The Minnesota government will shut down Friday amid the budget disputes. In a fight to close the state's $5 billion deficits, Minnesota Governor Mike Dayton proposed to tax the wealthiest 1.9% of Minnesotans as well as cut spending. On Thursday, he offered to tax only those who are making $1 million or more a year.
President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at a farewell ceremony. The President praised him as "A humble American patriot; a man of common sense and decency; quite simply, one of our nation's finest public servants,". The medal is awarded at a farewell ceremony of Secretary Gates who is to be succeeded by CIA Director Leon Panetta.