The Liberal Party presents Marcia Kramer with its Bell Award for her reports on waste and corruption in the New York City educational system.

Emmy award-winning journalist Marcia Kramer joined Channel 2 in 1990. In addition to her reports on the nightly news, she serves as co-host of "Sunday Edition," the Sunday morning public affairs program. Marcia has earned popular acclaim and critical recognition for her coverage of local and state politics and ground breaking investigations. Her exclusive investigations of corruption in N.Y.C.'s public school system has gained national attention.

Last February, Ms. Kramer exposed that some truckers and loaders at the Bureau of School Supplies pick up extra cash by re-routing much-needed school supplies to local area merchants.

This hard-hitting investigation prompted the district attorney to bring charges against the drivers and open a widespread investigation on how the Board operates its warehouses.

In her May report "Flunking Lunch," Ms. Kramer discovered that rotting food is being delivered to school cafeterias and served to our children.

Additionally, Ms. Kramer has exposed rampant neglect and indifference in the running of the school system, little nutritional value in school cafeteria food, and local school board members using funds intended to go towards educating children to pay for trips all over the world.

In her recent report on school security, Ms. Kramer found that, in all too many cases, the kids need protection from their protectors because of corruption in the ranks of the security officers. She reported that officers were getting stoned, selling drugs, conducting loan sharking activities inside schools, and stealing custodian tools. Her undercover cameras caught a female safety officer secretly holding hands with a young high school student.

She interviewed officers who knew about officers having sex with students. She found the School Board offered poor training and had little, if any, employment requirements. - L.S

The Liberal Party presents both Congressmen Schumer and Owens with its Bell Award for raising the ire of the NRA sufficiently enough to goad the organization into calling the Congressmen allies of "jack-booted thugs."

The same "jack-booted government thug" letter that prompted former President Bush to quit the National Rifle Association last month singled out two of New York's Congressmen—Major Owens and Charles Schumer—as two of the thugs' biggest allies.

The NRA fund-raising letter said Schumer and Owens were sponsoring gun control laws that would give "jack-booted government thugs more power to take away our Constitutional rights, break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property, and even injure or kill us."

It described the 1992 siege at Waco, Texas, Branch Davidian compound as an instance of "Federal agents wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms" attacking "law-abiding citizens."

Congressman Owens, who has introduced a bill in the House to outlaw handguns for most people, said he was not going to back down on his stand on gun control.

Congressman Schumer, sponsor of last year's anti-crime bill and the assault rifle ban that Congressional Republicans are trying to repeal, said being singled out by the NRA meant he was doing something right. "If you could choose an enemy to have, the NRA would be right up there," he said. "I wear these comments like a badge of honor."

He added that the gun lobby's use of facist imagery showed how desperate it was becoming. "The NRA has become a fringe, extremist group out of the mainstream and out of touch with the concerns of everyday people," he said.

Schumer has proposed a law to require a license for any gun purchase and would limit people to one purchase a month.

He is also trying to outlaw "cop-killer bullets" that can penetrate bulletproof vests. The NRA has opposed both bills.

Liberal Party presents Deputy Mayor Fran Reiter with its Bell Award for her street furniture program designed to eliminate street clutter and provides a much needed service.

Deputy Mayor Reiter is calling for the replacement of the city's bus shelters and newsstands, the installation of automatic public toilets, as well as the reduction and consolidation of newspaper boxes, all under one franchise. The combined program would control the unrelenting growth in sidewalk clutter, add consistency to and (in many cases) improve the aesthetics of New York's sidewalk environment, and provide many necessary services to the city's residents and visitors.

Moreover, poster advertising (like that on the current bus shelters) would not only pay for the installation and maintenance of the street furniture by a private operator, but would also generate substantial revenues for the city's coffers. Although the proposal still requires approval of the Planning Commission and the City Council, it represents a giant step in the right direction. - C.M.G.