg, Va., the credit union’s 33rd in-school branch.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco yesterday awarded Meriwest CU $45,000 in AHEAD grants – for Access to Housing and Economic Assistance for Development – to help support local community development and housing programs.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – Kellogg Community FCU has partnered with Insuritas, a provider of outsourced insurance agencies, to provide a newly formed insurance agency.

ELKHARDT, Ind. – INOVA FCU has installed Mortgagebot’s PowerSite, an integrated, point-of-sale multi-channel online lending solution.

ALGIERS, La. – Navy FCU continued its branch openings with a new facility opened yesterday here on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – Pennsylvania credit unions received more than $300,000 in incentive checks for their participation in Invest In America’s Sprint mobile phone program.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. – Honor is merging with Allegis CU in Kalamazoo, creating a $400-million regional credit union.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA on Monday said it approved three more interstate mergers, clearing the way for large credit unions to expand into adjoining states.

LIVONIA, Mich. – Savers have just 11 more days in 2011 to open a credit union savings account to join the Michigan credit unions’ $100,000 Save to Win contest.

NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court yesterday overturned a lower court ruling and ordered the lower court to hear a suit by a former collections manager at Greater New Orleans FCU who claims she was fired because she reported allegations of fraudulent loans to NCUA and the FBI.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – NCUA announced this morning it liquidated Birmingham Financial FCU, a $1.3 million community development credit union it has run under conservatorship since October and assigned the remnants of the year’s 15th credit union failure to $113 million eCO Credit Union of Birmingham.

SAN DIEGO-Credit unions should be seeing more competition from big banks that are loosening lending policies to reach more subprime borrowers.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-The most valued "brands" in credit unions have remained largely stable in 2011 over 2010, while banks have seen "widespread change," according to the 2011 Bancography Brand Value Index, released last week.