Sacramento – October 19, 2026 -- Large social media platforms operating in California must answer verified child-safety reports within 72 or 24 hours from January 1, 2026, after Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Youth Social Media Protection Act (AB 2481) into law.

Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal authored the bill, which the Organization for Social Media Safety sponsored.

Washington, D.C. – October 19, 2026 -- ConnectDER's full line of meter socket adapters is now approved for installation across Pepco's service territory in Washington, D.C., a market where 100-amp panels can force main service upgrades costing $1,800 to $5,800 before solar, storage or EV charging equipment can be connected. D.C. becomes the 54th utility in ConnectDER's network, which reaches nearly 40 million households.

Atlanta – October 19, 2026 -- Scientific Games' U.S. instant scratch game production facility, which serves nearly every U.S. state lottery, has achieved Level 2 certification under the World Lottery Association Security Control Standard 2024 (WLA-SCS:2024). Level 2 is the highest certification level for lottery suppliers under the standard.

The plant, located at the company's global headquarters in metro Atlanta, is the world's largest lottery scratch game production facility. It has held WLA security certification since 2011.

Boca Raton – October 19, 2026 -- Empyrean Medical Systems has submitted a 510(k) premarket notification to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Vektra, its robotically assisted brachytherapy and intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) system, completing a planned milestone in the company's move into clinical radiation oncology.

Miami – October 19, 2026 -- Twenty Labs has achieved Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Class C Certification through Knox Systems, opening its Polycore composable government platform to federal agencies after deployments across 9+ states and territories.

San Diego – October 19, 2026 -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared Protego Biopharma's Investigational New Drug application for PROT-001, allowing the company to start SHIELD-AL, a global pivotal Phase 2/3 study in newly diagnosed light chain (AL) amyloidosis patients.

PROT-001 is an oral, investigational, first-in-class lambda light chain stabilizer. Protego will test it as an add-on to standard-of-care plasma cell-directed therapy, which reduces light chain production.

Unspecified location – October 19, 2026 -- Wiz Research found a critical vulnerability, CVE-2026-3854, that let any authenticated user execute arbitrary commands on GitHub's backend servers with a single git push command, and 88% of GitHub Enterprise Server instances remained vulnerable at the time of disclosure.

Wiz Research uncovered the flaw on 20 April 2026 in GitHub's internal git infrastructure. It affects both GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES). The exploit requires only a standard git client.

San Diego – October 19, 2026 -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee (CTGTAC) will meet on July 29, 2026, to review Capricor Therapeutics' Biologics License Application (BLA) for Deramiocel, an investigational cell therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), less than four weeks before the agency's August 22, 2026 PDUFA target action date.

San Diego – October 19, 2026 -- Capricor Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CAPR) disputed the post-hoc analyses in the FDA's briefing materials, two days before an advisory committee meets on July 29 to discuss its Biologics License Application (BLA) for Deramiocel, an investigational cell therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

SAN DIEGO – October 19, 2026 -- The FDA's Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee voted 9-3, with no abstentions, that available evidence did not support the effectiveness of Capricor Therapeutics' Deramiocel for cardiomyopathy in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), leaving the company's PDUFA target action date of August 22, 2026 as the next decision point.