VIRGO-The year ahead:You had better get your roller stakes out and ready as soon as you celebrate your birthday or anniversary, because your calendar is likely to be overcrowded with many invitations you’ll find exciting and invigorating. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — Although sometimes you can be labeled as being indecisive because you’ll voice all…

WASHINGTON (AP) Postmaster General John E. Potter renewed his promise Tuesday that the price of mailing a letter won’t go up until 2006. Potter said the agency has saved $8.3 billion in spending over the last three years and expects another $1 billion in cost cuts in 2005. Chief Financial Officer Richard J. Strasser told…

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) A man being chased by sheriff’s deputies dropped his fiancee’s 8-month-old daughter out of a moving car, sending the baby tumbling across the highway in her car seat. The girl was unhurt, but the man later was fatally injured in a crash. Dana Bettin, 23, died Sunday, three days after the…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Guerrillas bombed a Baghdad shopping street full of police recruits and fired on a police van north of the capital Tuesday in attacks that killed at least 59 people and struck at the heart of the U.S. strategy for fighting Iraq’s escalating insurgency. The car bombing and shooting — the latest in…

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) Frightened residents of the Gulf Coast from Florida’s Panhandle to Louisiana’s bayous boarded up windows, packed and hit the road Tuesday as Hurricane Ivan charged in their direction. Schools and coastal casinos were ordered closed and more than 1 million people were urged to evacuate the vulnerable New Orleans area.…

CHICAGO (AP) Oprah Winfrey In addition to advice, encouragement and inspiration, Oprah Winfrey had a special gift for every member of her audience — a $28,000 car. The syndicated talk show host handed out car keys to all 276 people in the audience who had come for the taping of the premiere of the 19th…

A computer technician who prosecutors said made possible the largest identity theft in U.S. history, surpassing $50 million, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy in a scheme that poached personal information from tens of thousands of people. Philip A. Cummings, 35, said he did not realize that his accomplices would do so much damage with the…