HALLOWELL (AP) – Police are investigating a robbery at the Gardiner Savings Bank of Maine’s branch office in Hallowell.

Police said a man handed a note demanding money to a teller. Police Chief Eric Nason said the robber displayed a weapon but did not point it at anyone during the Wednesday morning holdup at the branch bank on Winthrop Street.

The man fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The suspect is described as a heavyset white male, between 5-foot-10 and 6 feet, of medium to heavy build, with blue eyes. He was wearing a black ski mask, a dark-colored coat and baggy blue jeans.

Woman convicted of Maine ID theft

PORTLAND (AP) – U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby says a Massachusetts woman will serve prison time now that she’s been convicted of identity theft in Maine.

At her one-day trial Tuesday, 35-year-old Deniz Novo of Malden, Mass., was found guilty of aggravated identity theft. Silsby says Novo faces a mandatory two-year prison term and a fine of up to $250,000.

According to evidence at the trial, Novo used a false name and a Social Security number she knew was someone else’s in order to get a Maine identification card from the state. The offense took place in May 2006.

Novo pleaded guilty to Social Security fraud on Dec. 2.

Maine judge rules on lynx trapping

BANGOR (AP) – A federal judge is refusing to order the trapping season in northern Maine cut short in response to the deaths of two Canada lynx in recent weeks.

District Judge John Woodcock said Tuesday that the two groups asking for the trapping restriction, the Wildlife Alliance of Maine and the Animal Welfare Institute, failed to show that lynx are being harmed by trappers who follow the state’s rules and regulations in areas where the threatened and federally protected lynx live.

The judge acknowledged that an illegally set trap ensnared one of the lynx.

A separate lawsuit filed by the two groups against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is still pending with the court.