It's heating up out there. So much for burying the race hatchet.

Despite an attempt to put the race genie back in the bottle after a week-long tit for tat between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton over comments she made regarding the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Clinton supporter, and Harlem Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel , who happens to be the highest ranking African American in Congress, has stepped all in the spat, even though Obama and Clinton seemed to pull back from their squabble.

On NY-1's 'Inside City Hall,' Rangel called Sen. Barack Obama "absolutely stupid" for going after Clinton for her seemingly insensitive remarks about Dr. King and Pres. Lyndon Johnson and the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

As the first woman and first African American to lead 's largest philanthropy devoted to improving the nation's health, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey isn't interested in making small, incremental changes.

The programs championed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) under her leadership -- reversing the childhood obesity epidemic, promoting health coverage for children and eliminating disparities in health care -- focus on the biggest health-related issues facing our nation today.

"If we do nothing about the obesity epidemic, the current generation of young people could be the first in American history to live sicker and die younger than their parents' generation," Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey warns. "That's unacceptable to me, and it ought to be unacceptable to everyone else, whether they're doctors, policy-makers, educators or parents struggling to keep their kids safe and healthy."

Daniel isn't alone.

Childhood obesity is one of the most urgent and serious health threats confronting our nation. And nowhere is the problem more acute than in the African-American community. National statistics show approximately one in five African-American children are obese. That's far higher than the obesity rate for white children. Additionally, African-American girls have the highest obesity rate of any ethnic and gender group tracked by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

That's why the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), America's largest philanthropy devoted to improving the nation's health, is focusing its efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic on reaching kids at greatest risk. RWJF will commit at least $500 million over the next five years to fight childhood obesity and will focus much of its investment in traditionally underserved communities.

"Most of the public HBCU's (historically black colleges and universities) are just embarking on fund-raising, and in most cases, we really have to educate our alumni because in the past, say, 10 years ago, they really weren't solicited on a regular basis," Cheryl Hitchcock, vice president of institutional advancement at Baltimore's Morgan State said in USA Today.

Read the USA Today story here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-10-16-black-colleges_N.htm

Related story: Lehman Brothers Donates to Spelman: http://blackenterprise.com/cms/exclusivesopen.aspx?id=3674

When photographer Ernest C. Withers died this week at 85, he left a treasure trove of black and white images that chronicled life in black America. His photos revealed the best of times like the Beale Street music scene in his native Memphis, Tenn. to the harsh images of the segregated South and the groundbreaking teams of the Negro Leagues.

Withers started his career as a freelance photographer taking pictures of everyday scenes that today loom large in our history. He took pictures of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. King was later assassinated.

Commemorating the 12th anniversary of the Million Man March, Minister Louis Farrakhan told black Americans to look to themselves for support. The former Nation of Islam leader was in Atlanta just a few months after he gave what was billed as his farewell speech after being diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer. He spoke to an audience of nearly 5,000, warning them against materialism and seeing current successes for a few African-Americans as evidence of opportunity for everyone.

"We have to come out of the thinking of a slave and come into the thinking and acting of free men and women," Farrakhan said. "We cannot depend on others for what the horrible condition of our people demands now that we do for ourselves."

According to the Associated Press, Tuesday night's address was the keynote speech for Farrakhan's Holy Day of Atonement, which also commemorated the anniversary of the Million Man March, held Oct. 16, 1995 in Washington .