Chris Christie 2016 Run Could End His Term As Governor

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If the polls are right and Chris Christie wins a lopsided reelection victory this fall, it will put the New Jersey governor in position to seek the presidency in 2016.

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Tour De France Stage 11 Results: Tony Martin Wins Stage, Chris Froome Maintains Overall Lead (PHOTOS)

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MONT-SAINT-MICHEL, France (AP) — German rider Tony Martin won the 11th stage of the Tour de France and second-placed Chris Froome finished way ahead of his main rivals to significantly improve his overall lead on Wednesday.

As the two-time world time trial champion, Martin did not disappoint over the 20.5-mile route in Normandy from Avranches to the medieval walled city of Mont-Saint-Michel.

Froome was faster over the first two time splits but slowed down in the last section and rolled in 12 seconds slower than Martin, who won in just over 36 minutes.

Froome was the only rider to get within a minute of Martin, with Belgian Thomas De Gendt 1:01 behind in third.

While Martin is not a Tour challenger, others who are supposed to be slipped further behind.

Alejandro Valverde and two-time former champion Alberto Contador were two minutes or more slower than Froome, and 2010 champ Andy Schleck and 2011 champ Cadel Evans lost massive time.

Valverde is still in second place overall but is 3:25 back.

Contador looked stern-faced and tense when he prepared to start. He's now almost four minutes behind Froome.

The Spaniard finished in 15th place, 2:15 behind Martin; Evans was 2:30 slower and Schleck finished 4:44 behind Martin.

"No one's won the Tour de France yet and no one's lost it. We have to get to Paris yet," Contador said. "It's true that Chris Froome is in impressive form and is a great climber, but there are still many stages left."

Martin was lucky to still be in the race after losing consciousness on his team bus after his crash in the opening stage. It was so bad that his left lung was bruised and layers of skin were shredded off his back, preventing him from sleeping properly for several nights.

"It's pretty much OK. There are still some deeper wounds that are left to heal, but it's not that painful anymore like directly after the crash," Martin said. "(Today) the feeling was good. I was just focused on the race. It was more or less like every time trial."

Martin won the penultimate stage of the 2011 Tour, an undulating time trail in Grenoble. He also finished second behind Bradley Wiggins in the time trial at the Olympic Games last year in London.

The ride Wednesday started in Avranches, whose website dates the town's origins to Celts in the 9th century B.C. It ended at the breathtaking island citadel of Mont-Saint-Michel, a World Heritage site because of the Gothic-style Benedictine abbey erected between the 11th and 16th centuries.

However, riding at an average speed of 34 mph in humid conditions, there was little time for Martin to take in the sights.

Mark Cavendish had an eventful day — but for the wrong reasons.

Cavendish's team said it believes someone threw urine at the British rider.

"Yes, that's true I think. I was behind him. I didn't see it, but I think it's true," the team press officer Alessandro Tegner said.

Tegner said the liquid smelled like urine and it was "all over him." He added Cavendish talked about it after the time trial.

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Anderson Silva Knockout: Chris Weidman Wins Middleweight Title Fight At UFC 162 (VIDEO)

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LAS VEGAS — Chris Weidman sent a shock wave through mixed martial arts, stopping Anderson Silva in the second round of the main event at UFC 162 to become the new middleweight champion on Saturday night.

Silva talked, taunted and dared Weidman to engage him. When the champion lowered his hands early in the second round, Weidman caught him with a short left that sent the MMA star to the mat. Weidman pounced and landed a few more shots that forced referee Herb Dean to stop the fight at 1:18.

"I felt destined for this," Weidman said. "It was far-fetched, but I imagined it so many times before in my head."

The win put an end to Silva's nearly seven-year reign atop the UFC middleweight division and his 17-fight win streak.

"I worked for this fight, Chris Weidman is the best now. He is the champion," Silva said. "I've had the belt for a long time. I'm tired."

The former champion fell to 33-5 with the loss.

"(Silva) was an idol of mine. I didn't want to mention it in the camp," said Weidman (10-0), who earned knockout of the night award. "I looked up to him for many years."

In the co-main event in front of a capacity crowd at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar outwrestled and outstruck Charles Oliveira to get the win by unanimous decision.

Fighting in his first non-title fight in more than 3 1/2 years, Edgar looked sharp and utilized excellent footwork to avoid Oliveira. The first two rounds were close, but the third saw Edgar land a number of clean power punches and pull away for the win.

"I thought I had him hurt in the third, but he showed some toughness," said Edgar, who improved to 15-4-1 and placed himself in title contention with the win. Oliveira fell to 16-4.

On the main card, Mark Munoz and Tim Kennedy each earned unanimous decision victories and Cub Swanson bested Dennis Siver in a battle of highly ranked featherweights with a third round TKO.

Chris Weigant: Congress Still Not Working

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Maybe it's just envy. I'll fully admit it, up front. After all, who wouldn't want a job where you get one-third of the time you're supposed to be working as free vacation days? Nice work, if you can find it. So maybe there's a tinge of envy which propels me, on a semi-annual basis, to essentially air the same complaint. But the regularity of these rants is also due to the fact that not much changes in Washington, ever, and one of the reasons that Congress just doesn't work these days is that Congress just doesn't work all that much.

We'll start with the numbers. From the beginning of this year to the last day in June -- exactly one-half of the year -- there were 181 days on the calendar. Subtracting weekends brings this total down to 129 days. In the first half of the year, there were five federal holidays (one more than usual, due to the year having a presidential Inauguration Day). This leaves us with 124 workdays.

The House managed to work on 84 of these days. The Senate only chalked up 78 days of doing business. That is, respectively, 67.7 percent and 62.9 percent, which is pretty dismal when you consider how much paid vacation the average American worker gets. The House was on vacation (to put it another way) for 40 days so far this year, and the Senate took 46 days off. Out of almost 25 full workweeks, the House took off eight of them and the Senate took off more than nine full weeks.

Historically, the record is also pretty dismal. The Senate is at the low end of the range of workdays for the first half of the year, and the House is in the middle of its recent historical range of how much work they do. But in good years, the Senate overperforms the House, so the House range doesn't really go as high. Here are the figures for the past few years (all of these figures are from data found on the Library of Congress' website) of the days Congress actually worked:

2013 House -- 84 days
2013 Senate -- 78 days

2012 House -- 85 days
2012 Senate -- 84 days

2011 House -- 79 days
2011 Senate -- 76 days

2010 House -- 84 days
2010 Senate -- 89 days

2009 House -- 85 days
2009 Senate -- 97 days

2008 House -- 80 days
2008 Senate -- 102 days

2007 House -- 92 days
2007 Senate -- 101 days

Here are the figures for the past three two-term presidents, for the equivalent year into their terms:

Bush
2005 House -- 73 days
2005 Senate -- 82 days

Clinton
1997 House -- 75 days
1997 Senate -- 89 days

Reagan
1985 House -- 74 days
1985 Senate -- 81 days

No matter what year you pick, these are not exactly numbers to be proud of, to put it mildly. As mentioned, this year's totals are on the very low end for the Senate, and towards the middle of a less-impressive range for the House.

And you'll note that because we're only measuring the first half of the year -- up to the end of June -- this year's numbers don't even include the current week, which both the House and Senate (of course) took off. The second half of the legislative calendar is often even more pathetic than the first, in fact, due to the five or six weeks Congress takes off in August, and the end-of-the-year holidays, where they also routinely take off an entire month. Good thing it's not an election year, because that would mean they would also be planning to take a large chunk off in October, to campaign.

This is what we get for our money, folks.

This year in particular is even more disgraceful than normal -- which is what motivated me to write this semi-annual rant instead of my usual weekly Friday column. Because Congress left some very big unfinished business hanging as they scurried out of town last week. They missed a legislative deadline which doubled the rate students pay on their student loans.

This is the message Congress is sending: Sorry, all you aspiring college students, but we just couldn't manage to squeeze it in what with our many, many days off this year. You guys understand, right? We had to go back home to raise some campaign cash, and you students got lost in the shuffle. That's the way it goes, so suck it up, students. Hey -- how's this -- we'll fix it later, and then backdate it. That won't interfere with your planning for the next school year, will it? Well, even if it does, you'll be happy to note that we had a great time in [fill in vacation junket destination] while we were all busy not doing the people's business (but don't worry, each and every one of us drew a paycheck for this week, so we'll be fine).

Think this is too harsh? I don't, and I'm not even a student. In fact, I don't think it even comes close to the disdain Congress just exhibited to their constituents. Because this was such an egregious dereliction of duty, in fact, I found myself agreeing with Greta Van Susteren (which doesn't happen often), who also wrote an attempt to shame Congress for their lack of work ethics last week. Van Susteren directed her wrath at the Senate, but she did so in a very non-partisan fashion, which I share. This isn't a problem of partisan politics -- this is a Washington problem. It's a problem with Congress as a whole. It's an attitude problem, in fact, because those in Congress feel entitled to take this much time away from doing what they're paid to do.

In fact, I don't think I've gotten harsh enough in pointing out Congress' pathetic priorities. Consider the fact that right when the whole "spying on Americans" N.S.A. leak story hit the height of frenzy, the N.S.A. scheduled a briefing for the entire Senate. Since it was such a hot issue, it was determined that every Senator should have the opportunity to find out what is going on. Less than half of them even bothered to show up for the briefing. The reason for such poor attendance? It was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. And that interfered with plane flights home, because the Senate was planning on wrapping up their workweek at noon on Thursday.

This is a little secret that even those calendar counts doesn't reveal -- some "workdays" either happen for a few hours in the morning, or a few hours in the afternoon. Congress can gavel itself into session at noon on Tuesday, work a feverish two full workdays, and then leave to go raise some more campaign cash at noon on Thursday -- while the calendar will actually show three days worked instead of two.

Pathetic.

Congress has even shown this year how -- when it comes to not inconveniencing themselves -- they can move with lightning speed, as they did when the sequester was threatening to slightly delay their own flights back home for their regular four-day weekends. Boy, howdy, Congress moved quick to fix that particular problem, didn't they? Their quick action inspired me to write the following bit of snark when it happened:

The real message of this week is a simple one: for all the talk about how "Congress is broken" and "Congress can't do anything," the hard cold truth is that Congress is indeed capable of moving very quickly indeed -- when it wants to. Inside of one week they put a bill on President Obama's desk. That's the yardstick to measure all other legislation -- legislation which affects other Americans than "those in Congress" -- when you hear either Harry Reid or John Boehner moan about "process" or some other wonky way of describing "sitting on our fat asses and not producing legislation." Sorry guys, but when you are personally motivated, it takes one single week to pass a law. Especially when you buckle down and concentrate, without getting distracted by attending hearings on America's job crisis (and other subjects which don't affect you personally). One week. That's the standard we can now hold you to. We'll be sure to remember that.

In fact, Congress only ever moves this fast for two reasons: selfishness (avoiding their own personal inconvenience), or when even more of their vacation time is threatened. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid admittedly has quite a few drawbacks as a legislative leader, but he is an absolute master of getting bills passed the day before a vacation break. Reid announces "we won't be going on vacation until this vote is held," and the Senate panics and the obstructionism melts away like an ice pop on a July sidewalk. You'll notice that immigration reform passed right before the Independence Day break -- only the most recent manifestation of the power of threatening loss of vacation time in the Senate.

Of course, by the original schedule of the issue, immigration was slated to be done in March or April. And Harry could have kept the Senate in session until they had passed some sort of student loan fix before blowing town (the House had already passed its own version). So it's not like the last few weeks have been anything to cheer about in the Senate, really.

The reason why Congress keeps right on getting away with only working about two-thirds of the time available is that the American public either doesn't know about it or accepts it as part of Washington being Washington. Which is why I keep writing these columns, twice a year -- to remind people just how bad things have gotten, and to put it into some sort of perspective.

I've always been astonished, personally, that more people don't get upset about Congress' lackadaisical attitude towards doing what it is supposed to do to earn all those taxpayer dollars we pay them. Perhaps if the work schedule of Congress were made a political issue?

Picture the following scenario, to see how this could work. President Obama listens to the House bickering over immigration bills throughout the month of July. Towards the end, when not much has been accomplished, he starts pointing out that the current Congress is measurably worse than Harry S Truman's "Do-Nothing Congress" in terms of doing their jobs. Obama announces that not creating a commonsense immigration policy is not acceptable. He can do this without wading into the details, by focusing on the fact that the House isn't getting anything done.

Obama then announces that he will be using his constitutional power to call Congress into session whenever he wishes, and that Congress will be working right through August until they have passed something in the House and at least created a conference committee between the two houses to work out the details. Every member of Congress will be coming to work every day, until this is achieved. All those five-week-long vacation plans? They will not happen. Not until the job is done.

By doing so, Obama would shine a spotlight on Congress' dismal work record -- a record which is truly indefensible. Whining from Congresscritters about their lost vacation plans will likely fall on very deaf ears in the public at large, most of whom don't get as much paid vacation all year as Congress takes off during the August break alone.

You think that might motivate Congress to act? Republicans could moan and groan, but it's right there in the Constitution -- the president can order Congress into session whenever he feels like it. Obama's constant refrain of "not doing your job is not an option" would win out over any such complaints.

That's my guess, at any rate. Call it a summertime daydream, if you will, but at least envisioning such a scenario is better than contemplating a senator reclining on a beach, drenched by the sun, drinking mai tais, while students across the land have to wait and worry about their loan rates. Or immigrants about whether Congress will act or not this year. Or any of the thousands of other issues that are falling by the wayside as the sun slips slowly into the sea and another round of drinks is ordered by our supposed "public servants."

[Program Note: Sorry for the lack of a Friday Talking Points column this week, but, well, everyone was on vacation and not much happened in the American political world. Which, obviously, is what brought this rant on in the first place. FTP will return as usual next week.]

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Chris Davis Hits 50th Home Run, Ties Orioles Franchise Record Set By Brady Anderson (VIDEO)

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TORONTO — Baltimore slugger Chris Davis hit his 50th home run of the season on Friday night, connecting for a solo shot against Toronto.

Davis matched the Orioles' record set by Brady Anderson in 1996.

Davis became baseball's first 50-homer man since Jose Bautista hit 54 for Toronto in 2010.

Overall, Davis is the 27th player to join the 50-homer club. Davis hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning against All-Star righty Steve Delabar, giving the Orioles a 4-3 lead.

Davis is the third player in major league history to hit 50 homers and 40 doubles in the same season, joining Babe Ruth (1921) and Albert Belle (1995).

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Chris Davis pega jonrón 31 como vencer a Orioles Yankees 4-2 (VIDEO)

BALTIMORE - the Baltimore Orioles used their most potent weapon - the long ball - for a successful sweep of the New York Yankees.

Chris Davis set a record for the franchise by hitting his home run 31 before the break all-star, and Manny Machado and Nate McLouth also connected in a win 4-2 on Sunday night.

The Orioles increased their leagues major leading home run total to 115 with three in the opening three innings against Hiroki Kuroda (7-6). Davis, for his part, has six home runs more than anybody else in the big leagues after hitting three in the last two matches.

His second inning drive broke record franchise of Brady Anderson for home runs before the all-star game. Anderson had 30 in 1996 en route to hitting 50 for the season, a record for the team that still stands.

The Orioles had marked seven home runs in his first sweep of three games from the Yankees since 2005. New York may have removed to Baltimore in the playoffs last October, but at this point, the Orioles appear to have advantage over their rivals hit by injuries.

"I think that it is always a statement when barre to anyone," said Davis. "I think it was big for us. I believe that it is our first this year. We have always put an emphasis on winning the series and ensuring that at least we won the most games, but when you can get a sweep, especially against a team in the division, it is huge. "

Chris Tillman (10-2) gave two runs and five hits in six innings to win his sixth straight exit and reach a career high for WINS in a season. The right-hander is 7-0 in eight departures from May 19.

Jim Johnson worked the ninth to earn his keep 28. Baltimore is 6-3 against New York this season, 5-1 at home.

Robinson Cano homered for the Yankees, who have lost five straight - their longest skid of the year - and 13 of 18. New York has fallen to fourth place in the East of the, 6 1/2 games behind the leader of the division Boston.

"There are a lot of things in life that are struggles that you go through, and you have to figure out how to get through them," said manager Joe Girardi. "This is like life. Not everything will be easy. You will find ways to get through it. I am not going to become frustrated. I know that the effort of in that these guys are getting. I'm going to stick to them. "

Kuroda went second innings. The three home runs were a season high, after allowing that only two home runs in his four previous starts.

"Don't give up a lot of punches but hits that did were strong and were home runs," said Girardi.

The Orioles activated Brian Roberts on the disabled list, which had languished since April 5 with a curved right tendon injury. Ninth batting as designated hitter in Baltimore, Roberts went 1 for 2 with a sacrifice fly in his fourth game of the season.

"If are going to be out there who wants to contribute," said. "You don't want to be the weak link in the chain and there are some pretty strong in this chain links."

Machado found in Baltimore an entrance of first run with his first homer since May 5. The Yankees tied it in the second when Brett Gardner drew a walk loaded the bases with two outs, but Tillman avoided further damage by retiring Ichiro Suzuki in a popup.

Davis opened the Fund with a unit of field opposite to left field, his second Homer race against Kuroda in 15 appearances.

A shot by McLouth made the 3-1 in the third, his fourth success in career against Kuroda 24 appearances.

Robinson hit his homer 17 leading team in the sixth, and Roberts made the 4-2 in the seventh inning with a fly ball to score run.

Soon after, fans of the Orioles in the multitude of 40.878 celebrate another victory over the hated Yankees.

"The atmosphere tonight (shows) our city completely has adopted this team again," said Roberts. "It's great to be a part of it."

Notes: Girardi failed in his fifth attempt to gain managerial victory no. 600.... Machado was 3 for 4, including his double 38 main major league and now leads the major leagues with 34 multihit games. ... The Yankees will send Andy Pettitte to the mound on Monday night in Minnesota. The left-hander is 10 - 0 in his last 12 outs against the twins. ... Baltimore has the Monday before opening a series of three games against the White Sox. ... Suzuki is 1 for life 13 (. 077) against Tillman, his lowest against any pitcher batting average (minimum 10 of AB). ... Baltimore has won five straight at home against New York for the first time since 1983. ... Johnson 100 career was save.

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The Democrats of New Jersey budget much like Chris Christie

TRENTON, there was a time in the not-too-distant past when get an economic status through the New Jersey legislature and signed by the Governor had all the drama of the operas of Wagner ring cycle.

And seemed to take the time.

Certainty was banished from the stage. Small crowds of legislators and staff rushed from the floors of the Senate and the Assembly to the Governor's Office and then to their own shelters, proposals and counterproposals.

Deals were cut late into the night and often the budget was not approved until the early morning hours, when the legislators and the handful of journalists who managed to stay awake stumbled home.

No longer as well.

After weeks of quiet negotiations with the Office of the Governor, Democrats in the legislature Thursday on a budget of $32.9 billion that largely the proposal Governor Christie, a Republican, unveiled at the end of February. It is a spare budget that grows a little more than 2 percent and adheres to conservative principles, at least in terms of State spending is concerned.

It hopes that both houses of the legislature to approve the budget on Monday, a week before the deadline on June 30 of the Constitution of the State for the step.

Much of the increase is explained by a spectacular jump in federal Medicaid funding to pay for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, program of President Obama to expand health coverage to people who do not have health insurance.

Christie has been a vocal opponent of the health law, but they agreed to expand the enrollment of Medicaid in New Jersey, one of its main features, because it will be the global share of the State's Medicaid costs.

Why the bonhomie?

Part of it is sturdy popularity of Christie. A poll from the Quinnipiac University published on June 10, Christie gave one about 70 percent favorability rating in his race against State Senator Barbara Buono (d, Middlesex). Christie also has a close relationship with the President of the Senate Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who share conservative tendencies of Christie on some issues. But no doubt much of this year is simply this: the legislature is up for re-election, and of course few lawmakers enjoy the idea of explaining to voters why they picked a fight with a popular Governor.

"I think that most democratic legislators recognize that with its own elections to rise, there is little to gain in having a bout of precipitation, drainage for the money with one of the most popular in the country Governors," said Brigid Harrison, Professor of political science at Montclair State University.

Christie has also been smart to cultivate relations with democratic politicians, so much so that some have supported his re-election.

"This is very unique," said Joseph Marbach, Professor of political science at the University of La Salle, of the relaxation of the budget.

Close working relationship of Christie with Sweeney and the idea that they share the conservative budget trends, has been fundamental, Marbach said.

Sweeney and the Governor "have seen eye to eye on much," Marbach said.

It is not to say that there was an absence of dissenting voices on Thursday when the Senate and Assembly budget committees voted to release the budget. Senator Loretta Weinberg (d, Bergen) voted against the Bill, saying that unfair health program of an important woman and not took steps to reduce the burden of taxes on the property of homeowners.

A member of the Committee, Senator Nellie Pou (d, Passaic), wondered aloud how it was that the State could not finance social programmes, but had the money to pay for a special election to replace the late Senator Frank R. Lautenberg.

Christie had scheduled the special election for October 16, at a cost of up to $24 million, less than three weeks before general elections scheduled for November 5. Democrats have argued that three elections in a matter of months was a waste of taxpayer money.

But those voices so far have failed to gain much attention.

The great controversy at the beginning of this year was about the income projections of Christie, legislators Democrats and the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services said were exaggerated by some $700 million.

By the time the budget was implemented on Thursday, projections of the Governor remained and democratic objections were silenced. Private Democratic aides acknowledged that although the gap between revenues reached $1 billion, about 2 percent of total spending, it could be accomplished.

The only Rejoinder of budget of the Senate and Chairman of the Committee of appropriations Paul Sarlo (d, Bergen) was the Administration to certify income. If money is short, you will have to find a way to make up the difference.

Please contact Chris Mondics

215-854-5957 or cmondics@phillynews.com. ___

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Chris Kluwe On Co-Existing With His Competition For Oakland Raiders Punting Job

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After eight years, punter Chris Kluwe finds himself again in a heated camp competition, and this time he’s the veteran up against a strong-legged youngster in Marquette King.

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Chris Christie Nudged By Gun Rights Group In Key Primary State

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By David Jones

NEWARK, N.J., Aug 2 (Reuters) - A gun-rights group in the bellwether presidential primary state of New Hampshire has warned New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that signing gun control bills passed by his state's Legislature could have consequences if he runs for president in 2016.

The Pro-Gun New Hampshire coalition urged its members this week to call and email Christie to ask him to veto the proposed laws, posing a political dilemma for Christie as he seeks re-election in November in the Democratic-leaning state while also eyeing the national stage.

Christie has a September deadline to sign a number of firearm-related bills seen by their supporters as necessary for tackling gun violence, and the gun rights group is targeting four of those measures.

One bill would ban .50 caliber rifles, another would require police to report lost and stolen firearms to a federal database, a third would create a system for instant background checks during gun purchases and a fourth bill would ban gun sales to anyone on a watch list of militants.

"This is an acid test," said Sam Cohen, executive vice president of Pro-Gun New Hampshire, which describes itself as the state's largest gun rights group.

"If he decides to support these horrible bills, then we in New Hampshire are going to do everything we can to tell our voters not to vote for him in the New Hampshire primary," Cohen said.

Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party who rejected appeals from fellow Republicans to run for president in 2012, said in a television interview in January that he would be "more ready" to campaign for the White House in 2016 after finishing his work as the governor of New Jersey.

New Hampshire, which has played a significant role in past elections by holding the nation's first presidential primary, is known to have a strong libertarian streak. The state allows nearly every resident to obtain a concealed weapons permit unless he or she is a convicted felon.

A spokesman for Christie did not return calls.

Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science at Montclair State University in New Jersey said Christie had been careful about tipping his hand on gun control, because he is running for re-election in heavily Democratic New Jersey but understands the pro-gun values of anticipated Republican primary voters in the 2016 race.

"What we've seen is him walk a fine line by delaying decision-making," Harrison said.

State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in this month's special election to replace the late Frank Lautenberg, said Christie had been carefully weighing his political future with regard to his position on gun control.

"Yes, he is going to pay attention to the threats that are being issued by the gun rights groups," she said.

Oliver added that severe gun violence in New Jersey cities like Newark, Trenton, Camden and other urban areas made gun control a serious issue in the state.

"If he could take politics out of the equation, I do believe Governor Christie would sign some of those bills," she said.

Christie in June vetoed a bill that would ban state pension fund investments in firms that sell or make assault weapons. (Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis; and Jackie Frank)

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Former HBO Exec Chris Albrecht: James Gandolfini 'Changed My Life'

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Tony Soprano was a TV game changer.

Without "The Sopranos," there would arguably be no "Breaking Bad," no "Mad Men," no "Dexter" and no "Game of Thrones." The HBO mob drama, fronted by the late James Gandolfini, raised the bar, leading the entertainment industry to see that small screen content could be as good as if not better than the more prestigious movie medium.

Current Starz CEO Chris Albrecht was a big part of that transformative stage of TV at HBO as the cable network's former chairman and CEO. His leadership ushered in a wide-range of critically acclaimed series for HBO like "Sex and the City," "Six Feet Under," "Band of Brothers," "The Wire" and, of course, "The Sopranos."

While at the Television Critics Association Summer 2013 press tour on Friday, Albrecht opened up about the actor who died in June and was a big part of his HBO glory days. "James Gandolfini was part of years and an experience that changed my life and changed the life of everyone intimately involved in it," Albrecht told the press during a Starz panel. "I remember the first time I saw him -- I will never forget it. He was extremely talented. I have said it before -- nobody will ever be better at anything than James was in 'The Sopranos.' He will be missed. He was a very nice man."

Michael C. Hall -- who currently plays the titular character on Showtime's "Dexter" and who also was part of "Six Feet Under's" ensemble cast on HBO during "The Sopranos" era -- opened up about his connection to Gandolfini in a recent interview with The Huffington Post. "I certainly was really saddened and rocked to hear that James Gandolfini had died. ['The Sopranos'] meant such a great deal to me, and it really did signify what some people are calling the Golden Age of serialized cable programming," he noted. "I felt like 'The Sopranos' was like the big firstborn high achieving child, and 'Six Feet Under' felt like we were sort of the artistic black sheep. But I certainly admired him, and part of the thrill of working on 'Six Feet Under' was that I was going to work on the network that produced 'The Sopranos,' because I was a huge fan of that show."

Take a look at some of Gandolfini's work on "The Sopranos" below:

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Chris Christie Vetoed Early Voting Bill Over Taxpayer Costs Similar To Frank Lautenberg Special Election

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NEWARK, NJ - JUNE 4: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie outlines plans for a special election to be held to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), who died yesterday, on June 4, 2013 at the Statehouse in Trenton, New Jersey. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

A pricetag of nearly $24 million was not enough to stop Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) from calling a special election on Tuesday to fill the seat of deceased Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D).

Nearly one month ago, Christie held different feelings on similar taxpayer costs related to early voting.

Back on May 10, the Philadelphia Inquirer relayed how Christie vetoed a bill extending the pre-Election-Day window, citing concerns that it would be too costly. According to the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, the measure would have added two weeks of extra voting at up to seven spots within each of the state's counties.

"Taxpayers should not have to foot a more than $25 million bill to pay for a hasty, counterproductive, and less reliable system, especially when New Jersey's current early voting process is reliable and cost-effective," Christie said.

On Tuesday, costs appeared to be less of a concern. Christie stressed that the holding a primary and general election to fill Lautenberg's seat was far from counterproductive.

“This is about guaranteeing the people of New Jersey a choice and a voice in Washington," Christie said.

When it came to the early-voting bill, cost appeared to have won out. The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger questioned Christie's choice, penning an editorial that said "what's not to like?" about the measure, while also calling the governor's answer below "a bit vague."

"I support responsible and cost-efficient election reform that increases voter participation because democracy works best when the most people vote," Christie said in his veto message.

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