Our Blog guru, Murshed, gives me the the weekend lite-blog shift, so here's my next offering profiling members of our national governing board. Last week, it was Rev. Bob Edgar -- this week it's a remarkable guy from Nebraska, Jack Gould.

I've known Jack and his activist work for years. He's the state government watchdog in his role as Issues Chair of Common Cause Nebraska. Jack is well-known to members of the state's unicameral state legislature, walking the halls, testifying, and talking to the press about the latest outrage. He's a former high school football coach who's taken on the privileges - like free cars for coaches (reg. req.) - of the U of Nebraska's monster football program.

Jack does not just scream and yell about wrongdoing, he works at changing it. He's a dogged investigator whose credibility and reliable information are prized by reporters. He helped make one local story, about Members of Congress appearing in pharmaceutical company ads, "go national", forcing the company to drop the ads.

Jack is truly the kid of citizen activist that John Gardner talked about when he founded Common Cause. He's been in Nebraska all his adult life, helped run a cattle ranch with his brother, been an advocate for public schools and runs a bed-and-breakfast outside Lincoln with his wife Harriet. He's going to be a great new addition to our board.