Week to Week News Quiz for 9/11/15

Take our latest Week to Week news quiz to help you prep for next week's GOP debate. Or just because you like news quizzes.

Here are some random but real hints: They got it from Obama; they saved it for Obama; everything except supporting Obama; and did anyone tell Obama? Answers are below the quiz.

1. According to Arizona police, what has happened at least 11 times in that state over the past two weeks?
a. Someone fired bullets on or near an interstate highway there
b. Governor Jan Brewer was found stealing energy drinks while sleepwalking
c. Inmates have escaped from Phoenix Provisional Penitentiary
d. Someone has stolen the confederate flag that flies in front of the state capitol building

2. What do chef Alice Waters and actress Sally Field have in common?
a. They both were among recipients of the National Medal of Arts at the White House this week
b. They are first cousins, according to PBS' Genealogy Star Search
c. They have formed a company called Field Waters to market organic medical marijuana
d. They held a joint $25,000-a-plate fundraising dinner for Senator Rand Paul

3. Senate Democrats handed President Obama what victory this week?
a. They blocked an attempt to kill the Iran nuclear deal
b. They provided the extra votes needed to pass the president's plan to shut down Guantanamo prison over conservative GOP objections
c. They engineered passage of a bill supporting his action renaming Mt. McKinley
d. They killed Senator Mitch McConnell's bill to allow fast-track impeachment proceedings

4. What did a U.S. official claim about the Islamic State this week?
a. The group is making and using chemical weapons
b. He has a list of 200 members of Islamic State who have infiltrated the U.S. government
c. The terror group is planning to attack Iran in response to Tehran's use of troops in Iraq and Syria
d. The terror group is losing 1,000 members a week to disease and defection

5. In an appearance at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club, Dr. Ben Carson was asked if he would be Donald Trump's running mate, if Trump won the nomination. How did Carson respond?
a. "Uh, I'll get back to you later with an answer"
b. "All things are possible"
c. He said nothing, just closed his eyes
d. "I think he will ask Carly Fiorina before me, but yes, I would accept"

6. What do 50 U.S. intelligence analysts claim?
a. Undocumented immigrants are a security risk that the American people are not being told about
b. They have discovered a link between the downing of flight MH370 and the Russian secret service
c. Their reports on ISIS were changed by senior intelligence officials to make it look like the U.S. is winning the fight against ISIS
d. They have evidence that Donald Trump was not born in the United States

7. The United States plans to accept 10,000 what?
a. Foreign investors applying for visas if they have at least $2 million to invest in new social media companies in the United States
b. Republican changes to the Iran nuclear deal to ensure its passage in the Senate
c. New immigrants from Canada
d. Refugees from Syria

8. What was discovered in a South African cave?
a. Fossils from a previously unknown species of human, Homo naledi
b. Thousands of planning documents from that country's abandoned nuclear effort
c. Three members of al Qaeda who were using it as a recruitment base
d. A World War II-era Nazi train loaded with stolen gold

9. What did Donald Trump say to Rolling Stone about Carly Fiorina?
a. Hillary Clinton would be a better first female president
b. "If she does to America what she did for HP, we'll all be unemployed soon--even me!"
d. He called her "a nice woman, a pretty woman, not a presidential woman"

10. What has led to a crisis in Northern Ireland's government, with its leader resigning along with many of its ministers?
a. UK Prime Minister David Cameron's plan to formally annex Northern Ireland as a "semi-autonomous province" like Wales
b. Allegations that the IRA still exists and recently carried out a murder
c. A Russian-sponsored plan to build an Orthodox cathedral on the site of a Protestant cemetery
d. Queen Elizabeth II neglected to mention Northern Ireland in her annual Cheese on the Hat speech

BONUS. What prediction did Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei make this week?
a. He will live to be 1,000 years old
b. Islamic State will become an Iranian "pet dog" within 10 years
c. The new Star Wars movies will fail to capture the magic of the original trilogy
d. Israel will not last another 25 years

1) a.
2) a (author Stephen King also received an award).
3) a.
4) a.
5) b.
6) c.
7) d.
8) a.
9) c.
10) b.

Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Tuesday, September 15 in Palo Alto for our next live (and lively) Week to Week political roundtable with a news quiz and a social hour at The Commonwealth Club of California. Panelists include Carson Bruno, Larry Gerston, and Barbara Marshman.

Explanations of the hints: They got it from Obama: the president handed out the medals to Field and Waters and other recipients at a White House ceremony; they saved it for Obama: the Democrats' action allows the president to begin implementing the nuclear deal; everything except supporting Obama: that's not possible for devoted Obama opponents; and did anyone tell Obama?: who is allegedly cooking the intelligence books and how high up the chain of command did that go?