GARDINER — “Latke, latke, latke,” 6-year-old Yana Montell said as she waited — almost patiently — with a row of other young girls sipping hot cocoa on their stools Sunday afternoon at the A1 Diner’s counter, waiting for the gathering’s star attraction.

AUGUSTA — Julie Gilbert is reaching out to a familiar face from the past to bring something both new and traditional to the annual Penney Memorial Christmas Cantata.

AUGUSTA — Madison Corgan, 10, loaded a blue-and-white piece of “quilt” into the arms of her team’s robot, Sam, pushed a button or two and then watched, smiling widely but nervously, as the Lego robot went about the tasks the team had programmed it to do.

AUGUSTA — A homeless man is charged with robbing a CVS Pharmacy on Capitol Street last month, the latest arrest in a string of city pharmacy robberies and a record-breaking number of drugstore hold-ups statewide.

AUGUSTA — Cony High School Principal James Anastasio was named interim superintendent, and Special Education Director Donna Madore assistant superintendent by the Board of Education Monday.

AUGUSTA — The two-company race to bring natural gas to the Kennebec Valley rolls on in corporate conference rooms, town halls, roadside ditches and now, atop a barge in the Kennebec River.