ALBERTA, Canada – Western Financial Group, parent of Bank West, announced yesterday it is dropping its $345 million offer to acquire Community Savings CU, Alberta’s second-largest credit union, after the board of the $2.7 billion credit union said it wouldn’t put the bank’s offer to its members for a vote.

BALTIMORE – Destinations CU director Richard Rhinehart celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – First Financial CU announced yesterday it has signed with PM Systems Corp. to implement the company’s WebFederal3 online banking platform.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Jefferson County Teachers’ CU announced yesterday it has selected XP Systems’ XP2 in-house system for its core processing needs.

MONTVALE, N.J. – Paragon FCU, which announced a pilot program last week to introduce self-service financial kiosks to community development credit unions in New York City, said yesterday it’s Tellagent CUSO has ordered 10 Cash Express kiosks from PSI Corp.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Schools Financial CU said yesterday it has signed with MagTek to implement the company’s PIN selection and PIN verification technology at the teller window.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Defense lawyers for once-prominent community development credit union figure Carol Aranjo told the jury in closing arguments yesterday that while the books of D. Edward Wells FCU may have been in disarray, there was no willful intent to steal funds from the now-defunct CDCU.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska USA FCU's trust company is in negotiations to act as a central counterparty for transactions on a new securities lending exchange.

Federally chartered credit unions would be required to report the annual compensation of their senior executives to members under a proposal from the National Credit Union Administration.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A 59-year-old man was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for robbing the same branch of CME FCU twice in November and leading police on a high-speed chase after the second robbery.

CHICAGO – The Republican Party’s woes continued Saturday with a Democrat, physicist Bill Foster, winning a special election to fill the usually reliable Republican House seat vacated by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

SAN FRANCISCO – Pay By Touch, the financially troubled maker of biometric fingerprint identification technology, sold two of the operating subsidiaries it acquired in a recent conglomeration and is poised to sell its core payments business, as part of a bankruptcy court auction.

SEATTLE – Watermark CU, one of the largest credit unions in the Puget Sound area, said last week it has agreed to acquire Share CU, a $32 million credit union here that serves the health care industry.

SPOKANE, Wash. – Numercia CU said it is partnering with Spokane Neighborhood Programs and five area auto dealers to help eligible low-income families buy cars at wholesale prices.

RANDOLPH, Mass. – An alert 80-year-old member of HarborOne CU helped foil an attempt by one or more identity thieves to tap into the elderly women’s credit union account.

AUSTIN, Texas – The Austin City Council last week approved a contract between Velocity CU and the municipal-owned Austin Energy for the credit union to offer low-interest loans to residential power customers for home energy improvements.

PASADENA, Calif. – Pasadena FCU last week named Ron Berry, a long-time members of its board and chairman since 1993, as its new president and CEO.

PHILADELPHIA – Six members of American Heritage FCU will race each other through the aisles of a local supermarket this week to see who can come closes to $600 in accumulated groceries–part of the celebration of the credit union’s 60 anniversary.

WASHINGTON – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began Friday to buy so-called jumbo mortgages, those over the conforming $417,000 loan limit, as part of the economic stimulus package approved by Congress last month.

DENVER – Centrix Financial founder and former president Robert Sutton asked the federal bankruptcy court here last week to reject the reorganization of the failed subprime auto lender under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan and instead, to order the dissolution of the company under a Chapter 7.