RENO, Nev. – Great Basin CU staff and members raised more than $3,800 for the Lincoln Park Elementary School library in Sparks.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Teachers FCU opened a new branch in Oakdale and celebrated with a patriotic theme that featured American flags and an opening rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance by a local veteran.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Local Government Employees FCU has implemented ATCOM Business Solutions’ Voice over Internet Protocol system.

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – City officials voted to expand the local enterprise zone to include a proposed headquarters for Scott CU, which would save the $600 million credit union as much as $800,000 in property taxes over 10 years.

MADISON, Wis. – Four local families were chosen from 121 applicants to participate in Summit CU’s version of a savings contest, a seven-month “Project Money” that will award the winners $10,000.

WASHINGTON – Long-term mortgage rates backed off from yearly lows this week, but still remain historically cheap.

FAIRLAWN, Ohio – An 11-year-old member of Towpath CU won the credit union’s annual savings lottery and got to feel what it’s like to be a millionaire for a day, but it doesn’t have the same ring as it used to.

WASHINGTON – The House approved a Small Business Lending Fund yesterday which had been seen as the best vehicle to attach a raise in the member business loan limit for credit unions, but the credit union provision was left off the bill.

WASHINGTON – An ad running in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call is attacking credit unions in a manner reminiscent of an ad run years ago by credit unions’ main nemesis – the bankers – except this time bankers are on the same side, and in fact are partners with credit unions in the fight to block the interchange amendment to the bank bill.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA is widely expected to have to go back before Congress with a new plan to restore the National CU Share Insurance Fund reserves, just a year after Congress was forced to create an emergency fund to bail out the corporate credit unions.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The NCUA Board this morning approved a $1 billion charge to pay for the corporate credit union bailout, while disclosing that losses accrued by the National CU Shares Insurance Fund have reached almost $1.1 billion for 2010, presagng another big credit union assessment later this year to replenish reserves for the insurance fund.

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Credit Union has awarded $62,500 in college scholarships to 25 student members through its 2010 Dorothy J. Hall Scholarship Program, named for the former president of the $2 billion credit union.

BURLEY, Idaho – A former member service rep at MAP CU was sentenced this week to three to 10 years in prison for stealing $23,000 from member accounts.

MISSOULA, Mont. – A former loan officer for Helena Community CU pleaded guilty yesterday to taking out $77,000 in phony loans from the credit union.

BETHLATO, Ill. – Olin Community CU broke ground this week on a new 10,000-square-foot branch in the city of Wood River.

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University FCU said it plans to spend about $3.5 million to renovate an old restaurant into a new branch.

PLEASANTON, Calif. – 1st United Services CU said it is donating critically needed high-tech equipment to Oakland Technical High School and Piedmont High School to commemorate the opening of its newest branch in the Rockridge Shopping Center.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Credit card delinquencies and charge-offs at credit unions remained near all-time highs, even as the average balance on card accounts continued to grow in the first quarter, according to AssetExchange, a card broker for credit unions.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Lee Farkas, former CEO of private mortgage lending company Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, was arrested Tuesday night in Ocala, Fla., and charged with a $1.9 billion fraud that contributed to the failures of Colonial Bank, one of the 50 largest banks in the United States in 2009, as well as TBW, one of the largest privately held mortgage lending companies.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A well-known real estate developer, his son and a business partner were charged in a federal indictment with siphoning more than $2.4 million in loans from First Financial CU and a now-failed Kansas bank meant for a downtown development for their own personal use.