Good news bad news

Recent Credit Union Journal Briefings tells me that:

Black Hills Federal Credit Union is combating those horrible payday loan schemes by offering their own alternative short term loan up to 500 dollars. Saint Mary's Bank, which is actually the oldest Credit Union in the US, followed up with their own version this week. This should help those who get into desperate straits. I remember having to borrow 70 dollars from a friend to buy Christopher medicine when I was making seven dollars an hour. Paying it back was horrible and if I'd been socked with huge fees and interests we would have been in big trouble...

Several ATMS were stolen. This usually happens by just yanking them out of the walls. If I recall correctly someone once stole a backhoe so they could steal the ATM. Recently someone managed to get into an ATM by coming at it through an adjoining wall in the room next door.

More robbers were caught who liked to rob the same branch of the credit union, something that baffles me. Do they go by the lightning never strikes twice so they won't expect me or is it more of a habit? I've no idea. A 65-year-old man who is on trial for seven robberies pleaded guilty to four of them, two at the same branch of Tennessee Members First Federal credit Union. Those robberies were in November, maybe to pay for Thanksgiving, then he went back for Christmas gifts? The other thief robbed 11 Hawaiian credit unions, one branch three times. He liked to dress up in disguises, or there is a lot of cosplay going on in the vicinity of the credit unions. Either way he was a nurse once and a wounded soldier once. No word on whether he was ever a tentacle monster, which would answer the cosplay question pretty decisively.

The head teller (or rather former) at Obelisk Federal Credit Union stole loads of cash and wasted it gambling. How much? Seven million dollars. That's correct, she carried home that much cash in hundred dollar bills over four years and gambled it all away. The CU had been in business for 37 years and is now defunct. This makes me sick. Certain factions in Maryland are pushing hard for slots to be allowed and this is a strong example of why I am against them. They claim we're losing money to surrounding states like Delaware and West Virginia and that our school systems would get an overhaul. There was a story about it on the news again tonight, along with a prediction that gas will go up to seven to ten dollars a gallon in the next three years. I think that would be a lethal combination for the poor and moderate income residents of this state, already groaning over ridiculously high real estate and property taxes. My friend Carol, who was widowed in the last couple of years, just got notice that her property taxes are going up by three hundred dollars a month. Did her income go up I ask you? And that's based on what her home is theoretically worth before the bubble started to burst. I'm sure she couldn't get what they say it's worth, and even if she could where is she supposed to go? Most of her family, including her ancient mother, is in the area. It breaks your heart.