♦ "We're going to try to keep an open mind until we can see what will happen...there are definitely a range of reactions and emotions," LA Weekly Editor Laurie Ochoa told the LAT regarding the New Times takeover. Former New Times Los Angeles editor in chief Rick Barrs quipped from Phoenix, "It was always kind of a fantasy of mine that we would end up back in charge in L.A."

♦ Club and party photographer Mark "The Cobra Snake" Hunter has "no car, no steady job, and is barely 20 years old," the Times says in today's Column One. But the hipsters adore him and his website. This week his computer is broken (and he's in Paris) so there won't be any more photos posted until Halloween. His work also appears in the LAWeekly.

♦ The LAPD will miss its deadline for implementing the Rampart reforms and escaping federal monitoring, Chief Bill Bratton says.

♦ Close call with a red-light runner for Mayor Villaraigosa on the Orange Line, proving that you can give Valley denizens a busway but you can't necessarily teach them how to use it.

♦ U.S. News and World Report named Villaraigosa one of America's 25 Best Leaders.

♦ The Daily News under Ron Kaye has begun incorporating content from LA.com in the paper's online feature sections.

♦ L.A. loves Jack FM, but New York hates it.

♦ From the OC Weekly's Best of Orange County edition, Newport Beach division: Best Place to See the Real Power in OC: "When Irvine Co. officials heard that the Los Angeles Times was going to run a humor piece suggesting that Irvine Co. boss Don Bren was the inspiration for The O.C. bad guy Caleb Nichol, they went nuts. But consider: aging but vital developers who father children out of wedlock with far-younger women and who run local politics through the great wealth generated by their real estate firms (one 'The Newport Group,' the other 'The Irvine Co.')? The story never ran. We’re just saying."

♦ SeasonalChef.com is another Los Angeles-based culinary website. It's more of a zine than a blog, and its focus on farmers markets and chefs extends beyond L.A. It's by Mark Thompson, who wrote a biography of important Los Angeles figure Charles Lummis.

♦ Not a Cornfield, the art installation north of downtown, will be open until 9 pm on Halloween with fog machines and electronica music by The Aliens. The site will also celebrate Dia de los Muertos from Nov. 2-5.

♦ I'm only a week late on this one, but the Los Angeles Times will begin in January to do joint national polls with Bloomberg News. The existing Times Poll unit in Los Angeles, directed by Susan Pinkus, will do the work.

♦ Is S. David Freeman, Villaraigosa's prez of the harbor commission, a hero or a loose cannon?