April 3, 1985

Ted Turner, who was reported late in February to be seeking a takeover of CBS Inc., is preparing for a move on the company, sources in the broadcast industry said last night. The Atlanta-based cable and broadcasting entrepreneur, who backed away from the early reports of his interest in CBS, has been in New York this week and in Washington in recent weeks trying to line up financing for a takeover bid, these sources said. According to the sources, Mr. Turner has secured financial commitments of some $50 million each from MCI Communications, a major long-distance telephone company, and from William E. Simon, the former Treasury Secretary. They also said that Shearson Lehman Brothers had debated whether to lead a hostile takeover bid for Mr. Turner but declined and that Mr. Turner was talking to other investment houses.

The A. H. Robins Company, a Richmond pharmaceutical concern, said yesterday that it had set aside $615 million to settle legal claims from thousands of women who used its Dalkon Shield birth control device. The reserve fund is by far the biggest provision of its kind in a product liability case, lawyers said. ''Clearly it is the biggest medical device product-reserve ever set up,'' said Dale Larson, a partner in the law firm of Robins, Zelle, Larson & Kaplan in Minneapolis, which specializes in product liability cases. ''It is also undoubtedly one of the largest product reserves set up in any category.''

The gloves came off on Capitol Hill today as the flinty chairman of the Unocal Corporation traded insults with T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who says he might try to take over Unocal. While waiting to testify at a House hearing on corporate mergers, the two men did not even shake hands. ''I decided that he wasn't entitled to shake my hand,'' said the Unocal chairman, Fred L. Hartley. ''That's a strange way to treat your largest shareholder,'' Mr. Pickens answered.

HOWARD M. HALPERN, a Manhattan psychologist, left behind most of his parents' Jewish observances when he left home for college. By all odds, his daughter Sharon might have forsaken even the few to which he clung. But as a young girl she evinced a religious sensibility, and four years ago, in a telephone call from Israel, the depth of her feelings took him by surprise. At age 19, Sharon had strengthened her commitment to becoming Orthodox, to keeping the Sabbath and to following the dietary rituals of kashrut. To underscore that commitment, she wanted to continue her studies at a yeshiva in Israel. While Dr. Halpern believed that Orthodoxy might meet Sharon's needs for an ethical life and a sense of purpose, he said in a recent interview that he felt it might be ''a narrowing experience'' that would limit her ability to think for herself. He worried, too, that his relationship with his daughter would be affected by his being less observant than she.

Under heavy pressure from constituents, the House of Representatives voted today to repeal the new law and regulations that require people who drive company cars or use their own cars on business to keep detailed records for tax purposes. The vote was 412 to 1. The Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved a similar bill today, and the Senate is expected to pass it this week.