[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1239]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  CONGRATULATING DETROIT NEWS COLUMNIST GEORGE WEEKS ON HIS RETIREMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. VERNON J. EHLERS

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 8, 2006

  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay my respects to a man who 
can be rightly described as a Michigan institution--George Weeks, who 
recently announced his retirement from his post as key political 
columnist for the Detroit News.
  Since December 1983, George kept his readers well informed about 
federal, state and local political events in Michigan. Prior to that, 
George served the people of Michigan in his role as press secretary 
and, later, chief of staff to Governor William G. Milliken, beginning 
in 1969. During this time, he also worked as a consultant for the 
National Governors' Association. Before working for Governor Milliken, 
George had a successful 14-year career with United Press International, 
serving as a correspondent and bureau chief in Lansing, Detroit, Grand 
Rapids and Washington.
  A native of Traverse City and a journalism graduate of Michigan State 
University, George is a very deserving 1996 inductee of the Michigan 
Journalism Hall of Fame.
  I have known George Weeks professionally for many years, dating back 
to when I served in the Michigan Legislature in the 1980s and early 
1990s. George is the only reporter that I ever dealt with who had a 
higher opinion of my ability than I did, and I greatly appreciate his 
superb insight. Seriously though, I have always found George to be 
eminently careful and thoughtful in his reporting and writing, and he 
is one of the finest journalists I have known.
  I wish George all the best as he moves into this new phase of his 
career and life, but all of us who were his readers and the subjects of 
his writing will be the poorer for it.

                          ____________________