>> reporter: every day, nellie lazar sees more than a dozen patients. sometimes works day and night. >> i'm able to take calls in the middle of the night and help them talk through what's going on with them and help keep little babies out of the emergency room who just have a fever or ear infection. >> reporter: but lazar is not a doctor. instead, the rising sun health clinic is run by lazar and one other nurse practitioner. >> we diagnose, we treat, we manage chronic health conditions but also there is a strong emphasis on health promotion as well as disease prevention. >> reporter: lazar is part of a nationwide trend. in the last four decades, the number of nurse practitioners has risen to more than 140,000. and more and more are working on their own, especially in poor inner city neighborhoods and rural areas, where there are few doctors in private practice. the scope of what nurses can do medically has also been growing for the past decade, at a time when the pool of primary care or family doctors has been shrinking and now the need for professional

christine lazar is live in santa monica this morning with the latest.hristine, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, frank and sydnie. we are outside arnold schwarzenegger's santa monica office. we have not seen him here since tuesday. we do know he is not inside working on any motion picture deals. we learned yesterday from his entertainment attorney that he has put all that on hold until further notice so he can focus on personal matters. we also know that his wife maria shriver has hired a high- profile celebrity divorce attorney laura wasser. wasser has hired handled the divorces of britney spears and angelina jolie. wasser has not commented publicly but we have talked to other divorce attorneys. they tell us that schwarzenegger and shriver will likely settle their divorce through mediation instead of in a public courtroom to keep this private. he also says that maria shriver and arnold schwarzenegger likely have a prenup so there won't be a lot of surprises. now, as for arnold schwarzenegger's career, we know he has some terminator movies he was

lazar felt sorry for the store owner, and i do, too, and yet the department could go up to 90 days and instead imposed 25 days. so i'm actually inclined to support the department. >> commissioners, we've had many tobacco cases come in front of us and, you know, the early ones we all tried to establish a nexus between the penalty and what is done in other areas such as the sale of liquor to minors and i don't think we've come to any significant agreements among ourselves and with the department on that. i would just say at this point given the way the economy is, i think this appellant deserves a break. >> what do you mean by "break?" >> she did sell cigarettes to a minor, and so i would look at a reduction of the penalty. >> well, i think you heard my question and what i'm struggling with, and if we do want the department to take these things seriously, we should help them adhere to the law. this is not something we do lightly. i can be convinced of a few days' reduction but no greater than five days reduction. so at that i would move to -- would i overturn or -- >> are you seeking to

when i worked at lazar ferrer, for instance, people like steve ratner wanted to be treasury secretarythey never got there, steve ratner was the car czar, but, you know, there was this mentality that, yes, public service is important, but, you know, until we get sort of tapped on the shoulder for the right job, we don't want to leave all the millions that we'd have to give up. but at goldman they force people out. so you get your time in the sun, you make your pile, and then you get shown the door more or less. either you're made into a limited partner or, actually, relieved of your duties. so a lot of people who are quite young and energetic, you know, maybe in their late 40s, early 50s, want to, you know, quote, give something back. so what better way to do that than come to washington. especially if president clinton or president bush is going to tap you on the shoulder and say, you know, will you be my treasury secretary? so that, you know, there's a long tradition of that at goldman, and, you know, again, unfortunately, i think there's now a chill of having people of goldman comin