WASHINGTON – A nightclub that was the site of a horrific shooting in Florida became a national memorial Friday.

President Joe Biden signed a law designating the Pulse nightclub in Orlando as a national memorial at a White House ceremony that included survivors of the 2016 attack.

“A place of acceptance and joy became a place of unspeakable pain and loss. We’ll never fully recover, but we’ll remember,” Biden said before signing the law designating the memorial. Pulse survivors stood around the president as pictures of the 49 killed displayed on video screens.

“May no president ever have to sign another monument like this,” Biden said. 

Biden also commemorated Pride month by appointing advocate Jessica Stern as a special envoy to

The Justice Department is suing the state of Georgia in an effort to overturn a contentious state law that federal officials claim restricts Black voters’ access to the polls in likely the first of several legal challenges to states’ newly imposed election laws.

“The rights of all citizens to vote are the central pillars of our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday, adding that recent changes to Georgia law amounted to voter suppression.

“This lawsuit is the first step of many we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote; that all lawful votes are counted; and that every voter has access to accurate information.”  

The government alleges that