Basement Beat   

Investigative ace Eric Nalder defects to the San Jose Mercury News.

After spending his 30-year career writing for newspapers in Washington state, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Eric Nalder leaves the Seattle Times for the San Jose Mercury News. Before the recent Seattle strike started, he turned down an offer from the Los Angeles Times because he didn't want to leave Rain City. Nor will he have to now: The Merc is letting him work from his Seattle basement as one of its five investigative reporters. The offer came a week after the strike ended and the Times announced it would be trimming staff. A winner of more than 70 awards, Nalder, 55, is one of the country's senior investigative reporters. But two of his new teammates, he says, Pulitzer-winners Pete Carey and Fredric Tulsky, "are both senior to me."