Source: The Miami Herald

https://www.religionnewsblog.com/6738/goat-sacrifice-takes-neighbors-by-surprise

On April 8, 2004 The Miami Herald reported, "A Miami Lakes resident trimming branches hanging over her yard from a neighbor's tree...

Source: Beliefnet

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/143/story_14394_1.html

On April 5, 2004 Beliefnet reported, "A Voodoo-certifying agency in Philadelphia has sued the Sci Fi Channel, demanding that a 'questionable' Voodoo priestess be removed from a reality TV show. The National African Religion Congress, which claims to represent 5,000 authentic 'priests and priestesses of varying African-derived religions,' said Voodoo rituals shown on the 'Mad Mad House' reality...

Source: New York Newsday

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/queens/nyc-cov0314,0,1424524.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-queens

On March 17, 2004 New York Newsday reported, "People who practice Santeria are not always open about it because of the stigma that still surrounds the religion. For that reason, Marta Moreno Vega, a professor of religion at Hunter College and founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center in Manhattan, did...

Source: 1010 Wins

http://1010wins.com/topstories/winstopstories_story_288175257.html

On October 15, 2003 1010 Wins reported that "a Santeria priest vowed to go forward with an animal sacrifice in Passaic on Monday, insisting the activity is protected by a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Felix Mota, a santero, or priest of the Afro-Cuban religion, said he will sacrifice a chicken at a Santeria altar in back of his religious artifact store, the Botanica St....

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2985627.stm

On April 30, 2003 the BBC News reported, "Voodoo has been practised in Haiti since the late 18th Century, but only now has it been recognised as a religion on a par with others worshipped in the country.

Haiti's Catholic President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, took the decision earlier in April which means that voodoo ceremonies such as marriages now have equal standing with Catholic ones."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On February 14, 2003 The Houston Chronicle reported that "members of a north Houston family that practices Santeria rituals said they were praying for a relative in a coma when authorities barged into their home, seizing 12 goats, 11 chickens and two pigeons about to be sacrificed... No charges were immediately filed against the five participants in the religious ritual in the 300 block of Coach near Imperial Valley, but the Houston SPCA seized all of the animals in the family's back yard Wednesday... The five residents,...

Source: The New York Times

On January 19, 2003 The New York Times reported that "as an assistant professor in the Religion Department at Wesleyan University, the wife of a Haitian man, the mother of an adopted Haitian daughter and a follower of the [voodoo] religion herself, Ms. McAlister has to find a balance between the personal, the professional and the academic... Voodoo is a religion developed by Africans forced to leave their homes behind and work as slaves on Haiti's sugar plantations. A broad religion with millions of faithful and countless...

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On November 6, 2002 The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "Mexicans in metro Atlanta commemorated Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a celebration rooted in both their indigenous traditions and their adopted Christianity. Several hundred people viewed 13 homemade altars at a celebration in Forest Park sponsored by the city and the Mexican consul general's office Saturday. The celebration... shares its philosophy with that of other cultures such as those in Asia and Africa in which ancestor...

Source: The Boston Globe

On October 26, 2002 The Boston Globe reported that "Tony Van Der Meer was raised a Baptist, but years ago, friends introduced him to the religion of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The Yoruba revere family and ancestors. Van Der Meer, 48, an African studies professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, says he saw a powerful demonstration of his new faith a decade ago involving his father, a man he barely knew. The Yoruba believe in a supreme god and more than 400 lesser divinities, called orishas, each with its...

Source: The Boston Globe

On October 26, 2002 The Boston Globe reported that "last week, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education devoted its second annual conference on African ritual and art to the role of ancestors. The conference 'focused on seeing how the traditions from Africa, transplanted in the Western Hemisphere... still have influence,' says Cambridge Center spokesman Jim Smith... Dragged from Africa during slavery, the Yoruba brought religious beliefs that couldn't be suffocated... The Yoruba believe in a supreme god and mo...

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

On October 4, 2002 The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "the Postal Service issues its holiday stamps in October to continue interest in collecting. Next Thursday, four holiday stamps, all 37 cents, will be issued commemorating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Muslim Eid. Contemporary Christmas stamps, featuring snowmen, will be issued later."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On September 28, 2002 The Houston Chronicle reported that "despite the difficulties of collecting data, the numbers in the census released last week reveal the strength of religion county-by-county across America. The report said that 141.3 million people, or 50.2 percent of the U.S. population, were involved with churches, synagogues, mosques or temples. That makes the United States one of the most religious nations in the world, said Houseal, a statistician for the Church of the Nazarene. However, the number does not...

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On June 17, 2002 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on a "two-day Pagan Picnic in Tower Grove Park [in St. Louis, Missouri]... Sponsored by the Council For Alternative Spiritual Traditions, the picnic is a chance for pagans to celebrate being pagans, said River Higginbotham, chair of this year's 10th-annual event. Local pagans also see it as an educational opportunity - a chance to let the public know what paganism is all about... Higginbotham estimated [that the picnic] attracted about 2,500 people this year. Over the...

Source: The Boston Globe

On June 15, 2002 The Boston Globe featured an article on the vodou practice of the Haitian community in Boston. "Wesleyan scholar Elizabeth McAlister says vodou historically has been a force for good in Haiti, intimately woven with the struggle for civil rights and against poverty... Yet the... popular misperceptions and a relatively small Haitian community in Boston means vodou in this area is practiced in the privacy of homes and basements, unlike in New York or Miami, which have larger vodou populations and occasional public...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On May 29, 2002 The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "a conservative three-judge panel said a Rastafarian - whose Jamaica-based religion regards marijuana as a sacrament that brings believers closer to divinity - could not be federally prosecuted for merely possessing marijuana, a decision that upheld a portion of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act."