The credit union difference: How cooperation creates access
Most people know what a credit union does. Credit unions offer checking and savings accounts, loans, credit cards, digital banking, and many of the same financial services available at other financial institutions.
What makes a credit union different is not necessarily what it offers. It is how and why the organization operates.
Credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives owned by the members they serve. When you open an account at a credit union, you do not simply become a customer. You become a member and part-owner of the organization. Members elect a volunteer board of directors, and each member has an equal vote, regardless of how much money they have on deposit.
This structure helps keep the credit union focused on the financial well-being of its members. Rather than operating to generate profits for outside shareholders, credit unions reinvest their earnings into the organization and the people they serve. That may take the form of competitive rates, fewer or lower fees, improved technology, financial education, expanded services, and support for the surrounding community.
It is a business model built around a simple idea: people can accomplish more when they work together.
A Movement Built on CooperationThe cooperative spirit extends well beyond the walls of an individual credit union.
Credit unions across the country may be separate organizations serving different communities, employers, or groups, but they are also part of a larger movement. They collaborate through industry networks, state and national associations, shared technology, advocacy organizations, and service partnerships.
Today, more than 140 million Americans belong to a credit union. Together, those members and their credit unions form a national network working to preserve access to member-owned financial services.
This cooperation allows credit unions to retain their local identity and personalized service while benefiting from resources that would be difficult for one institution to build alone.
One of the most visible examples is the CO-OP ATM Network.
What Is a CO-OP ATM?A CO-OP ATM is part of a shared network that participating credit unions make available to one another’s members.
For a Bay Federal member, that means access is not limited to Bay Federal ATM. A Bay Federal Visa® Debit Card can also be used to withdraw or deposit cash without a surcharge at thousands of participating CO-OP ATMs throughout the United States.
The CO-OP ATM Network currently includes more than 30,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide, including machines located at participating credit unions and select retail locations.
Pictured: Three ATMs outside the UCSC Bay Tree Bookstore, including Bay Federal, the only CO-OP ATM on campus.
The network is a practical demonstration of the cooperative model. Participating credit unions share infrastructure, so their members have greater access and convenience, even when they are far from their credit union’s nearest branch.
Members can locate participating ATMs through the BayFed Mobile app by selecting “Locations” from the menu. Because not every ATM displaying a payment network logo is surcharge-free, members should confirm that the location is identified as a CO-OP ATM before completing a withdrawal.
Local Service With a Larger ReachShared resources help answer a common question about choosing a local financial institution: Will I still have access to my money when I travel?
Through digital banking, mobile deposit, debit card access, and cooperative ATM networks, members can receive the personal service of a local credit union without giving up the convenience of a much larger financial network.
That combination is central to the credit union movement. Credit unions can remain rooted in the communities they serve while cooperating with other institutions to expand what they can offer.
At Bay Federal Credit Union, our own story began with cooperation. In 1957, eight local teachers came together and pooled their resources to create a financial institution that could serve their colleagues. What started with a small group and a shared purpose has grown into a member-owned credit union serving Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito counties.
The tools have changed considerably since then, but the underlying idea has not.
Members entrust their money to the credit union. Those collective deposits help fund loans for other members who are buying homes, purchasing cars, starting businesses, or managing important expenses. The credit union then returns its resources to the membership through financial products, services, technology, education, and community investment.
Each member benefits from the participation of the others.
More Than a Place to Keep Your MoneyThe word “movement” may sound unusual when discussing financial services, but credit unions were created to provide an alternative way for people to manage their money: democratically governed, locally connected, and centered on a shared financial interest.
That purpose continues to shape how credit unions operate today.
A CO-OP ATM may look like any other cash machine. The network behind it represents something much bigger: thousands of credit unions choosing to work together so their members can go farther.
That is the cooperative difference. Local service, shared strength, and greater access for everyone.
Visit bayfed.com/locations for an interactive map of BayFed ATM and CO-OP ATM locations.
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There are plenty of reasons to ding The New York Times for its coverage of Donald Trump, but credit where credit is due: When it comes to reporting on the president’s bribe plane, they are not taking their foot off the gas. Despite the Trump administration’s copious efforts to stop the paper from covering the ongoing debacle, the Times dropped genuinely jaw-dropping new reporting about the…
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Trump Confirms He’s Hoarding Billions From Venezuelan Oil
President Trump still won’t say where exactly the $13 billion of Venezuelan oil revenue that his administration collected has gone.
“There’s some reports that the United States has taken in $13 billion from Venezuela,” a reporter asked Trump at the Air Force One press gaggle on Monday afternoon. “Where is that money going?”
“Thirteen billion from Venezuela? I think even more than that,” Trump replied. “Venezuela, we paid for that war many times over. And that’ll happen with Iran also. We paid for the war many times over.”
“But where’s that money going?”
“No other president can say that for a long time,” Trump continued, ignoring the question. “We had a cost.... We paid for it many many times over. And now, as you know, we have a very good relationship with Venezuela.”
“But where is the money going?” the reporter asked yet again.
“It goes toward running the country.”
“No … the money that the U.S. is taking in, where is that money going?”
“From Venezuela?”
“Yes.”
“Towards running the country. It can go to the military. Congress has to approve it.... We’re taking in a lot of money. Billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela.”
The president couldn’t offer anything close to a straight answer on where those billions went. First, the story was that it’d go back to the Venezuelan people, whom Trump pretends to care about very much. But last week, the Financial Times reported that after six months and two devastating earthquakes, the money is still nowhere to be found. The publication reported that the Trump administration must have collected an estimated $13 billion, though Trump’s statement on Monday is the first hint at an actual number.
The last solid lead we had on that money was when Semafor reported that Trump would be keeping proceeds from the first sale in an offshore bank account based in Qatar. Maybe that has something to do with his nonanswer.
Q: There's some reports that the United States has taken in $13 billion from Venezuela. What where is that money going?
Trump: That will happen with Iran also.
Q: Where is the money going?
Trump: Running the country. pic.twitter.com/yGvQDtGQJj
Guess who this Republican blames for Trump’s war. You’re wrong.
We are over 20 weeks into President Donald Trump’s destructive war with Iran, and Republican Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan wants you to blame the right person: former President Jimmy Carter! “That’s a multi-thousand-year-old question,” Bergman told the vacant faces at Newsmax. “I’m not gonna blame Jimmy Carter as the president, but the bottom line is he set that ball rolling when he allowed…
They really suck
A cartoon by David Horsey. Related | MAGA nominee in key House race says schools shouldn’t teach history…
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First Trailer for MST3K: THE RIFFTRAX EXPERIMENTS Is Pure Nostalgia
- We have the first trailer for MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments.
- Seeing Mike and the bots again after 25 years is a pure nostalgia hit.
- The first episode will be the 1966 schlocker, Sting of Death.
- You can watch the episode in cinemas September 9 and 13.
While it wasn’t the first iteration of the series saw, the three seasons of Mystery Science Theater 3000 comprising the Sci-Fi Channel era are my MST3K. Mike Nelson and his robot pals were caught in an endless chase, pursued by a woman whose name is Pearl. Those were my middle school and early high school seasons and that’s where a lot of my sense of humor began. Nearly 30 years since then, we’re getting more of that crew in MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments. The trailer is below, and seeing Mike don the jumpsuit with Crow and Tom on either side really makes me happy.
The trailer debut signifies the first of those experiments is coming to theater screens near us via Fathom. We also get to hear just a smidgeon of Jonathon Coulton’s new version of the classic theme tune. The movie will be 1966’s Sting of Death, directed by schlock great William Grefé. And boy does it sound dumb.
“A deformed man working for a marine biologist takes revenge on the people that mock him by experimenting with a deadly jellyfish.”
RiffTrax
The four episodes comprising The RiffTrax Experiments are the result of an uber successful Kickstarter campaign from earlier this year. The return of Mystery Science will mean not only the classic riffers, but two different sets of Mads. Pearl (Mary Jo Pehl), Bobo (Kevin Murphy), and Brain Guy (Bill Corbett) from the Sci-Fi Channel years, plus Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) and TV’s Frank (Frank Conniff) from the prior Comedy Central years.
Sting of Death will premiere in cinemas on September 9, 2026, with an encore showing on September 13. So, if you’re like me, a kid of the late-’90s, you’ll certainly want to be there. You can buy tickets at FathomEntertainment.com.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
The post First Trailer for MST3K: THE RIFFTRAX EXPERIMENTS Is Pure Nostalgia appeared first on Nerdist.
MAGA Either Hates Trump’s Signature Bill—or Has Never Heard of It
President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has barely made a dent with American voters, which doesn’t bode well for Republicans in the midterms.
Almost half of all Americans either can’t explain what it is or have not heard of it, according to a new Politico poll. Those who have heard about it don’t like it, saying that it benefited other people, like wealthy Americans.
With affordability a major political issue, Republicans have tried to rebrand the bill, which doled out tax cuts for rich Americans at the expense of programs like health care, as “Working Families Tax Cuts,” without much success.
“Putting more money in Americans’ pockets. Helping them seize opportunities to get ahead, and creating new pathways to success,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “That is the Working Families Tax Cuts at work.”
Only about 25 percent of people who voted for Trump in 2024 believe that the bill gave the working class big tax breaks. The fact that the bill included tax deductions for tipped wages and overtime pay, as well as Trump Accounts for children, hasn’t swayed opinions.
Meanwhile, more than half of Americans—57 percent—believe the Iran war has made things more expensive, according to the poll. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has had ripple effects affecting everything from gas prices to fertilizer shortages, hurting farmers along with average Americans. Trump hasn’t done much to defend or even mention the bill in his regular speeches, either.
This has opened the bill up to attacks from Democrats, who merely have to point to bad economic news to discredit any potential gains. Democratic candidates have also rightfully connected the tax cuts to cuts to food stamps, Medicare, and Medicaid. Politico’s poll found that many Americans say they prefer funding health care and nutrition assistance over some tax breaks. Trump is not doing much to address that sentiment, dismissing affordability as a made-up word and opposing a bipartisan affordable housing bill last week.
“Trump cuts food assistance and health care. Billionaires get another tax break,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor last week. That seems to be a winning message for November’s midterms for Democrats.
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Mitch McConnell Shares Second Photo, Says He’s Skipping Picnic
Senator Mitch McConnell’s office has finally addressed the lawmaker’s ongoing absence—insofar as it relates to his ability to chow down on some red meat at Kentucky’s annual Fancy Farm picnic.
“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton,” his office wrote in a statement Monday to the Bluegrass State’s Hellbender Newsroom. “When I first attended forty-two years ago, Fancy Farm was a pretty lonely place to be a Republican. But, my, how times have changed. Today, western Kentucky is a conservative Republican sea of red.
“So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic,” the message ended.
His team also released a new photo of McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao.
The Kentucky senator has been missing in action for more than a month after he was found unconscious in his Washington residence and rushed to the hospital on June 14. For weeks, McConnell’s office has refused to explain his extended hospitalization or elaborate on his eventual return to Capitol Hill.
The media blackout briefly ended on July 12, when the senator’s office shared a photo of McConnell sitting upright in a chair beside his wife, holding a copy of that day’s Washington Post sports section in his lap.
A statement released by his office alongside the image, written in the first person so as to suggest it was penned by McConnell himself, specified that while the 84-year-old had not broken bones, suffered a concussion, or had a heart attack or stroke, he had dealt with a “mild case of pneumonia” during his time in the hospital.
He did not offer a projection for when he might return to work, noting that he moved to a rehabilitation facility and is still “working closely” with legislative staff.
McConnell’s team has not provided any further explanation or evidence supporting McConnell’s improving health condition in the weeks since, despite demands from his constituents and local lawmakers.
On Saturday, West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito told independent journalist Nicholas Ballasy that she had spoken to someone the day before who visited McConnell and said that “he’s clear-minded, and he just needs to get stronger.”
Trump Admin Overhauls Asylum Process to Fast-Track Deportations
President Donald Trump’s administration has found a new way to gut due process and fast-track deportation for asylum applicants.
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, or USCIS, the agency that manages visas, green cards, naturalizations, and other aspects of the legal immigration process, published a new regulation Monday allowing officers to refer hundreds of thousands of asylum applicants directly to deportation proceedings without interviewing them.
The rule would scrap USCIS’s long-standing practice of offering interviews to asylum applicants already in the United States. The agency claimed that it had previously offered interviews despite there being “no statutory right to an interview or requirement to conduct one.” The rule would also remove references in Department of Homeland Security materials to a “right” to an interview and language asserting that asylum officers would review cases “in an interview.”
“This means many people will never get a chance to argue their case,” Aaron Reichlin-Melchick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on X Monday. In order to receive asylum, applicants must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country.
The filing states that the new rule will “more quickly place certain aliens into removal proceedings” with immigration judges at the Executive Office of Immigration Review, or EOIR. Once asylum applicants are passed to the EOIR, the cases that are deemed “legally deficient” may be pretermitted, meaning those applicants can be deported without a hearing.
No interview and no hearing? That sounds like a clear violation of due process—which the Trump administration has been angling to obliterate for more than a year.
In addition, the new rule would allow asylum officers to “determine that the alien does not merit a grant [of asylum] as a matter of discretion without first making an eligibility determination,” and would also stop requiring a letter communicating that the basis for referral of asylum should include an assessment of the applicant’s credibility.
The rule was published Monday, to be implemented Tuesday without prior warning or public comment period—and will likely invite a slew of legal challenges under the Administrative Procedures Act.
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Are AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY’s Latverian Witches the Missing X-MEN?
- Are the Latverian witches the answer to the question of why Avengers: Doomsday is missing three major women from the X-Men movies?
Something hasn’t made sense about Avengers: Doomsday since Marvel Studios made us spend a whole day staring at empty chairs. The film will bring together the MCU and Fox’s X-Men cinematic universe, yet the latter will be missing three of its most important members. Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, and Anna Paquin are somehow not part of the crossover event’s massive cast. Their omission seems strange at best and ludicrous at worst. How can Marvel bring back just about every other big X-Men star, especially all the men but not those three women? Maybe because that’s just what they want us to think. And we did until year’s San Diego Comic-Con, when they Marvel might have subtly told us what’s really going on – those three might appear in Avengers: Doomsday as Latverian witches.
20th Century/MarvelNerdist
Marvel used its booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 to make sure MCU fans had a new theory to obsess over for the next five months. The studio filled its floor space with superhero costumes and scenery we expect to see in Avengers: Doomsday. The only surprise was the most intriguing display was a robed female mannequin adorned with Doom accessories that Marvel called “Latverian witch.” Over the course of the first three days, the masked figures robes changed colors—purple, green, and orange/brown—until Doom himself replaced them on day four.
These three mysterious figures pretty clearly appear to be three witches powerful enough to serve the most dangerous sorcerer in the multiverse. The obvious question Marvel wants all of us to ask is who might be under those masks. Who would Victor von Doom even want to recruit/entrance to his cause? The MCU is rich with witches these days, and with no obvious comic book equivalents the Latverian witches could be a whole lot of people. Some make more sense than others.
Charlize Theron’s purple-clad, incursion-fighting Clea is an obvious candidate. Same with Sophie Di Martino’s green-wearing Loki variant Sylvie. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange can’t be ruled out, either. And even if Marvel didn’t put a red robe on its Comic-Con mannequin, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is among the biggest possiblities.
(We also can’t rule out there being more than three Latverian witches. This is a Russos brothers’ movie, after all. It wouldn’t shock us if we got six colorful Doom servants with each representing one of the Infinity Stones. But that’s a theory for another day…)
Twentieth Century Films
For all of the many major characters who make sense as Doom witch “allies,” it’s impossible not to wonder if these three masked characters are the answer to the biggest question we have about this movie’s cast: where in Mephisto’s hell are three of the most important X-Men? Why, as they both said, did Marvel not even reach out to Famke Janssen and Halle Berry? Why would the studio not grant Anna Paquin’s wish to finally fly on screen so she could join her former X-Men costars?
It makes no sense. It has never made any sense. Which might be the point. After the complete failure to even remotely hide the appearance of both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel might have tried a very different tactic to hold back some major cameos this time. (Especially since it’s easier to hide surprises when your cast is already 500 deep.) Why wouldn’t Marvel want to hold back that Jean Grey, Storm, and Rogue are powerful servants of Doom? That would/will be a true “holy shit” moment. Think about how fun it was when Spider-Man did pull off a secret, the appearance of J.K. Simmons in Far From Home.
This really starts to feel more plausible when you remember one of Storm’s monikers is the Weather Witch. Jean Grey’s powers are certainly enough to serve as a Latverian witch. The only real thorn in this theory’s side is Rogue, who no one would consider a witch. Sure, Doom could name anyone he wants/imbues/enhance with the powers of a witch. But she doesn’t have abilities on her own that seem witch-like the way Storm and Jean/Phoenix’s do, you know? All Rogue can do is…hold on I want to make sure I have this right
….Rogue can touch people and “absorb memories, powers, and personality traits from others.”
Oh.
Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel Secret Wars won’t feel complete if X-Men‘s Jean Grey, Storm, and Rogue aren’t part of this multiversal clash. It never made any sense they wouldn’t be. But it does if Victor von Doom doesn’t want us to know the truth about his Latverian witches just yet.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He’s ready to get hurt by another theory. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
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Lindsey Graham Giggles With Glee Over Iran Strikes in New Video
At least one American was cheering when the White House decided to drop bombs on Iran.
Previously unreleased documentary footage has put late South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s warmongering on full display, exposing just how gleeful he was when the country ignited the Iran war.
“Look what we’ve done here. I almost cried,” Graham says in one video clip, practically giddy.
“I talked to [Donald] Trump this morning, he’s jacked, he said, ‘Best thing I have ever done.’ He loves blowing stuff up,” the conservative lawmaker said at the time. “I mean, how long have we been pushing this?
“There were a lot of people inside that didn’t want to do it, so I had my challenges,” he added.
Lindsey Graham celebrating the start of the Iran war. Dark stuff. pic.twitter.com/IJmjg0ATqa
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) July 26, 2026The footage was captured by British filmmaker Alex Holder, who had been granted remarkable access to film Graham since 2023. The footage is a part of an upcoming documentary that is currently titled “Lindsey’s Graham,” a reference to the senator’s personal perspective on his role in U.S. foreign policy.
“He would call what this was ‘a game,’” Holder told The Wall Street Journal, recalling that Graham had shared how bizarre he felt it was that a senator from South Carolina was closer with some Middle East leaders than most presidential administrations.
Graham reportedly agreed to the angle of the film, claiming that he wanted the public to understand his role in the Senate. Holder told the Journal that Graham had remarked how “cool this was.”
In another clip in which he expresses his joy with the interventionist strategy, Graham compared Trump to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Winston Churchill, likening the burgeoning Middle East conflict to World War II.
“President Trump, when he gets into the zone, he listens, he asks good questions, no tweeting. He … hasn’t tweeted much at all,” Graham said. “No drama, he’s been a great wartime president.
“I mean, they’re the right two guys to confront this evil,” Graham added.
In other recently released footage, Graham was captured phoning Netanyahu—whom he referred to as his “friend”—about a joint plan to lobby Trump to get involved in the conflict.
“We’re concentrating right now on Iran,” Netanyahu told Graham over speakerphone on a March 4 call. “If we tell Hezbollah that we’re going all the way, we threaten them, but if we actually do it, then they have no reason not to go all the way against us. And right now that’s not our interest.”
“That’s actually good counsel,” Graham responded from his Senate office, decorated with Trump merchandise. “I’ll put it out there as an idea; we can always go back to it.”
UNSEEN FOOTAGE of Lindsey Graham on CALL with Netanyahu revealing plans to LOBBY Trump to BOMB Lebanon
BIBI: Glad you’re my FRIEND
GRAHAM: Going to try to get Trump to join with y'all in Lebanon… WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?
B: Concentrating right now on IRAN
G: Can always go back pic.twitter.com/9Wt0MCuEpq
Yet the Iran war has done nothing good for America in the 21 weeks since it began. The conflict has so far killed at least 18 U.S. service members and wounded more than 600 others. It has also taken an enormous toll on daily life in the U.S., inflaming the cost of practically everything as shipping companies contend with rising oil costs.
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Nearly 8 in 10 Americans believe President Donald Trump underestimated the difficulty of waging war on Iran, and two of Trump’s closest deputies are facing fresh political heat over the escalating conflict. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance represent opposite ends of the Iran conflict, yet both now find themselves facing down attacks from within their own party.