NIKKI HALEY won the Vermont Republican presidential primary on Tuesday (Shutterstock).

Super Tuesday went pretty much as expected, but Nikki Haley finally broke through with a victory in Vermont.

She polled 50 percent of the vote at our deadline, outpacing former president Donald Trump with 45.7 percent. Together with an earlier victory in the District of Columbia and the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. Ambassador to the UN, has two primary wins.

However, Trump won victories in Arkansas, Alabama, Colorado, Texas and Minnesota and picked up more states – including California – when the polls closed on the Pacific Coast.

At our deadline Tuesday night, Trump had 493 delegates to 52 for Haley and 12 to others. A candidate must have 1,215 delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden was the declared winner in 15 contests, including California.

Despite Haley’s upset win, Tuesday’s outcome makes a Biden-Trump rematch for the White House more likely.

Schiff has lead over Garvey; Porter lags

ADAM SCHIFF

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff broke out to an early lead in a unique race for seven years in the U.S. Senate, but Republican Steve Garvey was turning in a strong performance in second place.

Trailing in third was Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine.

At issue is an unexpired term that ends Jan. 3, 2025 and a full term ending January 2031.

Under California’s new primary system, the top two finishers – regardless of party – face off in November.

Homelessness case coming to high court

SHOULD CITIES have the power to clear homeless encampments?

Should cities be allowed to clear the streets of the unhoused? That question will go before the U.S. Supreme Court in April as the justices consider a lower court ruling that prohibited such sweeps.

At issue is a ruling five years ago by the 9th  U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that held that emptying such encampments of the “involuntarily homeless” constituted a “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Bill of Rights.

Such a ruling led to cities seeking to build shelters and “navigation centers” to offer shelter with mixed results. Many of the homeless are unwilling to accept shelter for reasons ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to resistance to being separated from partners or pets.

There’s been a 12 percent increase in homelessness in the past year, an estimated 653,000 people. More than a quarter of those are in California.

Sinema bows out of Senate race

Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema announced on Tuesday that she would not seek re-election.
Elected as a Democrat, but switching to “independent” status, her actions in Congress have been controversial as she sometimes departed from the wishes of the slim Democratic majority in the upper house.

Her decision is considered good news for the Democrats,  because it boosts their chances of keeping a majority in the Senate.

If she had stayed in the race, the result likely would have been an upredictable three-sided race among her, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego and Republican “hard-liner” Kari Lake.

Weather: Some rain, a lot of clouds

The plus side is that our West Orange County area is warming up. The down side is that we continue to have rain and clouds. Wednesday is expected to have afternoon showers; the daytime high is predicted to be 63 with an overnight low of 50. Thursday through Saturday we can expect partly cloudy skies. The daytime highs will rise from 63 to 70 with evening lows of 49 to 50.