Eight Illinois credit unions have agreed to help plug the growing hole in student loan funding by investing $100 million in securities to fund Stafford loans for Illinois students.

TORONTO – Two years after backing off its bid for an American bank charter, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores applied for a banking license in Canada.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Carolina Trust FCU yesterday said it has signed with PSCU Financial Services to process its 6,000 credit and 16,000 signature debit card accounts.

SPOKANE, Wash. – Horizon CU yesterday said it has signed with IT-Lifeline to provide for back-up data storage services.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Affinity FCU yesterday said it has updated its Auto Resource Center with a new car buying service, called LugNutz.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – A member of Sioux Empire FCU was sentenced to 14 months in jail for stealing $11,000 from the credit union and two banks with an identity theft scheme.

WASHINGTON – Last weekend’s Hurricane Ike and the spreading financial crisis muted yesterday’s opening of NAFCU’s annual Congressional Caucus.

NORWICH, Conn. – Members of CorePlus FCU can earn a little more by correctly betting on the winning presidential candidate.

GALVESTON, Texas – As many as 180 credit unions from the Gulf to Houston were reporting damages from Hurricane Ike yesterday, many of which will take months to recover.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut short-term rates today to boost investor confidence as the markets continue to gyrate.

WALL STREET – Credit union executives were watching to determine the impact of the spreading financial crisis precipitated by yesterday’s bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings, and to a lesser extent the takeover of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America and the troubles at insurance giant AIG – all major players in the mortgage market.

The National Credit Union Administration said Monday that its National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund lost $225 million in July, its single-largest monthly loss ever.

WALL STREET – The financial markets ware expected to be rocked again this morning by a bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings, the venerable brokerage that has deep financial ties throughout the credit union industry and the entire financial markets.

PROVO, Utah – Deseret First CU has opened a new campus branch in Provo next to Brigham Young University.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Credit Union 1 has agreed to build a new branch in the underserved neighborhood of Mountain View as part of the city’s renewal plans for the community.

LANSING, Mich. – CASE CU has agreed to help raise raise as much as $1.3 million to create a Miracle League baseball park for children with disabilities here.

CINCINNATI – Six credit unions will share in $1.3 million in mortgage counseling and foreclosure prevention grants awarded Friday by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse Cooperative FCU on Friday announced it is partnering with the city to create a development loan fund to assist minority and women contractors.

GREENBELT, Md. – A former loan officer at Educational Systems Employees FCU last week was arrested and charged with bank fraud, embezzlement and identity theft as part of a scheme to steal more than $650,000 through a variety of methods from the credit union.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Young members of Mazuma CU can win up to $9,000 worth of prizes and have their videos chosen as the credit union’s television commercials as part of a contest the credit union has launched to promote its new social networking site, called WAYA, as in What Are You About?