ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA announced an initiative today that could help refinance billions of dollars of at-risk mortgages by funneling new loans through the emergency lender, the Central Liquidity Facility.

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Wash. – Despite the worst stock market conditions in decades, 1st Security Bancorp, known until April 2004 as Washington’s CU, has filed to go public as part of a plan to raise as much as $30 million.

BREA, Calif. – The headquarters of Evangelical Christian CU here took a near miss from the large “Freeway Complex” fire that burned a major portion of Orange County – one of several credit unions affected by the weekend blazes.

SYLMAR, Calif. – A major brush fire nearly took out Olive View Employees CU here over the weekend, but an alert policeman managed to save the structure.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – St. Mary’s CU said its annual Bids for Kids auction and gala at the Sheraton Framingham raised $140,000 to benefit the summer and after-school programs offered by the Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest.

BAY CITY, Mich. – FinancialEdge Community CU said it has promoted Jeremy Coberly, its vice president for operations, as its new president and CEO.

MIAMI – Dade County FCU launched its own version of mobile banking, a mobile branch.

DALLAS – City CU announced yesterday it has deployed US Biometrics' AccessQ system for controlling physical access to entrances with fingerprint biometrics.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Technology CU said yesterday it has implemented NeoLoad’s stress and load test to monitor its online banking application upgrades.

BOSTON – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston said unrealized losses on its private mortgage-backed securities climbed to $1.3 billion in the third quarter.

ATLANTA – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta reported Friday its exposure to Lehman Brothers Holdings pushed it into the red to the tune of $46.1 million for the third quarter.

DEARBORN, Mich. – State regulators reported yesterday they have approved two mergers and received applications for two more of ailing credit unions, including Rouge Employees CU, the credit union for employees at Ford’s famous River Rouge manufacturing plant.

DALLAS – Credit union CEO confidence plummeted last week, according to the quarterly confidence survey conducted by Southwest Corporate FCU, to its lowest in the four years the survey has been conducted.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The widow of a Navy sailor who was shot to death as he sought to make a withdrawal at the Langley FCU drive-thru last year was sentenced Friday to life in prison for having her husband killed.

DENVER – Payments processor First Data Corp. said Friday interest expense related to last year’s $27 billion takeover by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., created a $174.4 million loss for its third quarter, and a $546.7 million loss for the first nine months of the year.

DECATUR, Ga. – A woman and her boyfriend apparently concocted a phony kidnapping plot Friday in an effort to steal $40,000 from a credit union shared service center here.

RICHLAND, Was. – HAPO Community CU announced Friday it will donate $100,000 annually to the Tri-Cities Cancer Center.

SALISBURY, N.C. – Lion’s Share CU, the credit union for Food Lion supermarkets, opened a new home adjacent to its corporate sponsor’s offices.

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon Community CU notified its members last week that laptop computers were stolen from one of its outside auditors that may contain information about members.

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. – Tinker FCU announced the hiring of David Willis, a senior vice president at Kitsap Community CU in Bremerton, Wash., as its new executive vice president and chief operations officer.