Take a break from writing your congressional address and take our latest Week to Week news quiz.
Here are some random but real hints: He's glad he's not Bibi; so wash your food before eating it; so much for HIPAA; and John Boehner added his agreement on Friday. Answers are below the quiz.
1. What happened to the American jobs report announced this week?
a. Employers added 257,000 jobs and the unemployment rate bumped up to 5.7%
b. Employers added 344,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%
c. The employment level and the unemployment rate were unchanged
d. The country lost 97,000 jobs due to winter storms and the unemployment rate remained 5.6%
2. On September 24, what new "first" will Pope Francis do?
a. He will go skydiving with former President George H.W. Bush
b. He will provide the voice for a guest character in The Simpsons
c. He will be the first pope to speak before the U.S. Congress
d. He will perform the first papal exorcism on live Italian television
3. What did the speaker of the Israeli Knesset and that country's ambassador to the United States fail to do in Washington this week?
a. Show up for a scheduled meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry
b. Find their way from the airport; they ended up in Baltimore and had to be flown back to Reagan International Airport
c. Calm down an uproar among congressional Democrats over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress
d. Convince Senate Democrats to join Republican efforts to strengthen the embargo against Cuba
4. What suggestion did freshman U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) have for the restaurant industry?
a. He told the Washington Post that "there literally isn't a single restaurant that would ever go out of business if we just eliminated their taxes"
b. Restaurant workers shouldn't be forced to wash their hands after using the bathroom and before returning to handling food
c. The government should create a new, higher minimum wage for kitchen workers in restaurants
d. Restaurants should stop serving ketchup with their burgers
5. What made Jordan vow "huge" punishment and revenge?
a. Israeli forces returned rocket fire across their border with Jordan
b. An ISIS video showing the militants burning alive a captured Jordanian pilot
c. The International Monetary Fund refused to approve a $12 billion loan because it said Jordan's government "lacked collateralized security sufficient to instill confidence of returned investment"
d. Saudi Arabia impounded 23 troop carriers that Jordan had bought but refused to pay for
6. What organization was the victim of the latest massive high-tech data breach of customer records?
a. Health insurer Anthem
b. McDonald's
c. The San Francisco Chronicle
d. RadioShack
7. What did the FBI say this week that Conrad Hilton, the younger brother of celebrity heiress Paris Hilton, had done?
a. Threatened to "own ... those peasants in Congress" and waved a loaded gun during a press conference
b. Facebooked a selfie he took with a stolen iPad
c. Traveled to the Middle East to join ISIS
d. Threatened flight attendants aboard an airplane and interfered with their ability to perform their duties
8. Who made a surprise visit to Moscow on Friday?
a. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
b. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande
c. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
d. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
9. Who entered the debate over vaccines this week by noting that vaccines work and "#GrandmothersKnowBest"?
a. Madeleine Albright
b. Dame Judi Dench
c. Hillary Rodham Clinton
d. Dame Edna
10. On what did U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Illinois) spend $118,000 of taxpayer money?
a. Redecorating his office, including a red room inspired by Downton Abbey
b. Flights to visit his mistress Veronica Hooley in Minnesota
c. Holding mock battles inspired by Game of Thrones
d. A congressional staff "policy retreat" held at the New Zealand sets of The Hobbit
BONUS. What did tea party Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton agree on this week?
a. The United States should attack Iran
b. Wisconsin's economy has never been better
c. Vaccines work
d. The tax code should be rewritten to classify nonprofit organizations as people just like corporations
Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Tuesday, February 17 in downtown San Francisco for our next live Week to Week political roundtable with a news quiz and a social hour at The Commonwealth Club of California. Panelists include Carla Marinucci, Debra J. Saunders, and Bill Whalen.
ANSWERS:
1) a.
2) c.
3) c.
4) b.
5) b.
6) a.
7) d.
8) b.
9) c.
10) a.
BONUS) c.
Explanations of the hints: He's glad he's not Bibi: the pope's invitation to address a joint session of Congress is not expected to spawn the congressional controversy that the invitation to Benjamin Netanyahu did; so wash your food before eating it: he argued that the restaurants would have to publicize the non-washing and that customers would self-select to get sick; so much for HIPAA: federal regulations for protection of health-care data are pretty extensive and strict, and yet ...; and John Boehner added his agreement on Friday: the House speaker also supported vaccination science this week.