WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Truliant FCU said it has awarded 11 scholarships totaling $15,000 to its members through the Carolinas CU Foundation scholarship program.

SAGINAW, Mich. – Catholic FCU said it granted $129,200 in scholarships to 286 area college students who are members of the credit union through their annual Monsignor Forbes Scholarship Fund – one of the largest credit union scholarship programs.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Hughes FCU opened a new headquarters here and a seventh branch in it.

LENEXA, Kan. – The continuing fallout of the mortgage crisis is increasingly weighing down the holdings of U.S. Central FCU, which this week reported that its vast portfolio of mortgage backed securities is now underwater to the tune of $2.4 billion, compared to $1.1 billion at year end, and $1.96 billion at the end of March.

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Card Services For CUs, a cards processor for 3,300 credit unions, yesterday said it has received $28.9 million from the initial public offering of Visa and will be paying it out to its credit union members on a prorated basis.

McLEAN, Va. – Rates on 30-year mortgages dipped below 6% this week, falling to their lowest level in five weeks, according to Freddie Mac.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Federal officials presented a check for $394,000 to Brooklyn Cooperative FCU officials to help mark the community development credit union’s newest branch, in the low-income Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

LOS ANGELES – State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero became a member of E1 Financial CU at its new branch in her home area of East Los Angeles this week to help celebrate the credit union’s new initiative in this low-income community.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The NCUA Board yesterday approved a program to make permanent last year’s Member Services Assessment Pilot, which collected data indicating the approximate economic level of credit union members and how certain census tracts were being served by credit unions.

VIENNA, Va. – Navy FCU, the world’s biggest and one of the fastest growing credit unions, yesterday said it has expanded its field of membership to include the Army and Air Force.

SAN FRANCISCO – Patelco CU has won the bidding to acquire the remnants of failed Cal State 9 CU, which has wracked up record losses over the last two years.

DENVER – Bellco CU, one of the largest state chartered credit unions in the country, on Wednesday filed suit against the Internal Revenue Service over the taxing agency’s practices for assessing Unrelated Business Income Taxes, or UBIT.

DENVER – First Data Corp. is eliminating about 400 highly paid software programming jobs at its Omaha-based First Data Merchant Services and plans to outsource those jobs, probably to Argentina and Brazil.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – State Department FCU said yesterday it has signed with Fortex Technologies to implement the company’s VendorPoint system to automate management of its vendor relationships.

LA PORTE, Texas – Beacon FCU announced yesterday it has hired Jack McAdoo, who had been president of StarTrust FCU, as its new president and CEO.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- McCoy FCU credit union is warning its memberse about a new scam using text messages for phishing personal account information.

HOYT LAKES, Minn. – State regulators issued a cease and desist order last week against Northridge Community CU for exceeding the state’s limits on holding of fixed assets and the $36 million credit union said it plans to sell one of its branch buildings to satisfy the regulators.

DENVER – Ent FCU said yesterday it has agreed to acquire financially troubled US Alliance CU, which wracked up one of the biggest losses for 2007, $7.8 million.

The $43 million credit union, founded by a group of Boston University employees and now serving employees at a dozen Boston area colleges, has asked state regulators for permission to serve as many as 100,000 students at those schools, as well.

MINDEN, Nev. – Members of Greater Nevada CU may be brought back to a different era when they visit the credit union’s newest branch here–with a miniature grain silo as its entrance and the barn-shaped main lobby.