Earlier today, the U.S. Senate mustered 54 votes in favor of the Manchin-Toomey background check compromise—which was six votes shy of the 60 necessary to break a filibuster.

The vote drew the ire of many supporters of the legislation, from Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords' Americans for Responsible Solutions ("We will use every means possible to make sure the constituents of these senators know that their elected representatives ignored them, and put Washington, DC special interest politics over the effort to keep their own communities safer from the tragedy of gun violence," said in a statement released earlier today) to President Obama ("...all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," said earlier).

Among the upset: Patricia Maisch, survivor of the Jan. 8, 2011 shooting, who watched the loss from the gallery—and made her voice heard as she left.

From Slate:

"Shame on you!" yelled Maisch.

Typically, when someone yells from the gallery, security hustles to bounce the heckler out of the room. Maisch wasn't elbowed out very quickly. Two years ago, she was one of the people who effectively shut down Jared Loughner's rampage. She saw him coming, she lay on the ground, and when Loughner fumbled his reload and was tackled, Maisch snatched away his extra magazine. And no one really ushered her out of the Hill today as she told reporters why she yelled.

"I could not stay still," she said, standing in a scrum of reporters. "They should be ashamed of themselves ... if it had been a yes vote, I wouldn't have said anything. It was spontaneous—but I was prepared to do that."

She gave her info and story a few times before one of the other activists started to usher her out. One reporter asked her what she thought of Sen. Jeff Flake's no vote on the amendment. "Sen. Flake?" she said. "I'm embarrassed. He's a flaky flake."

According to a public disclosure notice released by Pima Community College today from the Higher Learning Commission, the HLC has decided to put the college on probation effective April 6, 2013.

Here are some points from the notice, but you can also read it in its entirety here:

Understanding Probation
Probation is public status signifying that conditions exist at an accredited institution that make it no longer in compliance with one or more of the Commission’s Criteria for Accreditation. The period of probation is not more than two years, commencing with the date that the Board placed the institution on probation. During the probation period, the university’s accreditation status continues and it has the opportunity to remedy the concerns that led to the probation.

Recent Board Action
On April 6, 2013, the Higher Learning Commission placed Pima County Community College District on Probation. The Commission’s Board of Trustees took this action because of concerns related to integrity, financial management, personnel policies and procedures, shared governance, Board oversight of the institution, and systemic and integrated planning. The Board based its action on the findings of an evaluation conducted as a result of complaints received by the Commission about the College.

Next Steps
The College is required to file a monitoring report no later than August 1, 2013, outlining a plan by which it will establish conformity with the Commission’s Assumed Practices related to complaints and grievance procedures(Assumed Practice A.4) and to faculty oversight of the curriculum (Assumed Practice B.2.c) by July 2014. The College is also required to file a comprehensive self-study no later than July 2014 or eight weeks prior to the comprehensive evaluation. The self-study must provide evidence that the College has resolved the concerns of
the Board identified in the Probation action and evidence that the College meets the Criteria for Accreditation.

In a press release issued by the college, a message from PCC's new chancellor, Zelema Harris, was included. Harris reiterated some of the same information that is in the HLC notice.

Harris ended her message:

We can use this opportunity to improve services to our students and the community. Toward that end, I will begin working with key constituencies to create a strategic plan that will allow PCC to address areas in need of improvement.
I will update you with more information as the College creates its response plan. I will present an update at the May Governing Board meeting.

The HLC re-accredited PCC for 10 years in 2010, and I believe that we can successfully restore the HLC’s and the public’s trust in the College.

Stephen Chbosky, author and director of Perks of Being a Wallflower, will host a reading, signing and Q&A from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at the Bookmans at Grant and Campbell.

After releasing the novel in 1999, Chbosky went on to write the screenplay and direct the film adaptation, which was released last October. The book had garnered a cult following by the time the film was released.

Though Chbosky began this project as an author, he also has an extensive background in film. A graduate of the University of Southern California's filmic writing program, his first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995. Chbosky also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Rent, and helped create CBS's Jericho.

The signing is free and open to the public.

Something tells us today's Senate filibuster on background checks will not be anything like Patton Oswalt's geek-crazed "citizen's filibuster" that will be seen on Parks and Recreation tomorrow night. A minor quibble: The X-Men don't have a quinjet.

Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords sent out a bulletin this morning urging people to contact their senators to urge them to support the Toomey-Manchin compromise on background checks. The couple acknowledged that there is not enough support to break a filibuster on a vote scheduled for later today :

We won't waste any time getting to the point.

The U.S. Senate is set to vote on expanding background checks and other legislation to reduce gun violence today at 4pm Eastern.

The truth is that as of right now, it's very close, but we don't have the votes. That's why it's so critical you make your voice heard in the next few hours.

Slate rounds up the latest on the gun bill here.

New York magazine's Jonathan Chait has six reasons why the background-check compromise is on the rocks. Reasons 1-3:

1. Getting a majority of America isn’t the same thing as getting a majority in Congress, because Congress doesn’t perfectly represent America. The House represents a collection of districts, the overwhelming majority of which are not competitive and produced a nearly impervious Republican majority despite Democrats receiving more votes in aggregate. The Senate gives vastly disproportionate representation to small states, which are mostly rural (that’s why they're small) and thus much more pro-gun.

2. Even if you win a majority in the Senate, it isn’t enough. You need 60 votes to break a filibuster. When you combine 1 with 2, you hand a small rural minority overwhelming power.

3. Almost everybody may support background checks, but not every American knows the actual content of every bill that gets a vote. Look at health-care reform. Americans overwhelmingly favor nearly every provision of Obamacare, but oppose the law because they had a general sense of not liking it.

Likewise, opponents have turned the debate into a general discussion of “gun control,” which is way less popular than a specific law about background checks. Lisa Murkowski explains her No vote thusly: “In Alaska you're pretty much pro-gun. That about sums it up.”

The incredible run of Lisa Frank comes to an end as she loses to Richard Carmona by ten percentage points, but Janos Wilder continues to dominate our Celebrity Showdown, taking out Savannah Guthrie by over 300 votes. So now we're down to four: Amanda Beard vs. Janos and Gabrielle Giffords vs. Richard Carmona. Vote now to determine our Showdown finalists.

I'm torn regarding Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. I think he, personally, is a hilarious talent — a great comic writer, actor, singer, etc. He loves what he does, and it shows. I appreciate the hell out of that.

At the same time, he gets lazy, such as his constant lowering to the basest jokes possible, even in higher-concept episodes (say, the "Road to..." episodes of Family Guy).

Well, one of MacFarlane's similarly lazy properties, The Cleveland Show (following the same casting structure as his other shows, but with more black folk!), is reportedly going away, according to sources for animation blog Cartoon Brew, citing talk from The Animation Guild, and looking at ratings numbers for Cleveland.

Whether or not Cleveland is cancelled, MacFarlane will be fine — he's got a live-action TV show and a comedy-western movie in the works — plus, his shows American Dad and Family Guy are still humming right along.

Enterprising imbibers of marijuana, we've got a new experiment for you: "Weed Sauce."

French fry chain Manneken Pis has developed a new dipping sauce for its customers, based around one of the most celebrated puff-puff-pastimes in the Netherlands, giving people the opportunity to dip their fries in something that's contains the "unmistakable taste of weed" in it, according to New York magazine's Grub Street blog.

Apparently though, the sauce doesn't actually contain THC, so you won't be getting high off of it — sorry, folks. It's as effective in getting you stoned as those super-cool hemp-based hand lotions that square high-schoolers buy when they're trying to be edgy without getting grounded for smoking the dope.

From Grub Street:

French fry chain Manneken Pis thinks the time is nigh — they were voted "beste friet van Nederland 2013," mind you — so tomorrow they will introduce Wietsaus, a mayonnaise-based French fry dipping sauce infused, apparently, with the convincingly strong taste of weed.

Albert van Beek, the French fry chainlet's owner, says he was inspired by the pervasive smell of weed smoke on the street (obviously) and was in turn blown away to find out that skunky dipping sauce was not yet a thing. He got right to work.

By my calendar, it's still April 16, meaning that cannabis culinary artists have four days to throw together their version of a weed sauce — get, uh...baking, I guess.

The Sundance Channel has already secured one hit this year with Top of the Lake (starring Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss), and fans of the network can watch a sneak peak of its next buzzed-about program, Rectify, at the Loft tonight at 7 p.m.

The Loft is one of only 14 theaters screening the preview of Rectify, which is Sundance Channel’s first “wholly owned original scripted series,” according to a release from Jeff Yanc, the program director at the Loft. The show already has a few things going for it: produced by the same team behind cable favorite Breaking Bad and already being hailed by TV critics in advance screenings, Rectify has potential to put the network on the map the way The Walking Dead, Mad Men and the aforementioned critical behemoth Breaking Bad transformed AMC into a ratings powerhouse.

The first two episodes of the show will screen tonight in advance of the April 22 premiere date, followed by a Skype Q&A with Rectify’s cast members. Admission is free, but the Osborne Association, which aids families affected by incarceration, will be accepting donations.

Here's a collection of the highlights from hearing on UN Agenda 21 at the Arizona Legislature last week. It's a sad display of lunacy and fear of change.

If you haven't yet heard about Agenda 21: Those who are worried about believe that a two-decade-old UN treaty in support of sustainable development is part of a sinister plan to force everyone into small apartments in cities. Among the tools at the enemy's disposal: universities, bike lanes, downtown revitalization, light rail, and water-conservation projects.