1) As of Monday, August 8, 2016, Hillary Clinton led Donald Trump by how many percentage points in the Real Clear Politics polling average?
c) 7.2
The Real Clear Politics polling average is simply an average of all of the recent polls taken by reputable polling firms.
2) What former Republican Senate candidate and Republican fundraiser said last week that she would be voting for Hillary Clinton in November?
b) Meg Whitman
Fiorina is the former CEO of both HP and eBay and has pledged to raise money for the Clinton campaign.
3) It was recently reported that President Obama authorized the payment of $400 million in cash for the release of Americans held in what country?
d) Iran
The payments were made as the result of the nuclear deal signed with Iran last winter, but the timing of the payment, which coincided with the release of the American prisoners, led critics of the Obama administration to argue that the payment was actually ransom money.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/politics/us-sends-plane-iran-400-million-cash/
4) On Wednesday, President Obama set a new record by commuting the sentences of how many federal inmates?
c) 214
The president has the power to commute the sentences of federal prisoners, which lets them out of jail immediately. A commutation is different from a pardon which erases the conviction completely. Most of the prisoners who had their sentences commuted Wednesday were serving long sentences for non-violent drug crimes.
5) Last week, President Obama ordered an expansion of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS into what country?
d) Libya
The strikes were in response to a request from Libya’s U.N.-backed government.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/01/politics/us-libya-isis-airstrikes/
6) The Supreme Court of what state recently declared the death penalty to be unconstitutional?
b) Delaware
Specifically, the court held that Delaware’s death penalty law was unconstitutional because it permitted judges, not juries, to have the final say on whether the death penalty was imposed in particular case.
7) For the first time on record, an American caught Zika from the bite of a local mosquito. In what city did this occur?
a) Miami, Florida
There are now believed to be 17 cases of locally-transmitted Zika.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/health/zika-virus-florida.html?_r=0
8) What billionaire agreed to release his tax returns if Donald Trump will?
c) Warren Buffett
Like Trump, Buffett is currently being audited.
9) Last week, the International Olympic Committee banned over 100 athletes from participating in the Rio games because of a doping scandal. The athletes were all from what country?
c) Russia
Approximately a third of Russian athletes have been banned from participating in this summer’s games.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/sports/olympics/rio-russians-barred-doping.html
10) How many new jobs were generated / lost in America in the month of July?
a) 255,000
The economy has now gained jobs every month since the fall of 2010. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9%.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-gains-292000-jobs-in-july-2016-08-05
11) Scientists recently discovered a new species of what?
c) Whale
Rumors of the existence of this unnamed species have been circulating among Japanese whalers since the 1940s, but its existence was not confirmed until a skeleton washed up on the beach in Alaska. Scientists have still never seen any of these whales alive.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/new-whale-species/
12) What man recorded his 3,000th major league hit last weekend?
d) Ichiro Suzuki
Ichiro is the 30th man to reach that mark. Ichiro had 1,278 hits in the Japanese professional league before coming to MLB at the age of 27, giving him a total of 4,278 professional hits.
https://m.mlb.com/news/article/194177132/ichiro-suzuki-triples-for-3000th-career-hit/