The election monopolized everybody's attention at the beginning of the month, but now it's time to catch up with some of the other news which may have been missed.

On November 1, Rep. Tom Petri visited Ripon's Little White Schoolhouse to present local officials with the House Republican Policy Committee's 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.

"If you open it and look at it, it begins, 'To stop the Democrats' pro-slavery agenda, anti-slavery activists founded the Republican Party, starting with a few dozen men and women in Ripon, Wisconsin on March 20, 1854," said Petri, in support of Ripon's claim as the birthplace of the GOP. "So, I think the Republican Party should know better than anyone else how it was founded, and they make it clear: Ripon, Wisconsin."

At the presentation event are (left to right) Aaron Kramer, City of Ripon Mayor; Paula Price, Executive Director of the Ripon Area Chamber of Commerce; Steve Barg, City of Ripon Administrator; Rep. Tom Petri; Jerry Prellwitz, President Ripon Chamber Board of Directors; David Shaw, a former Member of Parliament from Britain who was visiting with Petri.

Paula Price, Executive Director of the Ripon Area Chamber of Commerce which manages the schoolhouse said, "We're very pleased to have this for the schoolhouse archives, and it's just another validation of the claim we've been making for so long."

Ripon Mayor Aaron Kramer added, "The only thing I would like to say to our counterparts in New Hampshire and Jackson, Michigan, is: Close. Nice Job. But second place is all you get."