SALT LAKE CITY – A Bountiful man pleaded innocent yesterday to running off with $110,000 from his fiance’s America First CU account after he left her at the alter.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – CO-OP Financial Services announced yesterday that its credit unions now have surcharge-free access to ATMs in 341 Costco Wholesale clubs in 35 states.The machines, which will be branded with CO-OP Network signage over the next 60 days, are live for surcharge-free transaction processing. The addition of the Costco machines was done through Cardtronics, which has an existing contract with Costco.

DALLAS – TNB Card Services said yesterday it has acquired the credit card portfolios of five more credit unions, Grafton Suburban CU, Independent FCU, Western Cooperative CU, County Schools FCU and Eastern Maine Medical FCU.

HOUSTON – Cardtronics, Inc. said yesterday it has cut the offering price for its planned initial public offering, expected to hit the markets this week.The operator of 30,000 ATMs said it now plans to offers the shares for between $10 to $11, down from the original plan of $14 to $16, but will sell more shares, 12 million, up from a planned 8.3 million. The offering is still expected to net the nation’s largest operator of ATMs around $115 million, most of which it will use to repay debt from its revolving credit facility.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – State regulators yesterday cleared credit unions to convert their non-marketable Class A shares in MasterCard Inc. to the hot Class B shares, which may be sold on the open market.

BOSTON – The Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal judge yesterday to enforce subpoenas against 14 depositors of New Haven Savings Bank who may have acted as "straw buyers" of hot mutual savings bank conversions to publicly traded banks.

SALT LAKE CITY – A computer glitch at Desert First CU temporarily eliminated the requirement for a PIN to access member accounts last week. As a result, any combination would have worked.

LA JOYA, Texas – A 22-year-old local man was arrested last week and charged with making unauthorized withdrawals from the La Joya FCU ATM after the credit union went offline to download transactions, when the credit union would allow $100 withdrawals as a member courtesy.

SAN JUAN, P.R. – Thieves used a phony bomb scare to distract guards at Fort Buchanan Friday and robbed Forth Buchanan CU.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Suncoast Schools FCU opened a new branch in the low-income neighborhood of south St. Petersburg Friday, the latest in an effort by the state’s largest credit union to reach the underserved market.

RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia CU League said last week it has severed its lobbying ties with its long-time outside representative Reggie Jones because it sees Jones’ work representing the state’s payday loan companies as a conflict of interest, as legislation to reign in payday lenders make its way through the General Assembly.

WASHINGTON – Credit union representatives will join the United Way this week to introduce a new program that will allow credit union members and bank customers to dedicate a penny for each of their credit or debt card transactions to the national charity. Donations through the "Pennies for Change" program will be used by the United Way to help fund charitable programs in institution’s home community.

DES MOINES – Several credit unions have joined a new program by the state Treasurer, called Linked Investments for Tomorrow–LIFT-- that will help finance small business start-ups.

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Credit union participants in the failed Centrix Financial subprime auto loan program are reluctant to turn over the loans for sale–just yet.

NEW ORLEANS – Despite massive assistance by government and private sector organizations, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath devastated credit unions in and around New Orleans, especially low-income credit unions, according to a study released Friday by the Filene Research Institute.

Throughout 2007, the Credit Union Journal is profiling the credit unions of each U.S. state and D.C. Rather than appear in alphabetical order, the states are being featured in the order they became states.

JANUARY 2008

At press time, the number of co-sponsors on the CURIA bill. 217 are needed to have a majority. (c) 2007 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

MADISON, Wis. - A new study seeks to get to the bottom of just how much capital is enough-and too much-for credit unions.

ARLINGTON, Va. - During the recent run-up in home prices (approximately 2003-2006 in most markets), consumers reportedly were using their home equity to pay off auto loans, or even to purchase cars, but credit unions can expect to see that activity taper off, if it hasn't already.