George Avalos of the Contra Costa Times reports he’s been told by three sources that East Bay housing developer Albert D. Seeno Jr. is interested in making a bid for the CCTimes, one of the Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers that McClatchy Co. bought but now plans to spin off. Avalos said Seeno could not be reached for comment. Seeno’s family is a major force in Contra Costa County. His father, the late Albert Seeno Sr., founded A.D. Seeno Construction Co., which has built thousands of homes in the county and dominates the home-building industry in Pittsburg. The younger Seeno, who is in his early 60s, has operated Nevada casinos, built shopping malls and auto malls, and heads dozens of companies. In 2002, Seeno paid $1 million in fines and publicly apologized after his company pleaded guilty in July to violating the federal Endangered Species Act for destroying rare red-legged frogs, according to the CCTimes. In a 2003, East Bay Business Times story, Senno said he decided to start talking to the media because “all those stories don’t represent my views.” He told reporter Katherine Conrad the public was getting the wrong idea about his companies. “My friends don’t understand how people get brainwashed as to what they read.”