CALABASAS, Calif. – Stanford Kurland, the former chief operating officer at Countrywide Financial, said his new company, which buys troubled assets, plans to start purchasing newly issued loans and packaging them into bonds by the middle of next year.

TALLAHASEE, Fla. – Credit Union 24, one of two major credit union electronic funds transfer networks, said 50 more credit unions became member/owners as a result of a stock subscription.

STREATOR, Ill. – Streator Onized CU will be displaying “foodstructions,” displays constructed with canned foods at its offices, to help raise money for charities this holiday season.

JANESVILLE, Wis. – Blackhawk Community CU presented United Way of North Rock County with $25,000 as one of the community’s Pacesetter Company for the United Way campaign.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. – Redwood CU implemented a loan promotion campaign consisting of direct mail, print advertising, in-branch collateral, online marketing and word-of-mouth marketing through Creative Brand Communications of Portland, Ore.

TULLAHOMA, Tenn. – Ascend FCU has implemented Diebold’s security system for access control at its headquarters.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Park Community FCU said it signed with Double-Take Software to install the company’s Double-Take Availability to protect and provide high availability for its Exchange and SQL Servers, as well as all other servers in their environment.

DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa CU League has received a $257,920 grant from the Assets for Independence Individual Development Account Program to help fund IDA accounts for Iowa credit unions.

WASHINGTON – Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd introduced a draft of a new regulatory reform bill yesterday that would combine the four banking regulators – but not NCUA, maintaining the credit union agency’s independence, for now.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – The head of USAlliance FCU’s brokerage CUSO pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing more than $2.5 million from member accounts over a nine-year period.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said yesterday it will insure CDs issued to non-member municipalities through a third-party placement service, such as the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service, a well-known service which places municipal CDs in several states.

SEATTLE – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, which reported a $93.8 million loss for the third quarter, remains "undercapitalized," a move that will prevent it from paying dividends or repurchasing capital stock, regulators said Friday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Credit Union of Johnson County announced yesterday it has agreed to acquire two small credit unions, Faith Financial CU, which has $1.2 million in assets, and Leavenworth Teachers & Community CU, with $2.8 million.

MINOT, N.D. – Town & Country CU has signed with TNB Card Services to process and manage its $4.5 million credit card portfolio.

SAN DIEGO – San Diego County CU has installed Cox Communications’ Metro Ethernet to transmit transactional and operational data between its 27 locations.

MARQUETTE, Mich. – UP Catholic CU has donated $20,000 to U.P. Catholic Schools.

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont State Employees CU donated $10,000 to the Vermont Coalition of Clinics for the Uninsured to give more Vermonters access to quality healthcare.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. – St. Mary’s CU will award one school $1,500 for a 90-second video about credit unions voted the best entry in its “4Reel Video Project.”

MISSOULA, Mont. – A man who robbed Missoula FCU last January of $11,000 last week was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

WASHINGTON – The military lobby is fighting a proposal by Congress that would charge the nation’s largest institutions – including two of the three largest credit unions – to wind down failed financial giants.