What if Credit Union Journal just didn't report some of the "bad" news? The corporate stuff. The NCUA proposals. The branch closures. Would you as a reader and CU decision-maker be better off if you just didn't "know?"

CAPE CORAL, Fla.-As housing values and sales continue their fall nationally, analysts in some markets believe they may now be seeing the floor.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. and TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Credit unions affiliated with the Alabama and Florida credit union leagues have voted in favor of merging the two to create the League of Southeastern Credit Unions.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the appeal of a woman who robbed Community FCU while wearing a wig and a fake goatee, turning aside her defense that she should have been sentenced to the Department of Public Health and Human Services because she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington State Employees CU has installed ShoreTel UC and its ShoreWare Enterprise Contact Center to centralize communications.

DANVILLE, Penn. – Service 1st FCU has announced plans to expand with a new facility to be constructed north of Danville.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU said its SECU Foundation has awarded a $75,000 grant to Home Health and Hospice, or 3HC, to help fund the expansion of its Kitty Askins Hospice Center.

McLEAN, Va. – Home loan rates rose this week after moving lower the past few weeks, according to Freddie Mac.

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines FCU announced yesterday that American Eagle Capt. William Karr Jr. was chosen grand prize winner in the "$50K Your Way" Sweepstakes, sponsored by Digital Insight, which is AA CU's third-party provider for online banking services.

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Parker Cann, the former state credit union supervisor who took the helm at Columbia CU after it was torn apart by a failed conversion to savings bank, is leaving the $750 million credit union to become general counsel at giant BECU.

WASHINGTON – The House approved the bill last night to authorize bankruptcy courts to restructure troubled home mortgages, over the objections of the credit unions and banks, sending the so-called cramdown measure on to the Senate.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said yesterday it has added several disclosures to its 5300 Call Report to show the expenses they accrue related to the $5 billion corporate bailout.

LENEXA, Kan. – Corporate credit union executives were muttering last week during CUNA’s annual Government Affairs Conference over the quick disappearance of $450 million in membership capital shares in U.S. Central they were forced to convert into a new form of capital, called paid-in-capital II, that now appears to be erased by U.S. Central’s subsequently announced losses for 2008.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Two men were arrested here early Wednesday after a woman told a teller at State Employees CU she was in trouble.

MODESTO, Calif. – A state jury this week found three local men guilty of the August 2005 armed robbery at Valley First CU in nearby Turlock when the assailants made off with $85,000.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Vigo County FCU, the state’s oldest federally chartered credit union, broke ground yesterday on its first outside branch.

MOSS POINT, Miss. – Singing River CU said it has signed an ATM contract with PAI ATM Services Group of Jackson, Miss.

WASHINGTON – Bank-Fund Staff FCU said yesterday it has signed with Open Solutions Inc., to install The Complete Credit Union Solution: DNA core processing system.

AUGUSTA, Me. – Maine State CU has agreed to donate $36,000 to organization fighting hunger in Kennebec and Somerset counties.

LEOMINSTER, Mass. – Leominister CU has added a new feature to its recently upgraded Web site, allowing users to access a video and hard copy database of breaking news at the credit union.