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Caja Castilla La Mancha, which has been tottering for a while, quietly fell over today and was quickly taken over by the national bank Banco de Espana.

The politicians have been trying to quietly merge it with Andalucian giant Unicaja for a while now – No doubt Banco de Espana will keep the smelly bits while Unicaja, who are sharp cookies, keep the sweet pieces.

A young woman from Lima, Peru is being venerated as a new Incan Princess after being able to float in the air for periods of up to 20 mins supported only by corn seeds.

See the video over at: http://www.thereader.es/pages/E2809CIncan_PrincessE2809D_revered_in_Peru_as_she_is_able_to_float_for_20_minutes_655.cfm

Here’s a link to the latest version of the POTALA plans as published on the Junta de Andalucia website:

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/site/web/menuitem.a5664a214f73c3df81d8899661525ea0/?vgnextoid=15bf5f4eecac9110VgnVCM1000000624e50aRCRD

(Thanks to Mick Petty for forwarding the link, I missed this!)

According to Jim Simpson, Almerias only English councillor, over in Zurgena a gentleman expat has had his land expropriated up to a meter away from his swimming pool for the new motorway. (Here). Blimey. Of course, he won’t get a penny more than the 1,2€odd a m2 for land they actually take. He’s also stuffed inasmuch as he can’t do anything within 150m of the motorway, so goodbye any  new structure on his land….

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The Catholic Church has been criticized for interfering in the natural political process of Spain by attempting to create a political campaign against the modernization of Spains abortion laws. By first claiming that Spain holds in greater regard endangered species such as the Iberian Lynx than born children, it is trivializing the whole situation and ignoring the sterling work carried out by ecological groups in saving these wonderful animals. And by asking people in Easter parades to carrying the white ribbon of anti-abortion they are attempting to utilize Easter for their own ends. The sternest rebuke came from the leader of the Almeria Easter parades, who said “that while each of us hold our own opinions on abortion, and in general we are against abortion, the Easter parades are neither the time nor the place to interfere with the natural political process”.

The law on abortion was a typical transition style law, which aimed to please everyone and offend no-one in the fledgling democracy of 1980s Spain. It is restrictive and fails the very people it seeks to protect – updating it is a necessity for a modern, strong democracy. The Church has its spokesperson on the reform committee, and must realise that society has moved on, and that if it, too, does not evolve it too is in danger of sinking into the mud .

CAM Bank (www.cam.es) has gotten tired of real estate agents and offered, direct to the public, it’s stock of distressed and repossesed homes, together with prepacked mortgages of up to 80%.

The whole list is over on the somewhat unfortunatly named website http://www.SubastaScam.es/

And Turre is STILL overpriced. Nobody wants to pay 98K for those dodgy 71m2 flats next to SuperTurre. That’s €1381 a square meter. Still better than Vera tho’: 2276m2 (141.170€ for a 61m2 apartment?)

I also notice that they haven’t bothered to apply for a British Estate Agent in Spain Federation membership. Ah Hem.

Here we go. The BOJA (Official state bulletin for the Junta de Andalucia) has published approval of the POTALA and has created a steering committee to see it through to the bitter end.

Spain has so many layers of bureaucratic nonsense (even the Diputacion de Almeria admits that there is no real need for the Diputacion de Almeria) that it’s quite a big steering committee. Hopefully done that way on purpose so nobody has to take the can for the huge mess the whole plan will be.

More from thereader.es

No, I haven’t started reading the Daily Mirror, it was in La Voz de Almería.

I can’t find the article quoted on the Daily Mirror website, but it seems that in a recent survey “La Inmaculada” hospital in Huercal Overa was voted second only to the University Hospital in Alicante for quality of treatment and patient care.

Local Vera restaurant “Juan Moreno” has won yet another prestigious award, this time the “Al Andalus” 2009 Gastronomic Award for the Best Restaurant in Andalucia, awarded by the Andalucian Federation of wine and food Guild ( Federación Andaluza de Cofradías Vínicas y Gastronómicas).

Well done my son. An excellent restaurant.

There’s a new newspaper hitting the Almería Levante region.

It’s a freebie, out every two weeks, with actual opinion pieces, journalistic news reporting and much more. It’s also going to have a substantially bigger distribution area and print run than any of the other english freebies, meaning you get a lot more bang for your buck!

It’s called “The Reader” and it has a beta version of its site up and running over at www.thereader.es.

First edition out on the 3rd of April.