MIDDLETON, R.I. – Members and employees of People’s CU are mourning the death of James O’Connell Jr., who served as director of the state’s third largest credit union for four decades, and briefly as president.

REDDING, Calif. – Members 1st CU is sponsoring a makeover contest of a different kind–this one a ‘Landscape Makeover Sweepstakes’ that will award the winner $25,000 to redo their backyard.

DULUTH, Minn. – Duluth Teacher’s CU is planning to sell a vacant lot it owns to help it finance a new scholarship program.

WAIPIO, Hawaii – A group of local credit unions will participate in a financing event for three days next week at the Autoplex here.

McLEAN, Va. – Freddie Mac is asking the government for $30.8 billion in aid after posting a massive loss of more than $50 billion last year as the housing market worsened.

WASHINGTON – The Senate yesterday passed a spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year, which will allow the emergency credit union loan fund, the Central Liquidity Facility, to tap into $41 billion of government subsidized loans through Sept. 30.

WAUWATOSA, Wis. – Credit unions in Wisconsin and elsewhere were tolling the costs of this week’s failure of Central States Mortgage Corp., which have reached at least $5 million and counting.

KENNEWICK, Wash. – A former manager of Tri-City Medical CU who vanished in 1983 after allegedly embezzling $106,000 was brought back from her Arizona home this week and charged in the 26-year-old cold case.

HARVARD, Ill – A man suspected of robbing Harvard Community CU credit union was killed Monday when he lost control of his car while fleeing police and crashed into a tree.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – SAFE CU is offering scholarships to 10 college-bound students with strong grades and a background in community service $1,000 scholarships.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU has added a feature to its online Member Access that identifies transactions that have been authorized by the accountholder, but have not fully posted to the account.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Commerce CU announced has named its chief financial officer Cecilia Homison as its new CEO, succeeding Ron Fye, who is retiring.

MADISON, Wis. – Summit CU announced it has donated almost $100,000 to the nearby Sun Prairie Area School District to get the naming rights to the new high school baseball field at the new high school under construction and set to open in the fall of 2010.

WASHINGTON – Congress is expected to introduce legislation tomorrow that would broaden the scope of the Community Reinvestment Act to include securities firms, insurers, mortgage companies and credit unions.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – PHH Corp., which operates the former CUNA Mutual Mortgage, reported last week that vast losses on its mortgage servicing rights created a fourth quarter loss of $216 million, and a $254 million loss for the year.

NEWARK, N.J. – A federal grand jury has been impaneled to investigate allegations that the owners of CU National Mortgage illegally transferred tens of millions of dollars of mortgages owned by the company’s credit union customers to Fannie Mae and siphoned off millions of dollars of the funds.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A consultant’s report commissioned by NCUA recommends that the natural person credit unions be used to recapitalize the failing corporate credit union system.

WAUWATOSA, Wis. – Central States Mortgage Corp., which provided mortgage services to 250 credit unions, was forced to shut its doors Monday after Members United Corporate FCU, its biggest lender, declared default and demanded payoff of more than $33 million, according to several sources.

Central States Mortgage Co., a Wauwatosa, Wis., provider of origination services to more than 250 credit unions, shut its doors Monday.

SEATTLE – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle reported last night that fourth quarter losses soared to $241.1 million, due to a massive $304.2 million other-then-temporary impaired charge for the period.