Pull the Scooby bus to the side of the road and take a break by doing our latest Week to Week news quiz.
Here are some random but real hints: Sorta not-really bipartisan bill; can't believe they passed up Harry Potter; Chewie's home; and politics and poker. Answers are below the quiz.
1. What was President Obama talking about when he said "This is embarrassing"?
a. The U.S. Senate's failure to approve Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney general
b. The U.S. ranked 14th in a new education study
c. A survey showed that more than a third of Americans could not name a single branch of the U.S. government
d. His recent March Madness bracket
2. Where did former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke just get a job?
a. He volunteers to help Pope Francis wash the feet of Rome's homeless
b. He joined $25 billion hedge fund Citadel Investment Group
c. He will succeed Christine Lagarde as the head of the IMF
d. He is the newly appointed head of the New York Stock Exchange
3. What legislation was introduced in the Senate this week that could help Obama achieve one of the key components of his second-term agenda?
a. Fast-track trade negotiation authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership
b. Amending campaign finance laws to curb the effects of the Citizens United ruling
c. Comprehensive immigration reform
d. Closing Guantanamo
4. What did Tennessee's legislature just name as an official state object?
a. The state book is now the Bible
b. The state bird is now Big Bird
c. The state animal is now the Royal Blue Tiger
d. The official state immigrant is now the Cherokee
5. What did the European Union accuse Google of abusing?
a. The French language in its Google Translate service
b. Porpoises
c. Results in Google comparison shopping searches
d. Part-time workers at Google's Italian headquarters
6. For whom did the U.S. House of Representatives pass a tax break?
a. Church charities
b. Injured Iraq war veterans
c. Operators of feral cat shelters
d. Big-money donors to secretive political groups
7. Why did 100 prominent San Francisco Roman Catholics sign an appeal to Pope Francis?
a. They invited him to visit the Bay Area
b. They want him to endorse same-sex marriage
c. They want him to replace conservative Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for fostering "an atmosphere of division and intolerance"
d. They demanded an end to Francis' "radical alterations of eternal Catholic teachings"
8. Why did police in Sicily arrest 15 undocumented immigrants from Africa after rescuing them from sea?
a. The 15 Muslims had thrown 12 Christian passengers overboard in a religious dispute
b. All undocumented immigrants from Africa are arrested in Sicily
c. The 15 men and women refused to pay a new European Union "migrant tax"
d. The men were believed to be returning to Europe from serving in ISIS military campaigns
9. What broke the internet on Thursday?
a. A campaign video of Hillary Clinton playing with kittens at an Iowa animal rescue
b. The first online purchases of the new Apple Rock
c. The release of a new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie trailer
d. The illegal downloads of the new Justin Bieber album Bieber Bieber Bieber
10. How did a high school in Uruguay raise money?
a. During non-school hours, the classrooms are rented to a local nightclub
b. Auctioned off Pope Francis' old iPad for $30,500
c. Invited President Obama to visit -- and demanded he pay them $10,000 for the privilege
d. Local companies pay $5,000 to teach classes for a day and control the curriculum
BONUS. Who is the "King of Clubs" and why is he unhappy?
a. He's New York's notorious nightclub kingpin Rudie Gandolf, and he's just been indicted for ties to the mob
b. He's the former husband of one of the founding singers of Abba, whom he is suing over alleged libel in their hit "The Queen of Hearts"
c. He is the former Saddam Hussein deputy who was the King of Clubs on the deck of playing cards the U.S. used to identify most-wanted officials, and he's just been killed
d. He is the $5,000-a-day minder hired by Google to help co-founder Sergey Brin manage his life, and he was fired after one day
ANSWERS
1) a (though he didn't say that about b and c, those are also true).
2) b.
3) a.
4) a.
5) c.
6) d.
7) c.
8) a.
9) c.
10) b.
BONUS) c.
Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Monday, April 27 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 C.W. Nevius, Daniel Borenstein, and Melissa Griffin Caen.
Explanations of the hints: Sorta not-really bipartisan bill: though the fast-track trade bill was co-sponsored by a Democrat, the Senate's Democrats include many vocal opponents of the trade agreement; can't believe they passed up Harry Potter: the legislators chose the Bible, but seriously, wouldn't it be cool to have a Harry Potter novel be your state book?; Chewie's home: the trailer included a brief clip of Chewbacca and Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon, and yes I think this is newsworthy; and politics and poker: it wouldn't be the first time poker cards mixed with affairs of state.