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51-foot Jesus statue being erected in Ohio

MONROE, Ohio, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Construction on a 51-foot replacement for the "Touchdown Jesus" statue at an Ohio church has begun, officials said.

The first 20 feet of the new statue were erected Wednesday at the Solid Rock Church on Interstate 75 near Monroe, the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News reported. When it is finished, the statue will stand about 51 feet.

"It's a reminder for those who go up and down I-75 that Christ is the hope of the world and that he is the light of the world," Ron Carter, church administrator, said the Lux Mundi statue. "That's one of the missions of the church -- to present Christ to the world and this is one way we do that."

The statue is replacing the "Touchdown Jesus" statue, which was stuck by lightning on June 15, 2010, and burned to the ground. Reports did not say how high the earlier statue stood.

"It really was an icon in this area," Carter said. "The congregation really loved the other statue and it received favorable feedback. When it burned down, we received feedback from as far away as China expressing support and sympathy for the loss of the first statue. I think the new statue will engender the same reaction when it's completed."

Carter said construction on the new statue, which was designed to be more fire retardant, will be completed in September.

"It has to be ready by the dedication ceremony on Sept. 30," he said.

Man catches 30-pound turtle in NYC

NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A New York City angler said he was surprised when he caught a 30-pound sea turtle off a Brooklyn pier.

Kaheem Evans, 23, was fishing from the Canarsie Pier Wednesday when he caught the turtle, the New York Daily News reported.

The turtle, Evans said, appeared to be a baby loggerhead and weighed about 30 pounds and was about 2 feet long.

Loggerhead turtles can grow to be about 3 feet long and weigh as much as 300 pounds.

"I've been fishing here since I was a kid, but I've never caught a turtle," said Evans.

Evans notified wildlife officials and a rescue crew retrieved the turtle.

"It's just a good thing the fisherman knew enough to call us," said Rob DiGiovanni, executive director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

Large yard blob identified as mushroom

ROCHESTER HILLS, N.Y., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A Michigan family said a "weird looking" white blob they discovered in the yard turned out to be a large mushroom.

Linda Key, 53, of Rochester Hills, and her husband, Glenn, 52, said the blob, which is about the size of a basketball and weighs nearly 2 pounds, was first spotted Sunday among the rocks lining their flower bed, the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday.

"We didn't know if it was going to start walking away or what. It was so weird looking," Glenn Key said.

The couple's son, Wyatt, 13, likened the object to something out of a sci-fi movie.

"The whole experience has been very weird ... looking at it, thinking it's an alien egg," he said.

However, mushroom experts identified the object as a fungus commonly called a puffball.

"I've seen those at least twice that size," Michigan Mushroom Hunters President Phil Tedeschi said. "They'll get up to like, maybe almost 3 feet tall."

Nude mural to be painted over

ATLANTA, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- An Atlanta non-profit said it will paint over a controversial public mural of a woman in various states of undress.

Nathan Bolster, executive director of operations for the non-profit Living Walls Conference, said the group commissioned the concrete wall mural from Spanish artist Hyuro and the work was completed about two weeks ago, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Thursday.

However, Bolster said the property owner, Sawtell Development Partners, ordered the mural painted over after local residents objected to the artwork and the mural was defaced by someone who used tape to cover up the painting's "sensitive areas."

"(The media) had a knee-jerk reaction to a couple of negative voices," Bolster said.

The effort to have the mural removed was led by Tajiddin Muwwakkil, the imam at the neighboring Masjid al-Quaran, who called the mural "pornographic and offensive."