GREEN ENC: The first issue of Enc,...

GREEN ENC: The first issue of Enc, the glossy new magazine by the Environmental Nature Center, is out this week with articles on Upper Newport Bay and marine mammal research. The magazine’s purpose is twofold. The nonprofit Newport Beach center is facing a budget squeeze that could close it, and the directors hope the magazine’s income can keep it afloat. But also, says Publisher Bo Glover, it hopes to be “the environmental guide for the Orange County community.”

NOT UNTOUCHABLE: Taco Bell Chairman John Martin has lost 50 pounds over this past year, and credits the Irvine-based fast-food chain’s new “Border Light” foods. Now it’s launching a new marketing campaign to promote its light-calorie menu expansion, beginning today during the NBA basketball “Game of the Week.” . . . New spokesman: Robert Stack, star of TV’s “The Untouchables” and the current “Unsolved Mysteries.” And yes, Stack will appear as a G-man--pushing Mexican food.

FRIENDS FETED: The cash-strapped Orange County Public Library has been getting by with a little help from its friends. Since July, 23 Friends of the Library groups have donated $100,000 for books, supplies and programs. . . . A public recognition breakfast to laud those efforts--timed for National Library Week--is scheduled for Thursday at Planet Hollywood in Santa Ana. . . . Breakfast speakers will be mystery novelists T. Jefferson Parker and Carol Higgins Clark.

CHANGE IN ORDER: One reason some don’t shop downtown in Huntington Beach: They never have change for the parking meters. City officials have agreed to help out Main Street merchants. They’ve OKd $9,000 to install a change machine. If that sounds like a lot--the city’s 127 downtown meters produce $1,000 a day when fully used. . . . Steve Daniel, owner of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on Main, says he was always happy to give people change: “Nine times out of 10, they’ll go and put their coins in the meter and come back and buy something.”