LEAVENWORTH, Kan. – Tiny Leavenworth Teachers and Community CU last week broke ground on its own headquarters building, a prefabricated structure that will be moved wholly to a site here. The office for the $3 million credit union is a 1,564-square-foot custom-made structure that includes a drive-up teller window. Site preparation must be completed before the building is moved from a warehouse to Leavenworth. The new offices are scheduled to be open by Jan. 1.

HUMMELSTOWN, Penn. – Hershey FCU, the credit union serving employees of the candy maker, opened its new offices, which will serve as a branch and the headquarters of the $40 million credit union. The new home will replace the old administrative offices located at 904 East Chocolate Ave., in Hershey. The new building also will include the credit union’s third branch, a children’s play area and computer center where members can use the Internet.

TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma Employees CU outbid three competitors to win the rights to purchase a tract of land near the state Capitol, where it plans to build a new headquarters. The credit union bid $860,000 for the property, put up for auction by the state Central Services Department. The plot is adjacent to the credit union’s current offices.

ELKHART, Ind. – INOVA FCU is teaming up with the city of Elkhart to provide free wireless Internet services along the city’s RiverWalk development. Internet users also will be able to access WiFi in parts of downtown. The credit union has agreed to pay the monthly Internet service fee, which will run around $1,200 a year. City officials hope the free service will help bring more people, especially students, into downtown and the recently developed RiverWalk area.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – NCUA on Friday said it has approved a charter for a low-income credit union to be run by tiny Beulah Church of the Nazarene, only the fifth new credit union chartered this year. The faith-based credit union will serve the 933 members of the church and will be qualified to participate in NCUA’s Community Development Loan Program as a low-income designate. Beulah FCU plans to provide short- and long-term financial counseling to members with the goal of establishing financial stability through savings programs and loans at fair rates.

TAMPA, Fla. – Suncoast Schools FCU announced it will donate five cents from each transaction made on its signature-based debit cards to local public schools. The credit union estimates it will raise as much as $1.2 million for school funding through its Suncoast for Schools Rewards Check Card program, which will send the funds back to each local county in which the transaction was made. All money raised through the program will be used by the Suncoast for Kids Education Foundation for school programs and scholarships in the 15 Florida counties the $5.5 billion credit union serves. The credit union has been accruing the funds for the 2008 school year since Jan. 1.

CHELSEA, Mass. – Metropolitan CU has joined almost two dozen other Bay State lenders to offer special mortgage refinancing for the growing number of homeowners facing foreclosures. The various loan products are being marketed under Gov. Deval Patrick’s Home Saver program and carry repayment terms of as long as 40 years. Metropolitan CU, in a working class neighborhood of Boston, has been offering its own subprime relief for the past year, a 10-year, fixed-rate refinancing.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – In another shot to the private insurance option, the Department of Financial Institutions last week abruptly cancelled public hearings scheduled for this week and December on the return of private deposit insurance to the state after the Washington CU League and five credit unions which had requested the private insurance option urged suspension of the rulemaking process. The move comes soon after Patelco CU, the largest privately insured credit union, reversed course and agreed to return to federal insurance provided by NCUA after opting for private insurance in 2002. In separate letters to the DFI, the Washington League and the credit unions asked that the process be suspended while they seek changes in the state statute allowing private insurance. The five credit unions are: SHARE CU, Prevail CU, School Employees’ CU, Seattle CU Center and Harborstone CU. The DFI has been working with the credit unions and ASI, the only remaining private insurer for credit unions, for more than a year to restore the private deposit insurance option for credit unions, which was eliminated following the 1991 crisis in Rhode Island that prompted the closure of a dozen private credit union insurers. The initiation of the process in Washington followed the enactment of new rules in Texas to restore the private insurance option through ASI.

EL PASO, Texas – West Texas CU announced a unique partnership with the Mexican Consulate Friday to offer free education programs to Mexican nationals living in the U.S. through the Mexican government’s “Plaza Comunitaria” program. The credit union has agreed to offer a variety of educational programs including literacy, elementary and secondary education to the large Mexican immigrant population. Classes will be held in the credit union’s training room beginning next month. This is the first agreement of its kind between the Mexican Consulate and a financial institution in the U.S.

NEW YORK – The National Federation of Community Development CUs celebrated National Disability Employment Awareness Month with a new program aimed at expanding credit union services to disabled Americans. The program will try to try teach financial literacy to disabled Americans, help them to build financial assets and provide low-cost funding for special equipment to aid the disabled. The Federation said it will make its low-interest PRIDE deposits available for CDCUs that want to provide financial assistance so that handicapped people can buy hearing aids, adaptive transportation, modify homes, buy visual aids or other medical equipment. “The Federation and our member CDCUs recognized the incredible challenges faced on a daily basis by this largely impoverished segment of the population,” said Cliff Rosenthal, executive director of the Federation, of the partnership with the World Institute on Disability and the National Disability Institute.

WASHINGTON – Crime Scene Investigators are crediting DNA samples they collected from a baseball cap left at the scene of a 1997 murder at D.C. Teachers FCU with this week’s arrest of a suspect in the case. Police said DNA from the hat led them to arrest John Williams, a warehouse worker in nearby Beltsville, Md., who had been convicted of several crimes, including a 1998 armed robbery. Williams is accused of shooting 36-year-old Thurman “Craig” Brown, a Wells Fargo security guard, while Williams was attempting to rob the credit union. Brown, who worked guarding the credit union for 10 years, was shot four times as he struggled with the assailant during what turned out to be a failed robbery on July 17, 1997.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – DOT FCU had to shutter its branch in the U.S. Post Office here because the Postal Service has closed the floor to public access. The credit union also said in a notification to members the building, which has an historic designation, cannot be modified for handicapped access. The credit union will maintain its main office branch and one other branch.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Whatcom CU yesterday said it has awarded almost $12,000 to a variety of community groups under its annual Social Responsibility program. The credit union donated: $2,000 to Old Town Christian Ministries for Amy’s Place; $1,600 to Whatcom County Library System and $1,250 to the Interfaith Community Health Center. It also granted $1,000 to the Alzheimer Society of Washington, Assistance League of Bellingham, Bellingham Food Bank, Interfaith Coalition, Rainbow Center and the Jazz Project in Bellingham, as well as $500 to Friends of Ferndale Orchestra and Vietnam Veterans of America.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Memphis Area Teachers CU has initiated a program to refinance the growing number of subprime ARMs that are coming due at sharply higher rates. With its Home Protection Loans the credit union will make a loan that will pay of 95% of a member’s high-interest loans, pay closing costs and refinance the loan at a lower rate. Memphis Area Teachers also will pay delinquent property taxes if they can be rolled into the 95% limit. Those who file for bankruptcy are not eligible for the program.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – PSCU Financial Services yesterday said it has expanded its relationship with AT&T and has contracted with the telecommunications giant to provide it with a high-speed Ethernet private line between the company’s headquarters here and its Phoenix data center. The communications link will facilitate data replication for business-critical information. AT&T already provides PSCU with high-speed networking services and Managed Internet Services.

VIENNA, Va. – Navy FCU has unveiled several new marketing initiatives that showcase its auto and mortgage loan products via Podcast and YouTube. The credit union giant launched a three-minute car buying Podcast that educates members about their auto loan options and what to look for before and during a visit to the dealer. Navy FCU also began broadcasting some of its most popular consumer education videos, including “Preventing ID Theft,” “Managing Your Credit” and “Home Buying Made Easy,” over popular website YouTube to reach its younger members. The $30 billion credit union also added Really Simply Syndication to its website so members can have specific web content sent directly to their personal web pages, iPod or RSS readers.

HOUSTON – CU Tax Services yesterday said it has signed with Jackson Hewitt Tax Service to offer discounted tax preparation to CUTS’ 1,000 credit union partners. Jackson Hewitt is one of the nation’s largest tax preparedness companies with more than 6,500 franchise and company-owned offices across the country. Jackson Hewitt will offer discount coupons through credit unions that members can use for 2008 tax season.

McLEAN, Va. – Long-term mortgage rates stayed still this week, with the average for the 30-year loan remaining at 6.40%, according to Freddie Mac. The average for the 15-year, fixed-rate loan tipped upwards slightly to 6.06%, from 6.04% last week. ARM rates also changed little. The average for the one-year ARM inched upwards to 5.76%, from 5.73%; and the average for the five-year ARM moved slightly downwards, to 6.11%, from 6.12%. The small moves reflected a trend in the broader economy, according to Frank Nothaft, chief economist at the secondary mortgage market company. Both economic indicators and mortgage rates came in mixed this week, he said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – More big name home lenders are being targeted in a new suit brought last week by borrowers in a failed land speculation scheme that already has caused the failure of three credit unions. The new suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges a Pennsylvania couple was able to borrow $1.3 million to buy six new homes with a down payment of just $9,000. In their suit, James and Marianna Cliggett, of Warrington, Pa., say the scheme was facilitated by home loans provided by Countrywide Bank, a unit of Countrywide Financial, Aurora Loan Services, the residential Alt-A lender owned by Lehman Brothers, and Homecomings Financial LLC, a unit of GMAC, as well as Norlarco CU. The new suit claims the national lenders participated in a massive fraud to induce middle-income investors to finance construction of pre-leased homes by requiring very small down payments, guaranteeing 14% annual returns and offering to buy back the loans. Earlier suits filed in the case name Norlarco and two other failed credit unions, Huron River Area Community FCU and New Horizons Community FCU, as well as Bank of America, IndyMac, First Florida Bank and Ocwan Financial, among the participants in the financing. The three credit unions are believed to have made as much as $500 million worth of loans to the projects and many of the loans have been defaulted on. Dozens of credit unions also are exposed to the projects through participations sold by the three credit unions in loan pools derived from the loans.

NATCHITOCHES, La. – Officials at La Capitol FCU are waiting to see if the gimmick they staged last week–getting almost 3,000 attendees at a Southeastern Louisiana University football game to wear Groucho Marx disguises–qualifies as a world record. At the start of the second quarter, 2,857 of the 8,029 fans at the game donned Groucho-style glasses and a moustache furnished by the credit union in an attempt to top the existing record of 1,463 Groucho impersonators at the Maine Family Festival on July 30, 2006. Photographs, footage from the Cox Sports Television telecast of the game including crowd shots, and the registration documents all are being sent to Guinness for publication in its Book of World Records.