SHOESTRING BUDGET: The nonprofit Public Law Center...

SHOESTRING BUDGET: The nonprofit Public Law Center has taken a financial tumble the last couple of years. Much of its support money has dried up, in good part because of the county bankruptcy. But it still posted some big numbers for 1995: more than 1,300 cases resolved by its volunteer lawyers--a 25% jump--and 16,000 hours of donated lawyer time. . . . How has it kept going with contributions slashed to the bone? “We fund-raise our butts off,” says executive director Scott Wylie. “We’ll shine your shoes for $20.”

NOVEL IDEA: There’s more than just a good read now at the Huntington Beach Central Library. You can also get a cup of coffee. A new gourmet coffee bar, Papa Tango’s Coffee, Food & Spice Co., privately owned, has opened on the lower level. Muffins and cookies are being sold, plus three blends of coffee, hot chocolate and iced tea. . . . The library staff says feel free to take books into the coffee area to read. But please don’t take your coffee with you when you browse among the shelves.

WRITE ON: The graduate fiction writing program at UC Irvine is now in its 30th year of serving as a literary launching pad. (E1) Author Geoffrey Wolff, the program’s new director, says all good writers have one thing in common: They’re avid readers. . . . “You cannot do one without the other,” he says. “It would be akin to talking about a jazz musician who never listened to music. I mean, it’s just unimaginable. You just can’t do it.”

FAMILY TIES: Longtime Laguna Beach resident Harriet Nelson of family TV fame died more than a year ago. So what’s become of her beachfront house? It’s still in the family. Son David Nelson, who summered there as a youth, says he and other relatives are frequent visitors. Although the house is now up for lease--$5,000 a month in the winter; $12,000 a month in the summer--the Nelsons have no intention of selling it. “I’d hate to leave it,” says David. “It has a lot of memories.”