Wheels Blog: Wheelies: The Shameless-Use-of-Photo Edition

Peter Haley/The News Tribune, via Associated Press Emergency responders talk boat-to-boat next to a listing barge laden with scrap car hulks anchored near the northern shore of Commencement Bay, in Tacoma, Wash., on Sunday.

In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:

• Normally, we might not use valuable Wheelies space for a report of scrapped cars falling from a listing barge into a bay, but the photograph from The Tacoma News Tribune is shouting to be seen. The barge, about 250 feet long, was crossing Commencement Bay on Sunday to deliver scrap metal to Schnitzer Steel, a recycler, The News Tribune reported. The barge, owned by Amix Marine Services of Canada, began listing and perhaps as many as nine crushed cars fell into the bay. After water was pumped from the barge, it continued to shore on Monday, but on Tuesday the Coast Guard, the Washington State Department of Ecology and private companies were working on a plan to recover the submerged vehicles. The bay is about 242 feet deep around the site of the accident. (Tacoma News Tribune)

• For the president of Honda North America, Tetsuo Iwamura, it’s Eastward Ho as the company moves him and about 50 other salaried workers to Marysville, Ohio, from Torrance, Calif. In the process, Honda says, Mr. Iwamura will add the title of chief operating officer of automobiles to his résumé. “These organizational changes will improve the speed of decision-making and the efficiency of our business operations,” Mr. Iwamura said in a statement.  Honda told USA Today that it would continue to maintain offices in Torrance. But we say, score one for the Rust Belt. (USA Today)

• Tim Mahoney, Volkswagen of America’s marketing chief, is jumping to General Motors to become the chief marketing officer of global Chevrolet and leader of global G.M. marketing operations. Mr. Mahoney will report to Alan Batey, G.M.’s vice president for United States sales and service. Mr. Batey had also been the interim global chief marketing officer after G.M.’s chief executive, Dan Akerson, dismissed Joel Ewanick last summer. Mr. Akerson has been reorganizing the company’s global marketing organization. (The Detroit Free Press)

• Speaking of Dan Akerson, G.M. is denying a report in The Detroit News that said the automaker was seeking a 20 percent raise for its chief executive. G.M. said on Wednesday that Mr. Akerson would not take a raise this year. The Detroit News had cited documents filed with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform indicating that a $2.1 million raise was being sought. “Unfortunately, someone who obviously did not understand the compensation request leaked the information in a way that misrepresented the truth in order to score political points on the eve of a Congressional hearing,” G.M. said. (NPR)

• Bloomberg news is reporting that Chery Automobile, the state-owned Chinese automaker, last year hired Hakan Saracoglu, who worked as a designer at Porsche for 15 years, helping with the exteriors of the 918 Spyder, Boxster and Cayman. Mr. Saracoglu, 47, joined Chery in October to lead the company’s design center in Shanghai. (Bloomberg News)