Week to Week News Quiz for 5/22/15

It's our first Week to Week News Quiz of the Post-Letterman Era. Take our latest quiz and see that the news, alas, is still the same.
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It's our first Week to Week News Quiz of the Post-Letterman Era. Take our latest quiz and see that the news, alas, is still the same.

Here are some random but real hints: It cleared its spam folder; that's almost three hats; but there are still plenty of victims; and now they can haz no cheezburger. Answers are below the quiz.

1. The U.S. government released 800 pages of what this week?
a. New regulations for coal plants
b. Hillary Clinton's emails
c. Negative tweets following the launch of the president's new Twitter account
d. Documentation on details in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal

2. Why did California Governor Jerry Brown declare a state of emergency on Wednesday?
a. To deal with a new oil spill along the coast near Santa Barbara
b. To gather resources to deal with underfunded public schools, which have ranked near the bottom in national rankings
c. To deal with flooding in the center of the state
d. To combat a surge in street crime in Sacramento

3. How many points did Russian President Vladimir Putin score when he played in an exhibition hockey match with former Russian NHL stars?
a. Zero; he was knocked out with a concussion in the first three minutes of the game
b. 1
c. 2
d. 8

4. What did former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney do to raise $1 million for a charity that helps people with vision problems?
a. He donated $1 million
b. He took part in a boxing match with five-time heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield
c. He went skydiving with George H.W. Bush
d. He beat Garry Kasparov in a friendly game of chess

5. Why did Waco, Texas, police charge 170 people?
a. Violating noise pollution rules with their Harleys
b. Failure to fly a Dixie flag on the backs of their bikes
c. Involvement in a restaurant parking lot gun fight that left nine people dead
d. Operating an interstate drug-running business

6. What did a mother say about an anti-gay pastor who was recently revealed to be gay?
a. The pastor had counseled her gay teenage son to commit suicide
b. He is also a bigamist; she has discovered that she is one of his three wives
c. He can't be gay because "he smiles at me every time he sees me at church"
d. He might be her son, but she still won't serve pizza at his wedding

7. Saudi officials have taken out ads to address a shortage of what?
a. Oil industry workers
b. Male uber drivers
c. Royal retainers
d. Swordsmen to conduct executions and other duties

8. Why did five of the world's largest banks agree to pay fines totaling more than $5 billion?
a. They had violated U.S. sanctions against doing business with Iran's state banks
b. It was part of a plea agreement surrounding subprime lending before the Great Recession
c. They pled guilty to manipulating the global foreign exchange market and a benchmark interest rate
d. They had bet illegally against rising oil prices

9. In David Letterman's final program, every living U.S. president noted the end of his long-running television show by saying what?
a. "Heeeeeeeeeeeerrre's Davie!"
b. "Our long national nightmare is over"
c. "Let's meet America's leading Hoosier"
d. "Good night and good luck"

10. What ancient city did Islamic State forces just conquer?
a. Palmyra
b. Babylon
c. Mos Eisley
d. Alexandria

BONUS. Why did an Oklahoma high school issue a public apology?
a. Its football team just matched the national record for losing the most consecutive games
b. Its principal was recorded making disparaging remarks about racial minorities during a graduation ceremony
c. A YouTube video showed students performing a dance with dead cats
d. Its social studies class was accused of teaching sharia law

ANSWERS
1) b.
2) a.
3) d.
4) b.
5) c.
6) a.
7) d.
8) c.
9) b.
10) a.
BONUS) c (the cat cadavers were intended for science class dissection).

Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Monday, June 8 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 CBS SF's Melissa Griffin Caen, KCBS Radio's Doug Sovern, and Hoover Institution's Carson Bruno.

Explanations of the hints: It cleared its spam folder: the State Department released Hillary Clinton's private emails from her time as secretary of state; that's almost three hats: Putin made 2-2/3 hat tricks; but there are still plenty of victims: there are lots of crimes that get you death or your hands chopped off in Saudi Arabia; and now they can haz no cheeseburger: it turned out to be a cat video that went viral for all the wrong reasons.

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