BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
It’s that time of year when newspapers look back at the year’s biggest news stories. But instead of repeating the news you’ve already read, I thought it would be more fun to see how much of the news you remember. See how many of these questions you can answer. The answers are at the end.
1. What Fortune 500 company announced in November that it was moving its headquarters from Palo Alto to Santa Clara?
a. Palantir
b. VMware
c. Hewlett Packard Enterprise
d. Tesla Motors
2. Which Giants legend received a pardon from President Obama on tax evasion charges?
a. Willie McCovey
b. Barry Bonds
c. Willie Mays
d. Gaylord Perry
3. President Trump is seen as no friend to California. So it came as a surprise when his administration announced in May that it would:
a. Pay for a new dog park in Palo Alto
b. Build the Trump Library in the Stanford Hills
c. Fund a $647 million grant to electrify Caltrain
d. Double Department of Defense’s investments in AI startups
4. Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has investigated 11 cases in the Palo Alto Unified School District, mostly involving claims that administrators didn’t follow federal regulations in the handling of complaints about disability rights or sexual harassment. A complaint filed in February by a Michigan woman was very different. She complained that:
a. Signs were misspelled at Palo Alto High School
b. The school district’s website wasn’t accessible to the deaf or blind
c. The streaming of school board meetings cut out at key moments
d. Gunn High School students were winning too many science awards
5. East Palo Alto City Council gave Amazon a special break in February when the company was seeking permission to move into a new office building at University Avenue and Donohoe Street. Amazon was given permission to:
a. Test drones throughout the city
b. Ignore a city law to hire 30% of its employees from East Palo Alto if it opened a jobs center
c. Drop the “East” in its East Palo Alto address
d. Double-park delivery vehicles
6. A San Mateo woman named Linda Haskin-Gologorsky, who was in court in 2017 on charges of falsifying real estate documents and submitting them as evidence in a divorce case, has adopted a “Star Wars” character’s name. She’s now in the state mental hospital in Napa. She refers to herself as:
a. Rey
b. Padme Amidala
c. Ahsoka Tano
d. Princess Leia
7. Stanford has had some great running backs over the years. Who holds the record for most rushing yards in a season?
a. Christian McCaffrey
b. Bryce Love
c. Toby Gerhart
d. Tyler Gaffney
8. In January, Menlo Park City Council approved this development project even though an environmental impact report said it would increase traffic in the surrounding area by 25%.
a. The Willow-Highway 101 interchange.
b. The Greenheart project at 1300 El Camino Real and the Derry Property on Oak Grove Avenue.
c. The hotel that will replace the Shell station at 1400 El Camino at Glenwood Avenue.
d. The three-story office building at 1020 Alma St., across from the Caltrain station.
9. What popular Woodside event came under fire from animal rights activists?
a. The mosquito challenge, where residents see how many of the bugs they can zap in 5 minutes.
b. The pig scramble, where kids try to catch piglets, at the Independence Day Rodeo.
c. Mr. Ed Day, when residents see if they can get their horses to talk.
d. The opossum parade.
10. While cities across the state were removing their red-light cameras, which mid-Peninsula city added one in 2017?
a. Palo Alto
b. San Mateo
c. Los Altos
d. Hillsborough
11. In 2017, San Mateo Mayor David Lim was sued for doing what on Twitter:
a. Responding to President Trump’s tweets
b. Posting pictures of him twerking
c. Refusing to say who he blocked
d. Releasing confidential information
12. In April, some Palo Alto residents were upset that half of the soccer field at the Cubberley Community Center was rented out to this local tech company:
a. Hewlett Packard Enterprise
b. Palantir
c. Theranos
d. Facebook
13. These two tech head honchos from our area stepped down this year:
a. Tim Cook (Apple) and Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn)
b. Eric Schmidt (Alphabet) and Meg Whitman (HP Enterprise)
c. Sundar Pichai (Google) and Marc Benioff (Salesforce)
d. Jack Dorsey (Twitter) and Ben Silberman (Pinterest)
14. Name the mid-Peninsula town that’s lobbying the postal service for its own Zip code:
a. Atherton
b. Portola Valley
c. Los Altos Hills
d. Redwood City’s Docktown
15. What sport was officially recognized by the Palo Alto City Council with a proclamation on Nov. 13?
a. Volleyball
b. Underwater hockey
c. Egg throwing
d. Pickleball
16. Mountain View Whisman School District Trustee Tamara Wilson has proposed naming a new elementary school in that city after this person:
a. Steve Jobs
b. Cesar Chavez
c. Jose Antonio Vargas
d. Che Guevara
17. The mid-Peninsula’s last roller rink closed Sept. 30. What city was it in?
a. Palo Alto
b. Belmont
c. Mountain View
d. Redwood City
18. This former NFL star went to the Palo Alto City Council on Aug. 14 to speak on behalf of a girls’ singing group, iSing Silicon Valley, which was fighting to continue using space in First Baptist Church in Palo Alto after the city said that some of the nonprofits using the church were violating parking and zoning rules.
a. Steve Young
b. Lawrence Taylor
c. John Elway
d. Michael Vick
19. In June, the family that started a local group of restaurants sold the chain to two of their employees. What’s the chain?
a. The Oasis
b. Hobee’s
c. Kirk’s Steakburgers
d. Pizza My Heart
20. The Post reported in May that when Palo Alto High School Principal Kim Diorio was an assistant principal at the school, she constantly received reports about misbehavior by then-Principal Phil Winston. She decided to document the complaints by:
a. Writing them on a whiteboard in her office
b. Firing off emails to the district’s HR department
c. Putting them in a spreadsheet
d. Re-enacting them with the drama class
ANSWERS
1. a. Hewlett Packard Enterprise
2. a. Willie McCovey
3. c. Grant to electrify Caltrain
4. b. She claimed the website wasn’t accessible to the blind and deaf
5. b. Ignoring the local hiring law
6. d. Princess Leia
7. b. Bryce Love
8. b. The Greenheart project
9. b. The pig scramble
10. b. San Mateo
11. c. Refusing to say who he blocked
12. b. Palantir
13. b. Eric Schmidt and Meg Whitman
14. c. Los Altos Hills
15. d. Pickleball
16. c. Jose Antonio Vargas
17. d. Redwood City
18. a. Steve Young
19. b. Hobee’s
20. c. Putting them in a spreadsheet
