1. How much will graduate school students pay in taxes per year if the House tax bill becomes law?
a. $5,000
b. $7,500
c. $10,000
2. Police and soldiers of which country enforced a curfew due to political unrest in the presidential balloting?
a. Honduras
b. Guatemala
c. Venezuela
3. On Dec 3., President Donald Trump said which government agency is in “tatters?”
a. CIA
b. FBI
c. NASA
4. Which Disney short film is under criticism for preceding the release of “Coco?”
a. “Inner Workings”
b. “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure”
c. “Riley’s First Date?”
5. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Dec. 4 to reduce boundaries of which national monuments?
a. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante
b. Zion’s and Bryce Canyon
c. Yellowstone and Craters of the Moon
6. Which comic actor who had a hit role as ‘TV’s Gomer Pyle’ died on Nov. 30?
a. Don Knotts
b. Jim Nabors
c. Andy Griffith
1. C. According to the Los Angeles Times, if the newest version of the House Republicans’ tax bill from last November becomes law, it could increase graduate student tax bills by $10,000 a year. This prompted thousands of graduate students from nearly 60 different campuses in 33 states to protest the tax bill. The House bill sees graduate tuition as income because universities often waive the fee in exchange for students’ becoming researchers and assistants.
California Institute of Technology graduate student Celeste Labedz claims that if this bill is passed, it could make a graduate degree unaffordable. “I would either have to quit or go into massive debt or go somewhere else in the world if I want to get this degree and make a difference in this world like I want to,” Labedz said.
2. A. Police and soldiers of Honduras enforced a curfew in the country due to protests and political unrest in the presidential balloting for President Juan Orlando Hernandez and television personality Salvador Nasralla. The last official ballot count on Dec. 2, which includes almost 95% of ballots cast, gave Hernandez a 1.5% lead over Nasralla. According to The Los Angeles Times, opposition to the result deemed the results as suspicious and demanded a review of the tens of thousands of ballots.
This lead to a protest march against Hernandez on Dec. 2 to the capital, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Authorities claim the curfew is meant to prevent violence, and Hernandez told reporters it is meant “to guarantee the safety of the people.” Human rights advocate Wilfredo Mendez claims the curfew is meant to suppress the disagreement in the election.
3. B. President Donald Trump said the FBI is in ‘tatters” and the institution’s standing is the “worst in history” after former national security advisor Michael T. Flynn plead guilty of lying to the agency on Dec. 1. According to The New York Times, Flynn admitted he had lied about conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transfer. Former FBI director James B. Comey claims President Trump asked him to drop the investigation on Flynn, to which Trump denied and claimed Comey was a liar.
President of the association representing F.B.I. agents Thomas O’Connor said in a statement that the agents are dedicated to serving their mission, and if Trump is suggesting otherwise, then his claims are false. FBI officials are questioning Trump’s opinion of the FBI and says a president should be devoted to law and order.
4. B. Despite Disney hit “Coco” leading the box office for the past two weekends, the preceding short film “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” is facing criticism for a number of reasons. One of which, according to The Los Angeles Times, was the longer-than-usual running time of the short, which included four new songs and ran for more than 20 minutes. This left audiences preparing to watch Coco confused on which Disney movie they were going to be seeing.
A Disney representative says the short-film was intended for a limited run and will stop showing after Dec. 7.
5. A. According Roll Call, President Donald Trump slashed the boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments after signing two executive orders on Dec. 4. Trump called former President Barack Obama’s usage of the Antiquities Act for Bears Ears an overextension of executive power. The boundaries for the Grand Staircase-Escalante were reduced from 1.9 million-acres to 1,003,863 acres and Bears Ears was reduced from 1.35 million acres to 228,800 acres.
“These abuses of the Antiquities Act give enormous power to faraway bureaucrats at the expense of the people who actually live here, work here and make this place their home,” Trump said.
6. B. Jim Nabors, 87, died in his Honolulu home on Nov. 30, with his death confirmed by his husband Stan Cadwallader. According to The Los Angeles Times, Nabors played Gomer Pyle in two hit television shows in the 1960s and was a popular singer for his second career. The comedy, “The Andy Griffith Show,” had Nabors play as a supporting role in 1962, which spun into his own series called “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” in 1964.
Cadwallader said his husband’s health was declining for a year accompanied with a suppressed immune system due to a liver transplant in 1994 after contracting hepatitis B.
