CUP FEES: Each time someone on probation...

CUP FEES: Each time someone on probation fills a paper cup for a urinalysis drug test, it costs local taxpayers $5.90. Which doesn’t please Supervisor Jim Silva. Says Silva: “The actions of these offenders have already exacted a high cost. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for them to pay for this.” . . . County probation officials say that’s what they’re trying to do, but most probationers can barely pay victim restitution. . . . Silva finally joined other supervisors Tuesday in approving $189,000 to UC Irvine Medical Center to provide probation urinalysis drug tests.

KOBE’S RUN: Remember those 14 eager runners who started out at dawn near the Huntington Beach Pier on June 17, ready for a 2,905-mile trek cross-country? Ten of them finished in New York City last weekend in the fourth annual Trans America footrace. . . . The winner was Slovenian military trainer Dusan Mravlje. But many were cheering 45-year-old Eiko Endo of Kawaguchi, Japan, who finished sixth and set the women’s record for the race. Endo dedicated her run to earthquake victims in Kobe, Japan.

CAFFEINE ART: Joe Felz has taken a new approach to finding visitors for the Fullerton Museum Center: Free coffee and free access to the Internet, to learn such java lore as coffeehouse locations and favored blends. The computer offering coincides with the center’s current exhibit (through Sunday) about the history of coffee. . . . Says Felz, the museum director: “It’s attracting attention: We’re going through several pots a day.”

FREE WINDOW JOB: The hottest computer topic, of course, is Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 95, due to hit the market Thursday. And Microsoft is spending big money to get the word out. . . . For example, it provided Irvine Valley College with a $150,000 grant just to teach its instructors how to use the new software--then pass it on to their students. Joyce Arnston, a business science professor there who obtained the grant, says Microsoft sees community colleges as a “great low-cost training vehicle”--only one-tenth of what it might cost at a commercial training center.