Gene Johnson

 GRAHAM, Wash. — Josh Powell planned the house fire that killed him and his young sons for some time, dropping toys at a charity over the weekend and sending final emails to several acquaintances in the minutes before the blaze, authorities said Monday.

SEATTLE -- State authorities can expect tough questions about whether more might have been done to protect the children of a missing Utah woman who were killed along with their father when authorities said he blew up his home Sunday.

 GRAHAM, Wash. — Days after a judge ruled against him in a child custody hearing, a father and his two young sons were killed Sunday when police said he appeared to intentionally blow up a house with all three inside — a tragic ending to a bizarre case that began more than two years ago when the man’s wife went mysteriously missing in Utah.

SEATTLE -- Employees at Mount Rainier National Park are gathering together Tuesday to grieve the loss of a park ranger who was fatally shot inside the park.

SEATTLE -- Fabio Heuring was standing outside a Seattle nightclub on a Saturday night and smoking cigarettes with a friend when a man bolting from a bouncer ran into them. The enraged man ripped off his shirt in the middle of the street and prepared to give Heuring's buddy a beating.

Just then, in swooped a bizarre sight: a self-proclaimed superhero in a black mask and matching muscle-suit. He doused the aggressor with pepper spray, much to Heuring's shocked relief.

A couple hours later, though, the superhero ended up in jail for investigation of assault after using those tactics on another group of clubgoers, sending pangs of anxiety through the small, eccentric and mostly anonymous community of masked crime-fighters across the U.S.

TACOMA, Wash. — The children of a Utah woman who has been missing since late 2009 have been placed in the care of her parents.

Sherry Hill, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Children’s Administration, said Tuesday that the department’s legal counsel had confirmed in court that the 4- and 6-year-old sons of Susan and Josh Powell would remain with Susan’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, pending future court orders.