SAN FRANCISCO-Credit unions from the Golden and Silver States will be meeting here this week, with a backdrop of two state economies generating neither much gold nor much silver.

DALLAS – Southwest Corporate FCU said yesterday it wrote off $24.7 million of unsecured debt it held in Lehman Brothers Holdings, the second corporate in as many weeks to take a charge related to the bankrupt brokerage.

COCONUT GROVE, Fla.– Credit unions that serve firefighters have formed a new group called The Coalition of Firefighter CUs.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard announced yesterday its Over-the-Air Provisioning Service will allow credit unions and banks to load their customers’ cellphones with technology enabling them to use their phones as contactless PayPass devices.

CHANTILLY, Va. – Online Resources Corp. said it fell into the red for the third quarter to the tune of $1.5 million, or five cents a share, compared to a profit of $1.1 million, or four cents a share, for the same period last year.

NORTH CANTON, Ohio – ATM maker Diebold said yesterday that third quarter profits surged 65% due to a healthy increase in revenues and it’s ongoing cost-cutting.

MIDLAND, Texas – Heritage USA FCU, a $38 million institution, said it has signed with Open Solutions Inc. to implement the company’s The Complete Credit Union Solution, the standard market edition, core processing system.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia Laboratory FCU said it has hired LEVEL5 of Atlanta to help design a new branch and branding strategy for its expansion into the nearby community of Los Lunas.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA is planning to increase spending next year by 15%, the highest in more than a decade, as it hires dozens of new examiners and takes other steps to deal with the growing financial turmoil in the industry.

McLEAN, Va. – Long-term mortgage rates rose again this week, after falling the week before, according to Freddie Mac.

SEATTLE – A group of credit unions calling themselves the Credit Union Housing Roundtable has called on NCUA to make $1 billion of low-cost loans available to help consumers refinance troubled mortgage loans.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla.--Police here have concluded that Carol Anne Burger, the former Credit Union Journal reporter who also was affiliated with numerous credit union organizations, committed suicide over the weekend after murdering her former partner.

WASHINGTON – Former NCUA Board member Geoff Bacino resigned from the Federal Housing Finance Board this week and said he is opening up a consultancy firm with his associate Jonathan Lindley, a long-time credit union lobbyist.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Marshland CU announced yesterday it will acquire tiny Southeast Georgia Health System FCU that has reported losses over the past two years.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Greylock FCU has committed $90,000 over a five-year period to assist one local organization that supplies fuel assistance, and another that provides nutrition for senior citizens.

MADISON, Wis. – A matching fund-raising effort by University of Wisconsin CU has raised $250,000 for the University’s need-based scholarships program.

LATHRUP VILLAGE, Mich. – Michigan First CU has introduced at-home scan and deposits, allowing members and businesses to scan checks from home or the office and directly deposit them into a Michigan First savings or checking account.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington State Employees CU said it has replaced its Avaya communications system with ShoreTel’s Enterprise Contact Center multimedia Internet protocol-based software and ShoreWare Director, a centralized Web-based network management interface.

OREM, Utah – Family First FCU said it is putting more money in its members' wallets this holiday season by offering double rewards points on purchases made with a Family First VISA credit card during November and December.

DEARBORN, Mich. – DFCU Financial CU announced yesterday it plans to pay members a $17 million dividend for the third year in a row.