By MICHAEL DOYLE - McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON -- Volunteer Alabama firefighter Martha Bice died 12 years ago, done in by smoke. Many courtroom fights later, the Justice Department will finally be settling accounts for this woman Congress considers a hometown hero. A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to reimburse the student law clinic that represented Bice's husband through years of legal wrangling. This could further encourage the periodically frustrated families of other fallen public safety officers awaiting their own benefits. "You would think the government is being asked to pay out money for arsonists and felons, not to the families of those who died to protect us," said Michael McGonnigal, clinical assistant law professor at the Catholic University of America. McGonnigal oversaw students who spent...
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