Week to Week News Quiz for 12/12/14

Week to Week News Quiz for 12/12/14
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Take a break from budget negotiations to try your hand at our latest Week to Week news quiz.

Here are some random but real hints: Who knew the pope's a Burt Reynolds fan?; at least he didn't say it on the Senate floor; it's also known as the Pineapple Express; and then it dropped five more dollars. Answers are below the quiz.

1. According to Pope Francis, which movie title is actually true?
a. The Gods Must Be Crazy
b. Pennies from Heaven
c. All Dogs Go to Heaven
d. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

2. Who said of the Senate's report on torture: "The report's full of crap"?
a. President Barack Obama
b. Former Vice President Dick Cheney
c. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
d. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

3. Why did more than 100 congressional staffers stage a walk-out on Thursday?
a. They wanted to push Congress to enact legislation countering the Citizens United ruling
b. They were demanding an end to harassment by elected officials
c. They were demanding a pay increase
d. They were protesting grand jury decisions in the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner

4. What is an "atmospheric river"?
a. The CIA's code name for its most-invasive "enhanced interrogation" technique
b. A cool band name
c. A broad, high-volume precipitation storm, such as the one that hit the West Coast this week
d. The weather pattern spotted on a comet by a European space probe

5. With whom did a Harvard Business School professor lose a battle?
a. He was indicted by the Massachusetts state gaming commission for training students how to cheat at casinos
b. His lawsuit to have President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize rescinded was kicked out of an Oslo courtroom because of lack of standing
c. He backed down after threatening legal action because he was overcharged $4 at a local Chinese restaurant
d. He sued a Harvard Law School professor for $400,000 because the law professor allegedly parked in his reserved space

6. How did the U.S. confront Cuba's government, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press?
a. It paid a New York private firm $89,000 a month to post negative comments about Cuban government YouTube videos and Facebook posts
b. It infiltrated Cuba's hip-hop music scene and tried to use it to generate opposition to Cuba's government
c. Every month, it mails Cuba's president a box of exploding cigars, sent from fake addresses
d. It offered to provide replacement parts for Cuba's famously old private cars if the government adopted market reforms

7. What happened this week for the first time in five years?
a. Oil fell below $65 a barrel
b. Texas Democrats won a statewide office
c. The unemployment rate rose above 7%
d. President Barack Obama's approval rating rose above 40%

8. What did Poland's former president Aleksander Kwasniewski admit?
a. His country let the CIA operate a secret prison in Poland after 9/11
b. He had spied for the KGB during the Cold War
c. His country was unprepared for a Russian invasion
d. He once got into a screaming match with Pope John Paul II over the issue of ordination of female priests

9. According to an independent investigation of Bob Jones University, how did the fundamentalist school deal with sexual assault victims?
a. With "best in its class" counseling and education programs
b. Told them not to go to the police and said they should repent for their sin behind their rapes
c. Expelled them
d. Forced them to live with their alleged assailants

10. For whom did Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai express support while in Oslo accepting her honors?
a. Russian President Vladimir Putin
b. The opposition party in Sweden's parliament
c. A 21-year-old Mexican asylum seeker who crashed the Nobel ceremony
d. ISIS

BONUS. When he was Milwaukee County executive, how did Wisconsin's now-Governor Scott Walker sign off a letter to a Jewish constituent?
a. "I hope you people vote for me"
b. "In Jesus' name"
c. "Thank you again and Molotov"
d. "Some of my best friends are Jewish people"

Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Monday, December 15 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 the San Francisco Chronicle's Joe Garofoli and CBS SF's Melissa Griffin Caen.

ANSWERS:
1) c.
2) b.
3) d.
4) c.
5) c.
6) b.
7) a.
8) a.
9) b.
10) c.
BONUS) c.

Explanations of the hints: Who knew the pope's a Burt Reynolds fan?: Reynolds provided the voice for the lead dog in 1989's All Dogs Go to Heaven; at least he didn't say it on the Senate floor: Dick Cheney also famously swore at a U.S. senator in the Senate; it's also known as the Pineapple Express: that's the specific name given to this atmospheric river, which is also called a "fire-hose weather system"; and then it dropped five more dollars: the price of oil dropped to five-year lows, and then it dropped some more.

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