NO SUCKING SOUND: Want to gather with...

NO SUCKING SOUND: Want to gather with kindred spirits to root for Vice President Al Gore or Texas billionaire Ross Perot in their televised NAFTA debate tonight? Pro-Gore forces are still picking a place. Perot fans go to Casa de Carlos in Woodland Hills. . . . Asked if a Mexican restaurant isn’t an unusual choice, given their attitude toward Mexico, Valley anti-NAFTA leader Harry Musolff replied: “There’s nothing wrong with people with Mexican heritage who have lived and worked here for years. I’m not against them.”

HOME CHEAP HOME: Valley-area houses continue plunging in value. The median sales price of a single-family house fell to $187,000 in October, down 11% from a year earlier, real estate agents report. The average price hit $249,700, lowest since 1987. See Valley Business, Page 8.

MINORITY MAJORITY: Cal State Northridge, once regarded as the quintessential suburban white campus, now has a minority of Anglo students for the first time (B1). . . . Campus officials attribute the Anglo enrollment dip to 49% to the Valley’s growing minority populations and campus diversity efforts.

FIRE ESCAPE: From high-rise offices in Woodland Hills, Valley insurance execs watched nervously as smoke poured into the Topanga sky, perhaps signaling big claims to come. But by fortune and foresight, several big firms avoided major losses. One cut back on fire-zone business after the Oakland fire; others were just lucky the fickle winds blew away from clients’ houses. See Valley Business, Page 4.

HOME ALONE: A 13-year-old Sunland boy told police two robbers tricked their way into his house, left him bound on the lawn and burned it (B4). Aftermath: possible child endangerment charges against his night-working father. “How many people have left their children with 13, 14, 15 year-olds as baby-sitters?” countered the father.