While many of the country's most active working family advocates were in Los Angeles for the AFL-CIO national convention, the rest of the country continued to operate, with legislation, elections and judicial decisions of significant importance continuing to move forward. Here are eight stories you might have missed while the media's attention was focused on the convention.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) vetoed a paycheck deception bill, saying the bill targeted a single group of employees and would have placed an undue burden on them. The legislation would've required that employees provide, on an annual basis, a written authorization for both withholding of union dues and for the authorization of the use of that money for political purposes.

Here's a look at some of the key battles in the states over the past week.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, its corporate backers and extremist Missouri lawmakers may have won the first round in their drive to silence working people with a paycheck deception bill, when the House gave it final approval (86-69) earlier this week.