Missing woman found in desert grave:
After nearly 25 months of searching, the body of Tempe woman Loretta Bowersock has been found.
Bowersock, 69 years old at the time of her disappearance, is the mother of Terri Bowersock, owner of Terri's Consign & Design Furnishings.
Rock collectors stumbled upon the woman's remains in a river wash near the intersection of Interstate 8 and State Route 84 late in the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 10.
The site was excavated by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office the following morning, and detectives identified the body as Bowersock's Thursday.
Examiners believe asphyxiation to be the cause of death. Detectives say the body was found wrapped in black landscaping tarp with remnants of a plastic bag near the skull.
The discovery is an important step in a case that the Tempe Police Department has been working on since Bowersock's disappearance in December 2004.
"We ... hope that today's announcement may provide some resolution and peace," said Sgt. Dan Masters of the Tempe Police Department.
-Shea Drefs
Fulton donates $100 million to ASU:
ASU received one of the largest gifts in the history of higher education for Christmas.
Ira A. and Mary Lou Fulton presented ASU with a check for $100 million. When added to previous donations, the recent check puts their grand total of donation to ASU at more than $160 million to date.
-Kelsey Perry
Crow 10th on worst spins of 2005 list:
ASU President Michael Crow's nomination to a 2005 top-ten worst spin on a public-relations blog won't change his mind about Playboy listing ASU as a top party school, a University spokeswoman said Monday.
"I think we stand behind what President Crow said about the Playboy designation that [it] is, again, a personal opinion from the Playboy editors who are trying to sell magazines," said ASU spokeswoman Terri Shafer.
Crow was ranked tenth on "The 10 Worst Spins of 2005," released Dec. 28 on Media Orchard, a Texas-based blog. Its owner and operator, Scott Baradell, cited Crow's reaction to Playboy as the reason for including him on the list.
Crow told The Arizona Republic in November that the party-school ranking was "a gross simplification that doesn't have anything to do with who we are and what we are."
Rather than reacting to Playboy, Crow should focus instead on promoting the positive aspects of the university and strengthening its academic reputation, Baradell said.
"Defensiveness is weakness," he said. "Whenever you react defensively to anything, you are perceived as having something to hide."
-Grayson Steinberg
Tempe properties sell for millions:
Three Tempe buildings at 1900, 1910 and 2000 W. University Drive were sold last week for $17.24 million to Great Point Investors of Boston.
The property is located approximately two miles from the Tempe campus, totaling 124,493 square feet in area.
The first building, Region Centre One located at the 1900 address is a multi-tenant office building which is currently occupied by seven tenants.
The second, Region Centre Two at 1910 and the third at 2000 are both fully occupied and owned by Ikon Office Solutions, said Rick Abraham, a senior associate of the global real estate company CB Richard Elise.
--Kelsey Perry
