For progressives, it's been a busy Monday in Sacramento and Washington (and in LA for that matter) as several important stories had major developments today. Follow me after the flip for a summary of what happened today on:

-- Healthcare in California

-- Holding telephone companies accountable for illegally violating our civil liberties

-- The Writer's Guild Strike

-- And, last but certainly not least, the Calitics/CREDO/Courage Happy Holiday Fun Time!

On healthcare, the long long battle for universal coverage continued today after the Assembly in Sacramento passed a sweeping new plan. California Progress Report has an overview of the saga, and the LA Times has a good story here.

In the US Senate today, we took a big step toward holding giant telephone companies (like AT&T) accountable fori helping the Bush Administration illegally violate our civil liberties. Behind objections from a group of senators (including our Senator Barbara Boxer) opposed to giving "retroactive immunity" to AT&T, the Senate moved today to push the question back until after January 1. David Dayen at Calitics has the full story.

In Los Angeles, the Writer's Guild of America (WGA), which has been on strike for about two full months now, filed unfair labor practice charges against the cartel of Hollywood studios last week. The studios want the writers to work for free by allowing the studios to take 100% of the revenue they get by showing television shows and movies over the internet. The WGA argues that as the creators of the content, they deserve a modest percentage of the revenue generated by their creations. Today, as David Dayen writes, the WGA is beginning to question the legitimacy of the giant cartel that represents the Hollywood corporations.

Finally, in the Bay Area tomorrow, join Courage Campaign, CREDO, and Calitics for a bit of Holiday Fun Time! All the details are right here.