Governor Mike Parson

According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, approximately 19,000 people are released from prison every year. For Paige Spears, it took 37 years to walk free.

Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said her colleagues and community members are outraged that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson freed former KCPD detective Eric DeValkenaere last week.

Eric DeValkenaere, who has been in prison for a year and two months, was released at mid-day on Friday, in time to be home for Christmas as his wife had asked of Gov. Mike Parson. The family of Cameron Lamb, the 26-year-old Black man DeValkenaere killed, had long feared Parson would free the former police detective.

After six and a half years, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is set to leave office in January. In an interview with KCUR, Parson reflected on his tenure — including accomplishments like expanding I-70, if he plans to pardon former KCPD officer Eric DeValkenaere, and his hopes for the future of Missouri.

Despite hinting that it could happen, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson won't say for sure whether he will pardon or commute the sentence of Eric DeValkenaere, the former KCPD officer serving six years in prison for killing Cameron Lamb. Parson spoke to KCUR's Up To Date about his tenure before leaving office on Jan. 13.

Gov. Mike Parson is leaving office in January after more than six and a half years in the job. He spoke about his handling of the COVID pandemic, the abortion ban he signed into law, and his experience working with Republican supermajorities.

Without intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, Marcellus Williams will be executed after 6 p.m. Tuesday. Gov. Mike Parson has said he will not grant clemency to Williams.

"Taking the life of Marcellus Williams would be an unequivocal statement that when a white woman is killed, a Black man must die. And any Black man will do," wrote NAACP president Derrick Johnson.

Following a lawsuit from the state's hemp industry, Missouri health regulators will stop embargoing products simply because they contain hemp-derived THC. Instead, they'll focus on identifying "misbranded" products.

Only one budget veto issued by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson faced an attempted override. Lawmakers ultimately left Wednesday without overriding anything.

Parson's joint task force between the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control and Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office will seek to get unrelated hemp-derived edibles off of shelves, and build an investigation into "deceptive marketing practices."

Military members and their families are especially vulnerable to food insecurity, but Kansas City groups are providing a safety net. Plus: Missouri hemp producers are stuck in confusion after the delay of Gov. Mike Parson's ban on hemp-derived edibles.