One Lil’ Ol’ Texan, One Big Vote

--It’s one woman, one vote in Mechelle Barnes’ district in Lewisville, Tex. Although it was a countywide election, Barnes knew that her choice in the $20.1-million Denton County Levee Improvement District bond issue election would make a difference in her voting district. She is the district’s only resident, the polling place is in her mobile home and she also is the district’s election judge. Barnes wouldn’t say how she voted. “I want to wait until I file the returns with the county,” she said. The district, just northwest of Dallas, was drawn by Denton County commissioners more than a year ago without regard for the number of residents.

--The father of Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s fiancee, says he has no objection to his ex-wife’s Argentine husband coming to the royal wedding at London’s Westminster Abbey on July 23. “I don’t see why he shouldn’t be allowed to come,” Maj. Ronald Ferguson said of Hector Barrantes. “I don’t mind him coming.” Barrantes, a wealthy beef and grain farmer who lives with Ferguson’s mother, Susan, on their ranch near the Argentine town of Guamini, has said that he does not think hostility between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands should matter for the wedding. Andrew, a Royal Navy helicopter pilot, fought in the 1982 Falklands war that returned the disputed South Atlantic islands to British rule after Argentine troops invaded them. Argentina has refused to declare an end to hostilities, and diplomatic relations between the two nations remain severed.

--Katherine Healy, the 17-year-old American ballet star, has quit the London Festival Ballet after 18 months because she didn’t like the way she was treated in Britain. Healy, who has returned to New York, told London’s Daily Mail that “certain people” at the ballet “resented the fact that I was American and young. . . . I was even called an ungrateful brat once in rehearsal. It was a very frightening experience for me. After that humiliation, I decided they wanted me out.” The company denied there was a campaign against Healy and said that such incidents at rehearsals are not uncommon in the ballet world. Healy played a dying young ballerina in the film “Six Weeks” with Mary Tyler Moore and Dudley Moore.

--A Kenyan tribal chief has banned wife-beating in the territory under his command, the Daily Standard (of Nairobi) reported. The newspaper said that Hamisi Hiyesa, a chief in the Bura region of eastern Kenya, read the notice at a public meeting.