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New York Man Convicted of Killing Daughter Walks Out of Prison

Aired June 30, 2004 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Drew Griffin at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Let's check the headlines at this hour for Wednesday, June 30th.
The new Iraqi government formally took legal custody of Saddam Hussein this morning. The former president will appear in court tomorrow along with several of his aides to face arraignment. He's eventually expected to go to trial on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide.

Israel's supreme court ordering the government to reroute a 19- mile section of the West Bank security barrier. It found the stretch of wall would violate the rights of 35,000 Palestinians who need to cross through that area. Israel says it need the barrier to protect its citizens from terrorism.

Shock jock Howard Stern says he will not leave over the air radio for satellite distribution. In fact, he announced today he will be returning to five markets. He was pulled off Clear Channel stations in those cities two months ago in a dispute over indecency.

And the Justice Department is criticizing a Supreme Court decision on Internet porn. The court says a law meant to protect children from adult material likely interferes with the First Amendment. The justices say there may be better ways to shield children from sexually explicit material such as online filters.

Joel Steinberg, convicted in one of the nation's most notorious and barbaric child abuse cases, walked out of prison this morning. Steinberg was sent to prison for killing his daughter Lisa in 1987.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Pine City, New York this morning.

Jason, he leaves prison in a white limousine.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You saw it, Drew.

Released in a white limo. In fact, right before that, he came out wearing a green baseball cap, white shirt, loaded his belongings into that white stretch limousine and left without commenting on a case that really changed the way people think about child abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEDDA NUSSBAUM, ADOPTIVE MOTHER: She was congested and seems to have stopped breathing.

CARROLL (voice-over): It was a 911 call that began a story that would shock the nation.

It came on November 2nd, 1987, from Hedda Nussbaum. Her adopted daughter, Lisa, wasn't breathing. Nussbaum said Lisa had choked on food. Police found her naked, filthy and badly bruised.

Later, doctors found old bruises on her tiny body. They also noticed obvious signs of abuse on Nussbaum, her face severely disfigured.

Three days after arriving at the hospital, Lisa died. She was 6 years old. Police charged Nussbaum and her live-in lover, Joel Steinberg with murder.

JOEL STEINBERG, CONVICTED OF KILLING DAUGHTER: I do not hit, strike or use any form of forceful discipline of any sort.

CARROLL: Steinberg denied claims he beat Lisa because she stared at him.

What's undisputed, Steinberg and Nussbaum had illegally adopted Lisa at birth. Her teachers saw bruises over time. Neighbors heard screams from their West Village brownstone, but no one investigated.

Years later, Nussbaum explained how Steinberg controlled her.

NUSSBAUM: Because I was really brainwashed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is deserving of the maximum sentence.

CARROLL: A deadlocked jury reached a compromised verdict, manslaughter instead of murder.

After Lisa's death, New York state required anyone licensed to deal with children to take a course in recognizing abuse.

Lisa's middle-class background also changed stereotypes of victims of child abuse.

DR. KATHERINE GRIMM, CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY GROUP: People who are poor are assumed to be the major group of perpetrators. Child abuse crosses all socioeconomic lines and all ethnic lines.

CARROLL: Steinberg served two-thirds of a maximum 25-year sentence; not enough for one former juror.

JEREMIAH COLT, JUROR: I think justice would only be served if Joel Steinberg spent the rest of his life in some way trying to atone for what he did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Steinberg is returning to New York City. As part of his conditional release, he has to stay away from children, has to attend anger management courses, as well as a drug treatment program. He also has to stay away from Hedda Nussbaum. Hedda Nussbaum, for her part, she did not do any jail time in exchange for her testimony against Steinberg. At this point, Nussbaum remains in hiding -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Jason, he was a lawyer when he went into prison. Do we have any idea what he is going to do now, what happens in his life if he returns to New York?

CARROLL: Well, that's an interesting question.

We do know that at this point he has been offered a position as a paid intern for a public access cable show. It's unclear at this point if he's going to accept that offer, or even if he will be allowed to do it as part of his conditional release. But that is certainly something that he is at this point considering for his future -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Jason, thanks for that report this morning.

Some incredible video of a brazen bank robbery yesterday in Washington, D.C. A local news photographer from WTTG-TV hears of a crime in progress. He turns his camera on this bank and records a hooded gunman checking out the scene from a getaway van.

Then seconds later, the partners of that gunman come running out of the bank, two masked robbers fleeing the bank what you are about to see, one of them almost falling down before they speed off. Just incredible video. Minutes later, about a mile and a half away, the getaway van is found burning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw two men -- one with a black bandana; another one with some type of hood device, running with rifles in -- across the front of the bank. And as that happened, I called 911.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were going fast, I mean real fast. If we slid over about three more feet, he would have ran right into us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Police believe the bank robbers have struck six times since January and they have torched getaway cars three times to destroy evidence.

To politics -- Democrats are in the final stages of convention preparations with their big party in Boston now less than a month away. That goes for nominee in waiting John Kerry too.

Judy Woodruff has the convention countdown and more from Washington.

Good morning, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Drew. Thank you. Well, Senator Kerry is in Pittsburgh taking a break from the campaign trail after an appearance in Phoenix last night. But he will be hard at work, they say. Kerry told reporters that he'll be making phone calls and working on his nomination acceptance speech, writing in long hand.

There is some speculation that he'll spend time on the V.P. selection process as well.

In GOP convention news, the Bush/Cheney campaign manager says President Bush does not plan to visit Ground Zero during the Republican convention in New York. Ken Mehlman says, however, that a visit to the site shortly after the convention ends has not been ruled out.

Vice President Cheney wrapped up a trip to New York yesterday with a stop at the Yankees/Red Sox game in the Bronx. Cheney sat with two GOP convention speakers, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the current governor, George Pataki.

The flight attendants on John Kerry's "Real Deal" jet have come up with a campaign song. "Proud Kerry" is a reworking of the old hit "Proud Mary."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: (SINGING "PROUD KERRY")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: All right, I guess they can carry a tune, we'll give them credit.

In the meantime, Reverend Al Sharpton is branching out into show business, but not as a singer. Sharpton will be a regular on the Spike TV network's reality show "I Hate My Job," which focuses on people trying to find their dream jobs. Sharpton will be a career counselor and a motivational speaker.

A surprise suggestion for Democrats this afternoon.

Our Jeff Greenfield joins me with his thoughts on a bold move at their convention this summer.

Plus, with new interest rates coming out today, the economy takes center stage in the race for the White House. We'll take a look at how those new numbers might affect the campaigns of President Bush and Senator John Kerry.

That's all when I go "Inside Politics" at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.

For now, let's go back to Drew in Atlanta. Hello, again.

GRIFFIN: Thanks, Judy.

Everybody seems to think they know the best way to lose weight, but maybe all you really need to do is literally take a step or many steps in the right direction. We're going to show you how next in your daily dose of health news.

And flying rings around Saturn -- we're about to get a view that's truly out of this world coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: That's President Bush with Paul Bremer at the White House. Mr. Bremer just returning from his job, running the country in Iraq and now about to have lunch with the president. This is tape just into us on a sunny day in Washington. They're actually going into the Eisenhower office building there in D.C.

In news about your health, high-tech ultrasounds are providing amazing images of baby inside the womb. Wait until you see this? The 4-D ultrasound add the dimension of movement. Doctors have learned that babies can open their eyes much earlier than they've previously thought. They've also seen babies smiling, yawning, and even taking steps inside the womb. Look at that. But the FDA is concerned about the overuse of these new ultrasounds.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that you should consult your doctor, of course, before you try one of these.

When it come to losing weight, maybe you can just walk it off. A new book suggests you forget about counting carbs and fat grams and count the number of steps you take. It's called "The Step Diet." The coauthor Jim Hill joins us here in Atlanta this morning.

And really, Jim, you don't even have to remember to count the steps, because the book comes with this little gadget.

JIM HILL, CO-AUTHOR, "THE STEP DIET": Comes with step counter actually does the work for you. So it's a great way to see how much physical activity you're doing each day.

GRIFFIN: So Johnny on the street, Mary on the street want to lose weight. Let's talk about the step diet. What do we do?

HILL: You have to cut calorie to lose weight. I wish I could tell you there were an easier way, but there isn't. So on the Step Diet, we show you how to lose weight by continuing to eat what you eat now, but only eat 75 percent of it. So take 25 percent of what you're eating and don't eat it. Because we overeat now, you won't feel that restricted.

Now lots of books and programs help you lose weight. People don't fail in losing weight; they fail in keeping it off, and that's where we try to show you in the step diet how to keeping it off. The key to losing weight is restricting your food intake. The key to taking it off, keeping it off is physical activity. So we show you how to use the step counter to increase your walking, to make up for your drop in metabolism that occurs as you lose weight. Now you can keep your weight off without a lot of food restriction.

GRIFFIN: Does it have to be sustained walking? You have to set aside this amount of time a day to just go out and do this?

HILL: That's the beauty. A step is a step. Any way to get that number on the step counter. Park your car further away, take the stairs, walk down the hall instead of sending an e-mail. All those count. So at the end of the day, you have a step goal, any way to get there.

GRIFFIN: How many steps is it going to take me to actually start losing weight?

HILL: Well, to lose weight, you do it largely with food restriction. But to keep it off, you increase your activity. To maintain and lose a lot of weight, you're going to need to have your steps up around 12,000 to 13,000 a day. Now keep in mind, the average American gets about around 5,000 a day. The key is you have to increase a lot, but we show you how to do it gradually, over about 12 weeks. So we increase a little bit each week until you get up to 12,000 to 13,000, which will allow you to keep your weight off.

GRIFFIN: We glued one of these on our producers. He came up with 1,876 steps just in about two hours or so.

HILL: That's pretty good.

GRIFFIN: Some of the steps were to go down to a Chik-fil-A, though I must...

HILL: Well, you know, you can do yourself in, depending on where your destination is. There are a lot of good destinations for walking, too.

GRIFFIN: I perused the book. Is it east to use and easy to follow? A lot of these diet guides, you actually have to glue these books to your hip just to keep track of things.

HILL: It's simple. What I say, it's simple, not easy, because losing weight and keeping it off isn't easy. Anybody who tells you it's easy, don't believe them. It's hard, but it doesn't have to be complicated. It's about calories in and calories out. And we teach you how to maintain what we call your energy balance, how to lose weight, but the key is how to reach energy balance and keep it off, without having to be very restrictive. One of the fun things we do, Drew, in book, is we show you how many steps you get in different kinds of foods. So if you wanted an ice cream Sunday, we would tell you how many steps you have to go out and get to earn that ice cream Sunday.

GRIFFIN: Very good. So find a place that sells Sundays that about two or three miles away...

HILL: And walk to it.

GRIFFIN: OK, Jim Hill, thanks for joining us with "The Step Guide" this morning.

HILL: You're welcome. GRIFFIN: If you want to get your daily dose of health news online, you can log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library, and information on diet and fitness. The address is CNN.com/health.

Seven years, two billion round about miles. Tonight, the Cassini Space Probe finally arrive at its destination. It's scheduled to slip through Saturn's rings and go into orbit around that mysterious planet.

Space correspondent Miles O'Brien previews the mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a ringer of a planet and it may soon give up some humdingers about our origins, or so astronomers hope as the Cassini spacecraft hones in on Saturn.

The $3 billion craft is making a 49,000-mile-an-hour beeline for a gap in those rocky rings and must thread the needle twice, hopefully avoiding a mission-ending collision, to enter Saturn's orbit.

ROBERT MITCHELL, CASSINI PROJECT MANAGER: We have considerable evidence to tell us that this gap is clean, clear of any particles, any debris of any size. There will probably be some very fine dust grains that the spacecraft is well equipped to handle.

M. O'BRIEN: Candice Hansen started working on Cassini 14 years ago. Its perilous arrival in Saturn's orbit will make for some tense moments for her.

CANDICE HANSEN, CASSINI SCIENTIST: I have spent 14 years sort of waiting for this night to occur and until it's passed there will always be this oh, my God, things could go terribly wrong. Not that any of us expect that. But, still, it is a very critical event.

M. O'BRIEN: So long as Cassini doesn't get dinged by the rings, it will embark on a four-year tour of Saturn and some of its 31 known moons.

It's already whizzed by Phoebe. Only 130 miles across, the tiny moon is pocked with craters and laced with ice. It caught a glimpse of the Iapetus, 890 miles in diameter with its light and dark hemispheres, and Titan, a moon that is more like a planet.

HANSEN: It's bigger than Pluto, it's even a little bigger than Mercury and it's got this thick atmosphere, exotic surface geology. It's got a lot of things that intrigue us.

M. O'BRIEN: Come January, Cassini will send a Wok-shaped probe called Hoigans (ph) toward a landing on Titan. Perpetually enshrouded by clouds, this moon is an intriguing mystery for astronomers. They believe Earth might have looked like Titan long ago.

MITCHELL: So Titan today, the scientists believe, may very well be a body in a frozen vault just like what Earth was 3 billion or 4 billion years ago.

So the chance to study it and see what Earth may have looked like then, to get some clues as to how Earth may have evolved to be what we know it today is quite an exciting prospect.

M. O'BRIEN: It will be the most remote landing ever attempted, but there are other hoops Cassini must jump through first.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Pasadena, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Sorry to report this, but none of you got to call in to work today and tell the boss you're never coming back. In other words, the Mega Millions is still up for grabs and growing. That's some good news for the rest of us. The latest on that is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Lottery players have 280 millions good reason to play Mega Millions. That's how many dollars are at stake for the winner of Friday's drawing. The jackpot grew after nobody picked last night's winning numbers. The Mega Millions game is played in 11 states.

(MARKET UPDATE)

GRIFFIN: You know, Six Flags has some pretty decent waterparks across the country. The thing is, this is not supposed to be one of them. We're going to show you what happened here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Nothing amusing about the flood at this Texas amusement park. Six Flags over Texas forced to close yesterday because of the raging floodwaters. It is scheduled to reopen today. North Texas has been inundated by 18 days of rain during the month of June. That breaks a record set in 1940. A lot of people in Texas are wondering when it is going to end.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

GRIFFIN: That wraps it up for CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Drew Griffin in Atlanta. The news continues here on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. He is in Washington.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired June 30, 2004 - 11:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Drew Griffin at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Let's check the headlines at this hour for Wednesday, June 30th.
The new Iraqi government formally took legal custody of Saddam Hussein this morning. The former president will appear in court tomorrow along with several of his aides to face arraignment. He's eventually expected to go to trial on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide.

Israel's supreme court ordering the government to reroute a 19- mile section of the West Bank security barrier. It found the stretch of wall would violate the rights of 35,000 Palestinians who need to cross through that area. Israel says it need the barrier to protect its citizens from terrorism.

Shock jock Howard Stern says he will not leave over the air radio for satellite distribution. In fact, he announced today he will be returning to five markets. He was pulled off Clear Channel stations in those cities two months ago in a dispute over indecency.

And the Justice Department is criticizing a Supreme Court decision on Internet porn. The court says a law meant to protect children from adult material likely interferes with the First Amendment. The justices say there may be better ways to shield children from sexually explicit material such as online filters.

Joel Steinberg, convicted in one of the nation's most notorious and barbaric child abuse cases, walked out of prison this morning. Steinberg was sent to prison for killing his daughter Lisa in 1987.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Pine City, New York this morning.

Jason, he leaves prison in a white limousine.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You saw it, Drew.

Released in a white limo. In fact, right before that, he came out wearing a green baseball cap, white shirt, loaded his belongings into that white stretch limousine and left without commenting on a case that really changed the way people think about child abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEDDA NUSSBAUM, ADOPTIVE MOTHER: She was congested and seems to have stopped breathing.

CARROLL (voice-over): It was a 911 call that began a story that would shock the nation.

It came on November 2nd, 1987, from Hedda Nussbaum. Her adopted daughter, Lisa, wasn't breathing. Nussbaum said Lisa had choked on food. Police found her naked, filthy and badly bruised.

Later, doctors found old bruises on her tiny body. They also noticed obvious signs of abuse on Nussbaum, her face severely disfigured.

Three days after arriving at the hospital, Lisa died. She was 6 years old. Police charged Nussbaum and her live-in lover, Joel Steinberg with murder.

JOEL STEINBERG, CONVICTED OF KILLING DAUGHTER: I do not hit, strike or use any form of forceful discipline of any sort.

CARROLL: Steinberg denied claims he beat Lisa because she stared at him.

What's undisputed, Steinberg and Nussbaum had illegally adopted Lisa at birth. Her teachers saw bruises over time. Neighbors heard screams from their West Village brownstone, but no one investigated.

Years later, Nussbaum explained how Steinberg controlled her.

NUSSBAUM: Because I was really brainwashed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is deserving of the maximum sentence.

CARROLL: A deadlocked jury reached a compromised verdict, manslaughter instead of murder.

After Lisa's death, New York state required anyone licensed to deal with children to take a course in recognizing abuse.

Lisa's middle-class background also changed stereotypes of victims of child abuse.

DR. KATHERINE GRIMM, CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY GROUP: People who are poor are assumed to be the major group of perpetrators. Child abuse crosses all socioeconomic lines and all ethnic lines.

CARROLL: Steinberg served two-thirds of a maximum 25-year sentence; not enough for one former juror.

JEREMIAH COLT, JUROR: I think justice would only be served if Joel Steinberg spent the rest of his life in some way trying to atone for what he did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Steinberg is returning to New York City. As part of his conditional release, he has to stay away from children, has to attend anger management courses, as well as a drug treatment program. He also has to stay away from Hedda Nussbaum. Hedda Nussbaum, for her part, she did not do any jail time in exchange for her testimony against Steinberg. At this point, Nussbaum remains in hiding -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Jason, he was a lawyer when he went into prison. Do we have any idea what he is going to do now, what happens in his life if he returns to New York?

CARROLL: Well, that's an interesting question.

We do know that at this point he has been offered a position as a paid intern for a public access cable show. It's unclear at this point if he's going to accept that offer, or even if he will be allowed to do it as part of his conditional release. But that is certainly something that he is at this point considering for his future -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Jason, thanks for that report this morning.

Some incredible video of a brazen bank robbery yesterday in Washington, D.C. A local news photographer from WTTG-TV hears of a crime in progress. He turns his camera on this bank and records a hooded gunman checking out the scene from a getaway van.

Then seconds later, the partners of that gunman come running out of the bank, two masked robbers fleeing the bank what you are about to see, one of them almost falling down before they speed off. Just incredible video. Minutes later, about a mile and a half away, the getaway van is found burning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw two men -- one with a black bandana; another one with some type of hood device, running with rifles in -- across the front of the bank. And as that happened, I called 911.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were going fast, I mean real fast. If we slid over about three more feet, he would have ran right into us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Police believe the bank robbers have struck six times since January and they have torched getaway cars three times to destroy evidence.

To politics -- Democrats are in the final stages of convention preparations with their big party in Boston now less than a month away. That goes for nominee in waiting John Kerry too.

Judy Woodruff has the convention countdown and more from Washington.

Good morning, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Drew. Thank you. Well, Senator Kerry is in Pittsburgh taking a break from the campaign trail after an appearance in Phoenix last night. But he will be hard at work, they say. Kerry told reporters that he'll be making phone calls and working on his nomination acceptance speech, writing in long hand.

There is some speculation that he'll spend time on the V.P. selection process as well.

In GOP convention news, the Bush/Cheney campaign manager says President Bush does not plan to visit Ground Zero during the Republican convention in New York. Ken Mehlman says, however, that a visit to the site shortly after the convention ends has not been ruled out.

Vice President Cheney wrapped up a trip to New York yesterday with a stop at the Yankees/Red Sox game in the Bronx. Cheney sat with two GOP convention speakers, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the current governor, George Pataki.

The flight attendants on John Kerry's "Real Deal" jet have come up with a campaign song. "Proud Kerry" is a reworking of the old hit "Proud Mary."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: (SINGING "PROUD KERRY")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: All right, I guess they can carry a tune, we'll give them credit.

In the meantime, Reverend Al Sharpton is branching out into show business, but not as a singer. Sharpton will be a regular on the Spike TV network's reality show "I Hate My Job," which focuses on people trying to find their dream jobs. Sharpton will be a career counselor and a motivational speaker.

A surprise suggestion for Democrats this afternoon.

Our Jeff Greenfield joins me with his thoughts on a bold move at their convention this summer.

Plus, with new interest rates coming out today, the economy takes center stage in the race for the White House. We'll take a look at how those new numbers might affect the campaigns of President Bush and Senator John Kerry.

That's all when I go "Inside Politics" at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.

For now, let's go back to Drew in Atlanta. Hello, again.

GRIFFIN: Thanks, Judy.

Everybody seems to think they know the best way to lose weight, but maybe all you really need to do is literally take a step or many steps in the right direction. We're going to show you how next in your daily dose of health news.

And flying rings around Saturn -- we're about to get a view that's truly out of this world coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: That's President Bush with Paul Bremer at the White House. Mr. Bremer just returning from his job, running the country in Iraq and now about to have lunch with the president. This is tape just into us on a sunny day in Washington. They're actually going into the Eisenhower office building there in D.C.

In news about your health, high-tech ultrasounds are providing amazing images of baby inside the womb. Wait until you see this? The 4-D ultrasound add the dimension of movement. Doctors have learned that babies can open their eyes much earlier than they've previously thought. They've also seen babies smiling, yawning, and even taking steps inside the womb. Look at that. But the FDA is concerned about the overuse of these new ultrasounds.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that you should consult your doctor, of course, before you try one of these.

When it come to losing weight, maybe you can just walk it off. A new book suggests you forget about counting carbs and fat grams and count the number of steps you take. It's called "The Step Diet." The coauthor Jim Hill joins us here in Atlanta this morning.

And really, Jim, you don't even have to remember to count the steps, because the book comes with this little gadget.

JIM HILL, CO-AUTHOR, "THE STEP DIET": Comes with step counter actually does the work for you. So it's a great way to see how much physical activity you're doing each day.

GRIFFIN: So Johnny on the street, Mary on the street want to lose weight. Let's talk about the step diet. What do we do?

HILL: You have to cut calorie to lose weight. I wish I could tell you there were an easier way, but there isn't. So on the Step Diet, we show you how to lose weight by continuing to eat what you eat now, but only eat 75 percent of it. So take 25 percent of what you're eating and don't eat it. Because we overeat now, you won't feel that restricted.

Now lots of books and programs help you lose weight. People don't fail in losing weight; they fail in keeping it off, and that's where we try to show you in the step diet how to keeping it off. The key to losing weight is restricting your food intake. The key to taking it off, keeping it off is physical activity. So we show you how to use the step counter to increase your walking, to make up for your drop in metabolism that occurs as you lose weight. Now you can keep your weight off without a lot of food restriction.

GRIFFIN: Does it have to be sustained walking? You have to set aside this amount of time a day to just go out and do this?

HILL: That's the beauty. A step is a step. Any way to get that number on the step counter. Park your car further away, take the stairs, walk down the hall instead of sending an e-mail. All those count. So at the end of the day, you have a step goal, any way to get there.

GRIFFIN: How many steps is it going to take me to actually start losing weight?

HILL: Well, to lose weight, you do it largely with food restriction. But to keep it off, you increase your activity. To maintain and lose a lot of weight, you're going to need to have your steps up around 12,000 to 13,000 a day. Now keep in mind, the average American gets about around 5,000 a day. The key is you have to increase a lot, but we show you how to do it gradually, over about 12 weeks. So we increase a little bit each week until you get up to 12,000 to 13,000, which will allow you to keep your weight off.

GRIFFIN: We glued one of these on our producers. He came up with 1,876 steps just in about two hours or so.

HILL: That's pretty good.

GRIFFIN: Some of the steps were to go down to a Chik-fil-A, though I must...

HILL: Well, you know, you can do yourself in, depending on where your destination is. There are a lot of good destinations for walking, too.

GRIFFIN: I perused the book. Is it east to use and easy to follow? A lot of these diet guides, you actually have to glue these books to your hip just to keep track of things.

HILL: It's simple. What I say, it's simple, not easy, because losing weight and keeping it off isn't easy. Anybody who tells you it's easy, don't believe them. It's hard, but it doesn't have to be complicated. It's about calories in and calories out. And we teach you how to maintain what we call your energy balance, how to lose weight, but the key is how to reach energy balance and keep it off, without having to be very restrictive. One of the fun things we do, Drew, in book, is we show you how many steps you get in different kinds of foods. So if you wanted an ice cream Sunday, we would tell you how many steps you have to go out and get to earn that ice cream Sunday.

GRIFFIN: Very good. So find a place that sells Sundays that about two or three miles away...

HILL: And walk to it.

GRIFFIN: OK, Jim Hill, thanks for joining us with "The Step Guide" this morning.

HILL: You're welcome. GRIFFIN: If you want to get your daily dose of health news online, you can log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library, and information on diet and fitness. The address is CNN.com/health.

Seven years, two billion round about miles. Tonight, the Cassini Space Probe finally arrive at its destination. It's scheduled to slip through Saturn's rings and go into orbit around that mysterious planet.

Space correspondent Miles O'Brien previews the mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a ringer of a planet and it may soon give up some humdingers about our origins, or so astronomers hope as the Cassini spacecraft hones in on Saturn.

The $3 billion craft is making a 49,000-mile-an-hour beeline for a gap in those rocky rings and must thread the needle twice, hopefully avoiding a mission-ending collision, to enter Saturn's orbit.

ROBERT MITCHELL, CASSINI PROJECT MANAGER: We have considerable evidence to tell us that this gap is clean, clear of any particles, any debris of any size. There will probably be some very fine dust grains that the spacecraft is well equipped to handle.

M. O'BRIEN: Candice Hansen started working on Cassini 14 years ago. Its perilous arrival in Saturn's orbit will make for some tense moments for her.

CANDICE HANSEN, CASSINI SCIENTIST: I have spent 14 years sort of waiting for this night to occur and until it's passed there will always be this oh, my God, things could go terribly wrong. Not that any of us expect that. But, still, it is a very critical event.

M. O'BRIEN: So long as Cassini doesn't get dinged by the rings, it will embark on a four-year tour of Saturn and some of its 31 known moons.

It's already whizzed by Phoebe. Only 130 miles across, the tiny moon is pocked with craters and laced with ice. It caught a glimpse of the Iapetus, 890 miles in diameter with its light and dark hemispheres, and Titan, a moon that is more like a planet.

HANSEN: It's bigger than Pluto, it's even a little bigger than Mercury and it's got this thick atmosphere, exotic surface geology. It's got a lot of things that intrigue us.

M. O'BRIEN: Come January, Cassini will send a Wok-shaped probe called Hoigans (ph) toward a landing on Titan. Perpetually enshrouded by clouds, this moon is an intriguing mystery for astronomers. They believe Earth might have looked like Titan long ago.

MITCHELL: So Titan today, the scientists believe, may very well be a body in a frozen vault just like what Earth was 3 billion or 4 billion years ago.

So the chance to study it and see what Earth may have looked like then, to get some clues as to how Earth may have evolved to be what we know it today is quite an exciting prospect.

M. O'BRIEN: It will be the most remote landing ever attempted, but there are other hoops Cassini must jump through first.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, Pasadena, California.

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GRIFFIN: Sorry to report this, but none of you got to call in to work today and tell the boss you're never coming back. In other words, the Mega Millions is still up for grabs and growing. That's some good news for the rest of us. The latest on that is next.

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GRIFFIN: Lottery players have 280 millions good reason to play Mega Millions. That's how many dollars are at stake for the winner of Friday's drawing. The jackpot grew after nobody picked last night's winning numbers. The Mega Millions game is played in 11 states.

(MARKET UPDATE)

GRIFFIN: You know, Six Flags has some pretty decent waterparks across the country. The thing is, this is not supposed to be one of them. We're going to show you what happened here next.

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GRIFFIN: Nothing amusing about the flood at this Texas amusement park. Six Flags over Texas forced to close yesterday because of the raging floodwaters. It is scheduled to reopen today. North Texas has been inundated by 18 days of rain during the month of June. That breaks a record set in 1940. A lot of people in Texas are wondering when it is going to end.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

GRIFFIN: That wraps it up for CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Drew Griffin in Atlanta. The news continues here on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. He is in Washington.

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