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SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was criticized for having a conflict of interest last week after it was revealed he vetoed a bill regulating food supplements while he had a multimillion dollar contract with magazines that profit from the industry. In an interview with The Associated Press, the governor explained why he felt there was no conflict and said his support for the magazines and nutritional supplements dates to his earliest days as an aspiring body builder. "This has nothing to do with money," he said in a telephone interview Friday from Los Angeles. "Of course, for me, it...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tucked deep in the August 2005 issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine, past the photographs of men with chiseled muscles and stories such as "How I Built the World's Biggest Chest," is a glossy, two-page article proclaiming "It's Now Or Never!" The article details the bodybuilding industry's efforts to block state and federal regulations on nutritional supplements. It also proclaims the support of a powerful spokesman, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The story describes how Schwarzenegger attended a private meeting with bodybuilding executives at the Arnold Classic in March to vow a united front in the battle...

SACRAMENTO — Two days before he was sworn into office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accepted a consulting job paying an estimated $8 million over five years to "further the business objectives" of a national publisher of health and bodybuilding magazines. The contract pays Schwarzenegger 1% of the magazines' advertising revenue, much of which comes from makers of nutritional supplements. Last year, the governor vetoed legislation that would have imposed government regulations on the supplement industry. According to records filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Schwarzenegger entered into the agreement with a subsidiary of American Media Inc. on Nov. 15,...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is being paid $1 million a year for his role as a consultant to a company that publishes several fitness magazines, a deal critics say represents a serious conflict of interest for the former bodybuilding champion. The payments, revealed Wednesday in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, are from Schwarzenegger's consulting job with American Media Operations, a subsidiary of the company that publishes Flex and Muscle & Fitness magazines, among others. Critics say the contract is a conflict of interest because Schwarzenegger's pay comes from the magazines' advertising revenue and the magazines...

Will Arnold Schwarzenegger get a pass from the supermarket tabloids? The California gubernatorial hopeful predicted at the start of his campaign that political foes would try to plant stories branding him a "womanizer." But Arnold's former bodybuilding mentor, Joe Weider, says he's fixed it so The Terminator has nothing to fear from the dreaded tabs. Earlier this year, American Media Inc., which brings you The National Enquirer, the Star and the Globe, bought Weider Publications, which includes Men's Fitness, Shape, Flex and Muscle & Fitness. Weider tells us that, while discussing the merger over dinner at Los Angeles' Peninsula Hotel...