>> they choked. >> the u.s. team falls apart, and the europeans take the ryder cup back home. and is there life out there? nasa says a river really did run through it. more evidence there may have been life on mars. and good evening, everyone. you're in the cnn newsroom, i'm deborah feyerick in for don lenin. let's get you up to speed on the day's headlines. the presidential candidates are headed west. president obama is in nevada tonight, holding a rally at desert pines high school. let's take a moment, listen in. >> i'm going to use the money we're no longer spending on war to do some nation building here at home. rebuilding our roads, and our bridges, and putting americans back to work. that's part of what makes america strong. that's what we're going to do. so that's the choice we face in this election. what the election comes down to, and you are going to hear over the next two months, i know you must be tired of hearing hands, but you're going to hear more over the next two -- or the next six weeks, and over and over again you're going to hear my opponents talk about how bigger tax cuts, fewer regulations, that's the way to go. and since government can't do everything it should do almost nothing. they're making -- if you can't afford health care, then hope you don't get sick. if you can't afford college, borrow money from your parents. you know what? that's not who we are. i don't think government can solve all our problems but government's not the source of all our problems, either. there's some things we've got to do together. we -- instead of going around blaming somebody, unions or immigrants or gays or somebody, for what's going on, what we need to do is pull together. we're all in this together. we believe that america only works when we all accept responsibility for ourselves, and for each other. that's how we -- >> and mr. obama will be on the road through wednesday's first presidential debate. mitt romney heads to colorado tomorrow, where he'll hold a rally, and continue his preparations for wednesday's showdown in denver. he went to church this morning outside boston, but held no public events over the weekend. in iraq, at least 30 people were killed today in a wave of bombings. some explosions hit in or near baghdad. it is the deadliest day in iraq in nearly a month. shiite muslim communities appear to be the main targets of the attacks. a christian pakistani girl accused of desecrating the koran is set to be cleared of all charges. tomorrow a juvenile court in pakistan is expected to uphold a police investigation that found the 14-year-old was not only innocent, she was framed by a muslim cleric in her hometown. the cleric now faces blasphemy charges of his own for tearing pages out of a koran to use as evidence against the child. and this is the center of a desperate search for two little children in middle tennessee. a family home that burned down last weekend, everyone believed a 9-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother were among those killed. but their remains have not been found. police now consider the kids not dead, but missing. more on this story coming up just moments away. and in texas, stranded drivers had to be rescued after flooding drenched parts of the state yesterday. get this, the past three days, yep, brought more rain than texas got all of last year when it suffered through one of the worst droughts in history. today's storms move east into parts of louisiana and mississippi. they're expected to continue on that path for the next 48 hours. the pope's former butler is on trial in vatican city courtroom. that's off limits to tourists. he's accused of stealing secret papers from pope benedict xvi and leaking them to an italian journalist. the trial is in recess until tuesday. but the court denied a motion to strike some of the evidence, including a gold nugget found in the butler's apartment. a huge golf upset at the ryder cup. the europeans rally for a dramatic comeback against the u.s. team to hold onto the trophy. german golfer martin kaymer sank the winning putt on the 18th hole to clinch the victory. the u.s. dominated days of one and two of the competition but had no answer as the europeans came roaring back on the final day of play. more from the ryder cup in just a few minutes. in los angeles, crews working quickly to finish this bridge demolition over the 405 freeway. there were some scary moments when a portion of the mulholland bridge came down unexpectedly, narrowly missing a couple of workers. it was feared the construction would cause massive traffic jams on one of the nation's busiest freeways but no traffic snarls materialized. people stayed home. the 405 is set to reopen at 5:00 a.m. local time tomorrow. voter registration fraud hits the republican party. there's word tonight that rnc officials have cut ties with a consulting firm it hired to register new voters. florida owe election officials say the firm turned in suspicious voter application forms. cnn's david mattingly has been investigated. >> we don't know how big or how small this is going to be but we do know that election officials in florida right now are looking at these forms that were filled out. this coming from a company called strategic allied consulting, was hired by the republican party to do voter registration there. which is something parties do in just about every election. but what they were doing here, this company says one of their employees may have put fraudulent signatures on some of these forms. they don't know for sure but they turned over these documents to the election officials there, and now they're going to be going through 106 of these applications. officials say they may actually broaden that out in palm beach county. which seems to be ground zero for this. officials there saying they may look at 60,000 recently changed applications, just to make sure this isn't part of the bigger trend. so, it may be just one -- something out of 106. but they're going to look for more, but we're told that the election supervisor in that county is saying she doesn't believe this is a crisis, but she wants to be sure. >> you know, it's interesting. because you're talking about 106 registrations. but clearly you have that. you have only one person doing it. still it taints really the entire process which is why they're being so careful. and it's not just in florida that this firm was doing voter registration, correct? >> that's right. this firm was hired by the republican party to work in a number of the battleground states, florida, colorado, north carolina, virginia. the rnc, the republican national committee, says that they were severing ties with them, so essentially that company has been fired. and we're waiting to hear from all of those states to find out if they are still using them. >> you mention that these are battleground states and that's exactly why voter registration in this area is so crucial. >> and absolutely why they need to maintain the integrity of the process, which is why they're reacting in the way they are. >> absolutely. dave mattingly, thanks so much as always. appreciate the insight. all right. the supreme court has a full docket when the new term starts tomorrow. we'll look at some of the hot-button issues the justices are expected to tackle. and this from the campaign trail. when you're running for president every moment counts and even mitt romney's running mate admits there have been a few bad moments lately. >> romney's been an absolute idiot -- >> i think he's being humble. >> two of our favorite political analysts on whether romney can recover at this week's presidential debate. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. >> announcer: you never know when, but thieves can steal 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>> absolutely. i think the first debate is the only debate that really matters at this point. because if mitt romney can't get president obama in the first, who wants to hear what he has to say in the second orred third. i have to make sure we're on the same thing, these haven't been gaffes by mitt romney. this is mitt romney. this is not the first time he's talked about not necessarily caring about people less fortunate than him. he flat-out said he wasn't very concerned about the very poor. so this isn't like a misstep or a one-off. this is consistent theme with him, and it's up to the voters to figure out whether or not they agree with him or not. they're not gaffes. they're him. >> so let me ask you, what does -- how does mitt romney have to appear during that presidential debate? does he have to be deferential, does he have to be aggressive? what is the right tone? because when we saw him, you know, before when he was -- when he was running for the nominee, he could be a little bit aggressive. remember that point when he said to rick perry, i'll bet you $10,000. not going to go over as well in the presidential debates, i don't think, l.z., right? >> no, absolutely not. and the thing is, is that mitt romney really seems to fungd well when he's coming from behind. so if there's anything that would give him any hope it's that when he seems to be coming from someone else has momentum, he can take that momentum, he seems to perform much better than has a front-runner. if he has any hope going in knowing expectations are extremely low for him, if he's able to take that and be aggressive and attack president obama, because let's face it the president is still extremely fuller inable. the only reason why romney isn't winning is because romney's been an absolute idiot the past two to three weeks. so if he can correct that by being aggressive, perhaps he can swing the momentum back to his favor. >> we like to use the word missteps. anna, let me give you the final word. president obama is vulnerable. he's been called a wonderful orator, that he mesmerizes audiences when he speaks, but he is vulnerable. where does romney have to strike him? >> look, i think romney needs to do what he did in the last two debates of the primary in florida. he needs to come across as knowledgeable, he needs to come across as presidential, assertive, know his stuff, do his homework. not dodge the questions, but rather answer them directly. and i think he needs to pivot and put the pressure back on president obama. if he does those things, if we see the mitt romney that we saw in the last two debates in florida, we're going to see a very able and capable candidate. >> okay. well, judges, lawyers, other washington, d.c. decisionmakers attended today's red maps, including six of the nine supreme court justices. the annual event aims to bring people together to pray for members of the judiciary. before the court begins hearing cases. named red mass because of the color of the garments worn by clergy. some people criticize the service, saying it mixes religion and government. and the supreme court may tackle hot-button issues like affirmative action and same-sex marriage when its new term starts tomorrow. the justices went their separate ways for the summer after the court's controversial health care ruling in june. joe johns takes a look at how the health care ruling may have affected the justices' relationships, and the tough issues ahead for the court. >> reporter: at the beginning of the new session the supreme court is going to be closely watched for signs of strain between the justices or anything else that suggests things may have changed since the health care ruling, which arguably was the biggest opinion by the court since bush versus gore more than a decade ago. right after the supreme court's health care decision in june, chief justice john roberts joked to colleagues that he would find an island fortress to escape the political heat. here's how justice ruth bader ginsburg described the eventful spring. >> the term has been more than usually taxing. some have called it the term of the century. >> reporter: now, three months later the court is back and there are no signs of it cooling down. >> the justices are moving from the frying pan right into the fire. they are tackling some of the most difficult legal questions of the day. across the board, probably, the biggest term in at least a decade. >> reporter: cases involving the contentious issues of affirmative action, same-sex marriage, voting rights, and abortion, are all likely to come up this term, which kicks off monday. >> there are some very exciting cases already on the docket, and there's a lot more in the pipeline that the court will be making a decision on soon. >> reporter: another set of big decisions will bring even more scrutiny on the chief justice. rumors surfaced that the health care ruling he authored caused a personal rift with fellow conservative colleagues including justice antonin scalia. a claim scalia denied to cnn's piers morgan. >> no, i haven't had a falling-out with justice roberts. >> foul words exchanged? >> no. >> slamming a door? >> no. nothing like that. >> reporter: the other big question, will the chief justice take the court in an aggressive new direction? liberals fear a more hard-line, dogmatic shift to the right. >> a lot of progressives are concerned that this might mean that chief justice roberts has built up some capital, some goodwill, and will now push the conservative agenda. >> reporter: tom goldstein, who has argued before the court, thinks roberts wants a more conservative court but that he'll do it gradually. >> he's not trying to move the law radically quickly. i think, justice scalia, or justice thomas really want to get to the end answer as quickly as possible, and make the law conform to what they really understand. whereas the chief justice is more incrementallist. >> reporter: but conservative court watcher carrie severino doesn't believe much will change any time soon. >> certainly this is not a crusading conservative court, until we have a shift, i think in the membership of the court it's impossible to call it a court that leans more to the left or to the right. >> reporter: for the opinions that could be close 5-4 decisions, attention will also be paid to justice anthony kennedy, who's frequently the swing vote in some of the toughest cases. >> joe johns there for us in washington. a tennessee house fire leaves two grandparents dead, and there's no sign of two kids who were staying at the home. it's been a week and investigators are getting desperate. improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture. it's clinically proven to improve your skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. for healthy, beautiful skin that lasts. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. also discover daily moisturizing body wash. for healthy skin that starts in the shower. only from aveeno. distraught parents and frustrated police officers, they found nothing today in a place where two small children were last seen in tennessee. this is a small community of unionville where police believed for days that a younger brother -- young brother and sister had died. well the remains have still not been found prompting the search to go wider, and become much more urgent. here's our national correspondent susan candiotti. >> reporter: deborah, authorities in tennessee spent yet another day looking for any sign of 9-year-old chloie leverette and her 7-year-old half brother gauge daniel. on sunday they took a team of dogs to search the area around the house, and even looking in the woods, to see whether they could pick up any leads as they search for these children. more than a week after sifting through ashes and debris, investigators have found no sign of 9-year-old chloie leverette and 7-year-old gauge daniel. no sign the youngsters were there, and so far no evidence they weren't, when an inferno swept through the home where they lived with their grandparents. friends and family don't understand, and neither does anyone else. >> i think something's very fishy. >> the more you find out, the more questions you have. >> reporter: helicopters equipped with infrared cameras found no sign of the children in surrounding woods, either. the children were last seen playing in the neighborhood about three hours before the fire started last sunday night. did someone take them? a tennessee bureau of investigation issued an amber alert friday night. calling the missing children endangered. authorities don't know what caused the fire, adding to the mystery. >> they said it was not an intentional fire. but obviously there's more to it than that. >> reporter: chloie's parents are not co