Chandler Family

The proposed takeover of Times Mirror Co. by Tribune Co. is more than a story of the relinquishing of a Los Angeles family heirloom to a hard-charging corporation from the Midwest. At its core is something more personal and fundamental: a vehement, at times bitter, disagreement over the strategic direction of the company between two strong-willed executives equally confident that his way was best.

Many patrons of the Los Angeles Music Center had hoped that the announcement of President Esther Wachtell's resignation in December would ease internal turmoil, improve fund raising and signal a time of healing. But her presence has remained controversial. Some of her supporters mounted a short-lived petition drive to keep her as president and chief fund-raiser of the Music Center. And others came to her defense. Maurice J.

Earlier this summer, almost 100 psychedelic music fans, subculture aficionados, students of the occult and local literati climbed the flower-petal-strewn steps of publisher couple Jodi Wille and Adam Parfrey's Silver Lake home for a salon celebrating the upcoming publication of "The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, YaHoWa 13 and the Source Family" (Process), the definitive history of a mystical cult that thrived in Los Angeles between 1970 and 1974.

A proposal to televise future Planning Commission meetings on the controversial Headlands project has been turned down by the City Council. Harold R. Kaufman was the only council member to voice support for the proposal at Tuesday's City Council session. The four others gave no reason for opposing the proposal. The debate is the latest over the 122-acre site, one of the last large undeveloped coastal parcels in Southern California.

A fire Monday heavily damaged a 6,000-square-foot mansion that once was the home of the late Los Angeles Times Publisher Otis Chandler. The fire, reported shortly before 6 p.m., was still active more than four hours later. No one was in the home, and there were no injuries. Jim Anderson, San Marino fire marshal, said the home may be a total loss. He said arson investigators were called to the scene in the 1000 block of Oak Grove Place, but he said he doubted that foul play was involved.

The City Council has agreed to spend $247,156 more to complete planning and environmental studies that will guide proposed development of the environmentally sensitive Headlands. City Manager John B. Bahorski said the additional money will let the city complete the two studies at the same time. About $200,000 already has been set aside for the planning study. "We're trying to move the project along at a quicker pace," Bahorski said.

A group of local residents opposed to a controversial $500-million hotel and residential plan for the Headlands has launched a petition drive to bring the issue to a citywide vote. The group began circulating a petition last weekend calling for a referendum on the City Council's April 5 vote to approve the plan, said Doug Thompson, leader of the petition effort. "We are just a bunch of folks who decided this was too important an issue to go by without a vote," Thompson said.

The Chamber of Commerce is holding a "Hike to the Headlands" luncheon Monday to inform residents about two key local initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved, Measure C and Measure D would allow a $500-million hotel and residential development on the Dana Point Headlands, 121 acres of coastal land. The City Council voted in April to approve the development, saying it was a worthy project that would generate much-needed revenue.

A proposal to televise Planning Commission meetings involving planned development of the Dana Point Headlands will be considered today by the City Council. Planning commissioners have said they are against televising the meetings. "After a lengthy conversation with the planning commissioners, it was [our] unanimous consensus that the hearing should not be televised," Chairman Robert F. Nichols Jr. said in a Sept. 5 letter to the council.