US Press hit the IP circuit in late July, 2002, at which time we were nothing more than a poorly named site with a few articles. During the last half of the year we've published more articles, taken on more writers and have worked our traffic up to being visited two, sometimes three, times a day. Occasionally, we even get a visitor that is not a googlebot. Those visits make the whole effort worth our while, so we thought we'd share some of the visitor favorites as well as some editor favorites from our first half-year as US Press.

July
The July articles were rough. Getting back into the swing of writing was as difficult as it was fun. Some of those articles turned out pretty good and here are some highlights:

• Pro Team Owners to Study DoUS Press Officesmestic Violence- This was probably the reader favorite from the "July Era" and it's my favorite too.
• Logo Finally Understood- This article was well received and months later was re-run on the tech humor site BBspot.

August
After basically spending myself in late July, I had to pace myself in August. Luckily, some contributors stepped to the plate and helped a struggling Sharky out.

• Word On The Street #2- The Crack Hunter- Our gossip columnist outdoes himself with his inside scoop on deleted scenes from the summer flop The Crocodile Hunter.
• AMA Calls for Change in Hippocratic Oath After Terrible Baby Naming Incident- Boe J. Engles' first contribution, a deep look at the health care industry in these changing times.
• Bush Speaks Out Against Fire- President Bush took time out of his busy schedule this summer to criticize forest fire policy. US Press was there.

September
September brought another contributor to the mix and has shown that Paula Zahn is still masturbated to quite frequently.

• Aerospace Workers Union Suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder- The esteemed T. Rick Ito's one and only contribution blows the lid off of the mental health situation at one of America's largest airlines.
• 9/11 After One Year: Paula Zahn Not as Attractive- One of a two part series on the changing American psyche on the one year remembrance of the attacks of 9/11/2001. This article still gets a lot of traffic as not a day goes by that someone doesn't search Google for "Paula+Zahn" and end up at our site. I'm sure they are quite surprised to find out that the woman they were looking for pictures of to pleasure themselves with isn't as hot as she used to be. The truth hurts.
• Thousands of Daddy's Dollars Wasted at IMF Protests- This article got linked at a right wing conservative message board which brought it much attention. I don't come from the right, but if you can't make fun of the left, who can you make fun of?

October
We hit full stride in October, publishing almost every other day. I get sleepy just thinking about it.

• Pentagon Says New bin Laden Audiotape Probably Rich Little- Hands down our most popular story. In October it was linked at Fark which brought it a lot of traffic, then in December it was viewed almost 2,000 times after being linked by InstaPundit.
• Jury Awards $28 Thousand to Coffee Drinker- This was a parody of the $28 billion award to a single smoker in October, but gets hits because some people believed it. Written well enough to come across as a real news story....good. Written unfunny enough to come across as a real news story...bad. Oh well, I still like it.
• Yogurt Wars: New Ad Campaigns Linked to Lives of Loved Ones- My favorite story of 2002. Sure, I wrote it, so my vote doesn't mean anything, but it's still my favorite.
• Woman Sick of Getting Hit On at Gym- They're all sick of it.
• Augusta Reverses Policy, Will Allow Transvestite Members- This got some good play thanks to Zfilter! as well as being linked at some transvestite message boards.

November
Each month has brought more traffic (a little more, anyway) and November was indicative of that in that many of the stories from November were linked at various message boards and Live Journals. Here is a sampling...

• US Press Career Corner: When to Include Your Simpsons Expertise on Your Resume- The Simpsons, of course it brought some traffic. Nothing like coattails for a good ride.
• Iraqi Parliament Pretends to Condemn U.N. Plan- This got a lot of hits...One in our never ending series on Iraq.
• Spanish Oil Spill: Voyeur Websites Fear the Worst- This story involves nudity. It demanded traffic.
• Clean Air Act Rollback: Bush Administration Blames Vegetarians- This is our most e-mailed story to date. Many environmentalists are vegetarians and they must be aware that the Bush administration hates them for both qualities.

December
The end of November and the beginning of December had the correspondents taking over and running the show.

• Disney Tour Reluctantly Cancelled- Disney and puking, a natural combination.
• Opinion: Nobody Cares- This opinion piece got many hits mostly due to the extremely negative title, but really, it's a very uplifting manuscript.
• CNN Unveils Newest Weapon in Terror War- Another new writer and another good story.
• Man Uses Definite Article Inappropriately, Shows Age- Boe J. Engles continues with his ever insightful reporting with this look at aging in the America.
• Trent Lott's Hair to Step Down- Every site did a Trent Lott story (or two, or three). Ours looks deeper, giving you an insider's look at the relationship that shapes Trent Lott.

That's our Half Year in review. It ended up being long because I like every story we published. I know, being the Editor-In-Chief I should be able to choose the best articles with a much more objective view. But hey, this isn't about me, it's about the news. So go read some of the news we made up, and tell us what you think.

I'd like to thank Bob at SatireSearch, Joe over at HecticPlanet, and everyone linked above for all their support this year. I'd also like to thank the contributors and the others that helped me with their feedback and site outage reports (D'oh!). Oh, and help US Press grow by using the "e-mail this article" links, submitting our articles to your favorite link sites, and telling everyone you know about your dirty little satire habit. Happy New Year!