In brief: Former U.S. Rep Phil Crane dies at 84

CHICAGO – Longtime Illinois U.S. Rep. Phil Crane – an anti-tax crusader and ardent advocate of limited government even before those views became a hallmark of the GOP under President Ronald Reagan – has died of lung cancer at age 84.

The Chicago-born Crane died Saturday night at his daughter’s Jefferson, Maryland, home surrounded by the children he once delighted in sending poems to, said Eric Elk, a congressional aide to Crane through much of the 1990s.

The one-time history professor-turned politician represented Chicago’s far northwest suburbs for 35 years and was the longest-serving House Republican when he was defeated in 2004 by Democrat and then-political newcomer Melissa Bean.

Crane also made an unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, losing out to the eventual winner, Ronald Reagan, who would go on to become the politician most closely associated with the modern conservative movement.

But Crane had touted what he saw as the virtue of smaller government going back to the 1960s, spelling out his vision of a stripped-down, low-tax federal government in his 1976 book, “The Sum of Good Government.”

“Phil was conservative before it was cool to be conservative,” said Elk.

American Airlines workers reject contract

WASHINGTON – Flight attendants at American Airlines rejected a five-year contract Sunday, forcing the world’s largest carrier and its union for cabin-crew workers into binding arbitration.

Just 16 votes blocked the contract – with 8,180 voting for and 8,196 voting against, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said in a statement.

The rejection of the contract affects roughly 24,000 workers and complicates the integration of American Airlines and US Airways.

CAMARILLO, Calif. – A national survey of gas prices reports that the average cost of U.S. regular grade gas dropped 13 cents per gallon in the last two weeks.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that the average for regular grade gas is $2.94 per gallon, while midgrade averages $3.18 and premium $3.34. Retail diesel averages $3.64.

Lundberg said the price has dropped 78 cents per gallon since its peak in May. She said the drop has been driven by a decrease in the price of crude oil. She forecasts that will come to an end now unless oil prices drop further.