The American Amputee Soccer Association is eyeing opportunities to expand the game to new communities and continue its steady financial growth after advancing to the knockout rounds at the 2022 Amputee World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey.

Team USA is advancing to the knockout rounds at the Amputee Soccer World Cup after notching two victories, including a 1-0 statement win over England, during the group stage this past weekend.

Facing a shortage of attorneys and an onslaught of cases, the local public defender's office warned that without resources to hire more staff, it would struggle to represent — as constitutionally required — defendants requesting that service. In a state with deep libertarian roots, the threat of allowing prosecutors to abuse their legal authority and trample defendants' rights, is particularly striking.

After a local man facing criminal charges that included domestic violence shot and killed his 12-year-old son and them himself, I spoke with violence experts about deficiencies in the safeguards meant to keep people who are convicted, or even accused, of such crimes from doing further harm.

Looking into public records and past media reports, I found that the new police chief in Winchester, N.H., had left the same job in western Massachusetts after local officials there held a disciplinary hearing for him. The chief, Erik Josephson, had called that town's handling of a misconduct inquiry “unethical,” alleged corruption among local officials and said they were overly involved in his duties as chief, prompting the disciplinary hearing, records show.

I spoke with Laura Tobin, a Keene resident whose rent was set to increase by $400 — or 50 percent — under her apartment's new owners. Tobin told me that because she'd recently lost part-time work, she wasn't sure she'd be able to afford the rent hike. Her story was familiar: The median rent, including utilities, for a two-bedroom apartment in Cheshire County has risen by more than 5 percent over the past five years.

After Koffee Kup Bakery in Vermont abruptly closed, many of the 500 people laid off reported that they hadn't received their unused PTO, which amounted to $800,000 across the entire company. That stemmed from a dispute between Koffee Kup's owner and a court-appointed receiver managing the bakery's assets, with both denying responsibility for that pay. One worker told me, "I just wanted what was due to me. They kicked us again when we were down.”

In a series of pre-dawn raids, FBI agents arrested six New Hampshire residents — including three in Keene — and charged them with with running an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange.

Officials with the nonprofit that runs a local retirement community said they are searching for someone to buy the facility, and that the organization may declare bankruptcy, because revenues have been lower than expected with less-than-full occupancy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a third-party investigation concluded Peterborough's clerk had mistreated her staff and did not sufficiently protect them from COVID-19, the town's selectboard published correspondence suggesting there was a dispute among town officials over the processing of absentee ballots. I reviewed emails among those officials, obtained via a public-records request, and spoke with many of them to determine whether the clerk, an elected official, had oversight of election adminstration.

In a series of stories, I spoke with residents of the Walden Eco-Village, a sustainable-living community in Peterborough, who were given five days' notice to vacate their homes due to code and zoning violations that town officials said posted an "immediate danger" to them. The tenants, all of whom rented from the same landlord, were upset about leaving on such short notice. Some blamed the town for what they saw as a heartless and dangerous decision; others criticized the landlord for not properly permitting their homes.

Despite a Sept. 4 federal order limiting tenant evictions until the end of 2020, data published by the N.H. court system showed the number of evictions had not slowed significantly. I spoke with housing experts about why that may be, including a lack of public awareness of the opt-in eviction protections, as well as the urgency for more relief for both landlords and renters.

Hundred Nights Inc., a shelter and resource center for people experiencing homelessness in Keene, N.H., was eligible to apply for federal funding that homeless shelters can use to improve social distancing among their guests. I wrote about how municipal land use regulations, which are slated for revision in 2021, hamstrung Hundred Nights' ability to apply for the emergency funding.

I spoke with Rebecca Crowell — who was furloughed from her health care job in March and received the $600-per-week federal pandemic unemployment relief (FPUC) as well as $188 in weekly unemployment benefits from the state — about the importance of federal pandemic assistance. Housing experts in New Hampshire and the Monadnock region told me that Crowell's family was one of many that would likely struggle to afford rent payments, groceries and other expenses when the federal relief program expired at the end of July.

On March 12, an undergraduate student at Tufts became the first member of the university community to test positive for COVID-19. I spoke with the student about the days leading up to the positive diagnosis, as well as their time in quarantine, for an as-told-to story in the Boston Globe Magazine.

I documented the Tufts administration’s response to the first case of COVID-19 in the community, which revealed a lack of coordination among state, local and university officials over how to handle cases during the early days of the pandemic. Administrators waited more than two days after learning of the potential case to begin contacting students who may have been exposed to the virus.

Following the university’s decision to close on-campus residences for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester, I detailed the process by which students could apply for temporary housing extensions. Students were considered if they lived in a country designated by the CDC with a Level 3 travel warning, if restrictions in place at the time would impact their travel or if they demonstrated extenuating financial or personal circumstances. Of the 590 extension applications, Tufts granted 301.

I reported the breaking news that an undergraduate student at Tufts had tested positive for COVID-19. Another Daily reporter and I had identified the student through a source before the positive test was announced, and we were thus able to speak with him when the news broke.

I covered the university’s decision on March 10 to suspend in-person classes and to close on-campus residences for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Shortly before canceling in-person classes for the remainder of the semester, the Tufts administration announced a series of travel restrictions for university faculty, staff and students aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. Administrators also warned faculty to prepare for a scenario in which they would have to teach remotely.

I spoke with members of the Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM) about their use of the Voatz election application to conduct student government elections after MIT researchers found security vulnerabilities in the software. ECOM pledged to re-evaluate its relationship with Voatz, given the security concerns and that voting through the company’s web portal was unavailable to Tufts students in a February special election.

The Somerville City Council approved a 552-page zoning ordinance in December 2019 after nearly eight years of committee meetings, public hearings and analysis by city officials. The new code expanded affordable housing requirements for new developments, sought to prevent congestion and established innovative environmental standards.

I analyzed former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Donald Stern’s report on Tufts’ relationship with the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, the developer of oxycontin, following its release in December 2019. The report found no clear violations of Tufts’ conflict-of-interest policies but revealed that the Sacklers and Purdue used repeated donations to gain influence and bolster their reputations through faculty hiring decisions, curricula oversight and honorary degrees.

Working with several reporters to analyze Federal Election Commission data, I found that Tufts faculty members contributed $1.5 million to political organizations between January 2015 and September 2019. Of that sum, which comprised 17,000 unique donations, 94 percent went to Democratic candidates and progressive causes.

I profiled Chris Zazzali, a member of Tufts’ baseball and soccer teams, about his experience as a Div. III dual-sport athlete.