If you're reluctant to take the ALS ice bucket challenge, then take the Week to Week news quiz challenge and stay dry while you test your news savvy.
Here are some random but real hints: We can keep him nonetheless; but Tehran has offered help; it's better than rubber chicken; and yes we can fight regulation. Answers are below the quiz.
1. What did the Government Accountability Office say was illegal?
a. The exchange of five Taliban prisoners for U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl
b. The indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry
c. The House of Representatives' lawsuit against the president
d. The bombing of Islamic State insurgents in Iraq
2. Who is appealing a judge's ban on the death penalty, even though they are personally opposed to the death penalty?
a. President Obama
b. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
c. Senator Al Franken
d. California Attorney General Kamala Harris
3. The rapid advance and brazen brutality of the ISIS/Islamic State insurgents in Iraq have alarmed people around the world. Which of the following is not true?
a. Saudi Arabia's top cleric said Islam's number-one enemy was the Islamic State's ideology
b. Rather than reduce air strikes after ISIS executed an American, a U.S. official said the only question is whether the airstrikes increase
c. Germany has reversed a post-WW II policy and will ship arms to a conflict area, specifically to Kurds in northern Iraq
d. Iran has moved troops into Iraq for the first time since the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s
4. Why was Texas Governor Rick Perry indicted by a grand jury?
a. He cut off funding for immigrant children's health
b. He raised taxes
c. He was charged with abuse of power
d. He refused to expand Medicaid
5. What did Pope Francis say was allowed when it came to dealing with the Islamic State in Iraq that has been slaughtering Muslims and non-Muslims?
a. Only prayer
b. The use of force by the international community
c. Suicide attacks
d. Raising a Christian army of liberation
6. What's the latest news that has set the political press aflutter regarding Hillary Clinton's possible run for the presidency in 2016?
a. She told CNBC that she is running for the presidency in 2016
b. She and Bill Clinton have purchased homes in 49 more states
c. Valleywag discovered that she has set up the Twitter account for "PresHillary2016"
d. She will headline Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in Indianola, Iowa, next month
7. How did Islamic State radicals in Iraq send what they called "A Message to America"?
a. They sent President Obama a Bible and a cake shaped like a key
b. They released a video showing the beheading of a U.S. journalist
c. They expelled U.S. diplomats who had fled to the Kurdish city of Erbil
d. Their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, tried calling the White House over several days; the group says he gave up
8. Whom did ride-hailing company Uber hire as its lobbyist to help fight a raft of regulations?
a. Jack Abramoff
b. Former Checker Taxi CEO Louis Vander Gripht
c. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
d. Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe
9. Who dumped a bucket of water over former President George W. Bush's head as part of the ALS challenge?
a. Laura Bush
b. Justin Bieber
c. Bill Clinton
d. Jimmy Carter
10. Who is Kent Brantly and why is he happy?
a. He's the inventor of the ShamWow who won the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat from Connecticut
b. He is the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers
c. He is the U.S. aid worker who contracted Ebola and who has been discharged from the hospital
d. He is the newly appointed chair of the board of Microsoft
BONUS. According to a survey of Condé Nast Traveler readers, what city is the unfriendliest city in the United States?
a. Oakland
b. San Francisco
c. Newark, New Jersey
d. Boston
Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Tuesday, September 16, in Silicon Valley 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 Dr. Larry Gerston, Carla Marinucci, and Josh Richman.
ANSWERS: 1) a. 2) d. 3) d. 4) c. 5) b. 6) d. 7) b. 8) d. 9) a. 10) c. BONUS) c.
Explanations of the hints: We can keep him nonetheless: the GAO said the U.S. broke a couple laws in the prisoner trade deal; but Tehran has offered help: Iran has offered to help the U.S. and Iraq deal with the Islamic State; it's better than rubber chicken: if she does run, Clinton will be back on the dreaded "rubber chicken circuit" of fundraising dinners; and yes we can fight regulation: Obama's former campaign manager will bring a lot of political connections to his work with Uber.