The Credit Union Journal's recent Mortgage Mess coverage (CU Journal, Nov. 26) is not only amusing, but a joke as well as an insult to anyone of average intelligence.

As you're all too aware, we are approaching the happiest and most joyous season of the year-by that, I mean, of course, college bowl season. What you may be less aware of is that a credit union is the title sponsor to one of those bowls: the Poinsettia Bowl, which is properly known as the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, even though the credit union name part of that is often dropped from the sports pages and the TV listings.

Many management gurus claim employee satisfaction and accomplishments are keys to organizational success. That's why it's critical to truly understand what employees feel and think. One approach to assessing employee satisfaction is to conduct climate studies that examine various elements of the employee experience (compensation, benefits, opportunities for advancement, personal satisfaction, etc.). Another approach involves employee perception comparison studies (EPCS). With an EPCS, employees are asked what they think members think, and a concurrent member survey ascertains what members actually think. Are employees' beliefs about members-and therefore their actions-aligned with what members really want?

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The strong storm that roared through the Pacific Northwest earlier this week caused several credit unions in Oregon and Washington to close.

GREENWOOD, Ind. – A pair of robbers who met on the Internet earlier confessed to as many as 11 armed hold-ups in four states, including a September heist at Warren Township Schools’ FCU in Indianapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS – Target yesterday announced it has introduced gift cards made of Mirel plastic, which is biodegradable.

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – Some credit unions are gaining access to a number of perks under a nonexclusive partnership agreement between Fiserv EFT and FedComp Inc., which provides data-processing software and systems to nearly 1,300 credit unions.

MUNCIE, Ind. – Police yesterday were hunting for a man who robbed First County FCU, the third time the credit union has been hit in the last six months.

DURHAM, N.C. – A member of State Employees CU is out $1,000 after he laid the money the teller’s counter to make a deposit and a member standing behind him grabbed it and ran out of the building.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Coastal FCU yesterday said it has opened a new branch in the Galleria Shopping Center which will be part of the CU Service Centers shared branch network. It is Coastal’s second branch to serve as a shared facility.

TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas Super Chief CU commemorated its 50th anniversary by giving away a 50-year-old car, a 1957 Cadillac.

WASHINGTON – Secondary mortgage market giant Fannie Mae priced $7 billion in new preferred shares yesterday, part of an effort to shore up its flagging finances due to the ongoing mortgage crisis. The capital measure follows a $6 billion offering last month by Freddie Mac, which also has reported troubled finances.

McLEAN, Va. – Long-term mortgage rates continued to decline this week to their lowest levels in two years, according to Freddie Mac.

WASHINGTON – President Bush yesterday unveiled a plan with major lenders to freeze the rates on subprime mortgages that are scheduled for a major rate hike–the so-called exploding ARMs.

WASHINGTON – Showing that credit unions are not immune from the ongoing crisis in the mortgage market, NCUA yesterday said both real estate foreclosures and delinquencies rose significantly in the third quarter.

WASHINGTON – CUNA yesterday called on TJX Cos. and Visa to give credit unions more time to consider a $41 million offer by TJX to settle cards claims related to the massive data breach of 2005, just as credit unions were receiving their electronic proxies to vote on the settlement.

Legislators in Kansas worried about expansive credit unions plan to look at clarifying membership field standards for state-chartered ones.

SPENCER, Iowa – The manager and sole employee of Eaton Employees CU Tuesday pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the $3 million credit union she ran.

ERIE, Penn. – A member of Erie FCU Tuesday pleaded innocent to charges he defrauded the credit union of more than $160,000 and posed as a decorated U.S. Army officer.

SHREWSBURY, Mass. – Central One FCU yesterday said it has selected Open Solutions Inc.’s “The Complete Credit Union Solution” for its core processing.