The former U.S. senator from Vermont who in 2001 tipped control of the Senate when he quit the Republican Party to become an independent has died. James Jeffords was 80. Jeffords had announced in 2005 that he would not seek a fourth term, citing his and his wife's health problems. His wife, Liz, died in 2007. Jeffords served more than 30 years in Washington. He won election to the House in 1974 as a Republican. He was the only Republican in the House to vote against President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts in 1981. A decade late, upset with President George...