HONOLULU – Aloha Pacific FCU is offering ten $2,000 scholarships under its annual Masami Oishi Memorial Scholarship program.

LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Credit Unions Care Foundation of Virginia has made a $10,000 donation to aid food banks and the Salvation Army this holiday season.

WASHINGTON – Home loan rates climbed for a second consecutive week, after nearing 30-year lows, but remained below 5%, according to Freddie Mac.

MIAMI, Ariz. – The former manager of Marian Miami FCU is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 12 for a $2.2 million loan scheme that bankrupted the one-time $10 million credit union for a local church.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Southeast Corporate FCU, one of several struggling corporate credit unions announced more lay-offs this week, making a total of 28 staff reductions for the year.

WASHINGTON – The US Agency for International Development yesterday awarded the World Council of CUs a $60.5 million contract to expand credit union services in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

SAN FRANCISCO – Six local credit unions and the San Francisco Treasurer’s office kicked off a payday loan program yesterday to build on progress reaching the unbanked made by the two-year-old Bank on San Francisco.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- NCUA said this morning the reserve ratio for the National CU Share Insurance Fund continued to fall again last month, even as the agency was collecting $720 million in a special NCUSIF premium assessment.

BOSTON – A serial robber known for a puffy winter jacket he wears is wanted in connection with eight Bay State robberies, five of them at metro area credit unions since Oct. 29.

EAST WAREHAM, Mass. – The owner of the East Wareham Maple Park campground and nearby cranberry bogs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week, listing Digital FCU and its $5 million claim as its biggest secured creditor.

ATHENS, Ohio – Ohio University CU said yesterday it has launched a new Select Employee Group Ambassador Web Portal.

LOWER POTTSGROVE, Penn. – Students and faculty at Pottsgrove High School can now conduct their finances at school with the opening of a new on-campus branch of Tri County Area FCU.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Assemblies of God CU purchased a branch this week being closed by Village Bank, its second purchase of a bank branch in recent months. The branch is one of three being closed by Village Bank.

COLUMBIA, Md. – State Employees CU of Maryland has acquired a former Krispy Kreme donut shoppe here which it plans to renovate into a new branch.

HAVERHILL, Mass. – A 19-year-old part-time teller at Merrimack Valley FCU was charged Tuesday with stealing $21,200 from an elderly couple’s account and using the money for a trip to Amsterdam.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – Pennsylvania State Employees CU said yesterday it has signed with Firethorn Holdings, LLC to offer the company’s mobile banking platform to its members in 2010.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington State Employees CU, the state’s second largest credit union, celebrated a grand opening yesterday for its new headquarters here, a five-story, 130,000 square-foot building on the downtown’s Union Avenue.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – A hatchet-wielding robber was arrested Tuesday after he made a second visit to the same credit union he tried and failed to rob earlier in the day.

NORTH HAVEN, Conn. – Just in time for the holidays, three Christmas ‘elves’ surprised two married members of Connex CU as they arrived at the branch for what they thought would be a final coaching session for the credit union’s Savings Challenge with a mock $10,000 check for winning the contest.

CINCINNATI – Six Mason High School students who maintained a perfect attendance were awarded $100 each and a free lunch for them and their guests under Greater Cincinnati CU’s annual Perfect Attendance Program.