WORCESTER, Mass. – Webster First FCU has opened an 85,000-square-foot operations center in Worcester, next to one of its branches.

LAKE JACKSON, Texas – Texas Dow Employees CU is inviting members to ‘Triple the Buying Power’ with a new MasterCard targeted for high-end members that blends revolving and non-revolving credit.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Xceed Financial FCU, the long-time Xerox employees credit union, has hired local marketing agency Creative Brand Communications to help grow its brand.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – Members 1st FCU has asked a federal court here to validate its trademark to the distinctive red ‘M’ it has used to promote its brand the past six years amid a promotion rolled out last month by a re-branded Metro Bank, which uses a similar red ‘M’.

HAVERHILL, Mass. – The Merrimack Valley FCU charity gold tournament raised $20,000 for its two charities — the Merrimack Valley YMCA and Emmaus, Inc. in Haverhill.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Redstone FCU has granted 12 $2,000 college scholarships to student members.

BAILEYVILLE, Me. – Down East CU said it has contracted with FISC to provide it with check processing services for its inclearing checks.

PITTSBURGH, Penn. Riverset CU, which converted to a community charter less than two years ago, was approved by state regulators last week to expand to a three-county community encompassing almost two million people.

AUGUSTA, Me. – Credit unions will partner with the state’s MaineHousing agency in a new program to aid first-time homebuyers with cash incentives of up to $5,500.

WORTH, Ill. – Regulators closed another seven banks last Thursday, including six of them in Illinois owned by the Campbell family, which operates nine banks in Illinois.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Corporate One FCU reported a $9.6 million loss last week for the first five months of the year after taking $17.1 million in charges against troubled mortgage backed securities.

LENEXA, Kan. – Both U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU said they have temporarily shuttered popular loan programs in recent weeks, putting increasing pressure on the secondary market for credit union loans.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – More than two dozen credit unions announced they will accept the registered warrants, or IOUs, being issued by the state which continues at impasse on reaching a spending plan.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A group of IBM employees sued IBM Southeast Employees FCU last week claiming their credit union should have known that bonds they were sold purportedly to finance churches and other faith-based products were really financing low-income housing and other speculative real estate projects.

Technicolor FCU Expected To Jettison Most Staff

BOSTON-Credit unions in half-dozen states-particularly the so-called Sand States of California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida-may be sinking deeper and deeper, but many credit unions around the country are growing and even prospering their way through the recession.

SAN FRANCISCO-Three college students took home cash prizes in Patelco CU's first-ever video contest. Christopher Wiggins, a broadcast major at San Francisco State University, won the $1,000 grand prize for "The Credit Rap." Willis Lai was awarded $500 for second and the third-place winner, Ben Kean, was awarded $250. Wiggins said a teacher told him about the contest and after two days of work, he had a rap that won him enough money to pay for a semester's worth of books. The video contest was conceived by Patelco's Student Advisory Board as a way to reach out to students at three Bay-area colleges.

PENSACOLA, Fla.-Former Pen Air FCU President/CEO John Davis was posthumously awarded this year's Professional of the Year award by the Florida CU League. Award winners are chosen based on their lifetime of efforts to help CUs grow and succeed. The CU as a whole won its third Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Award.

CRANSTON, R.I.-Coastway CU has ended 89 years as a credit union today when it becomes a mutual savings bank. An overwhelming majority Coastway members approved of the conversion to a mutual bank in April. The $300-million credit union, the state's fourth largest, plans to use its new charter to expand its business lending, limited to just 12.25% of assets as a CU. The credit union was chartered in 1920 as Telephone Workers CU.

DELA MAR, Calif.-Two awards were presented during the 2009 Annual Conference for the National Association of Credit Union Supervisory Auditing Committees. Curtis Parkerson, a retired supervisory committee member at PrimeWay FCU, Houston was honored with the Golden Service Award, recognizing a supervisory committee member who stands out as an example of what a volunteer can bring to a CU. Parkerson has been a volunteer official at PrimeWay for the last quarter-century. LarsonAllen LLP was named the NACUSAC Associate Member of the Year for its efforts in helping CUs with information security needs.