Wyoming News Briefs

Visionary building fiber internet system throughout Gillette and Wyoming

GILLETTE (WNE) — Since the start of 2023, Visionary Broadband has added hundreds of miles of fiber internet in communities across Wyoming, and it’s set to go live in parts of Gillette in a few weeks.

Visionary has spent much of 2023 installing a fiber network throughout the Cowboy State. CEO Brian Worthen said the “figure-8 ring system” that’s been laid out will give Campbell County and other Wyoming communities more reliability when it comes to their internet connection.

Visionary’s system runs from Gillette to Billings to Casper to Cheyenne to Denver and then back to Gillette.

Visionary is now working to connect other communities to its fiber network.

Fiber internet offers faster upload speeds than both DSL and cable internet. It doesn’t contain copper wire, so a fiber connection won’t get interrupted by bad weather or electrical interference.

It’s an individualized point-to-point connection, which means a household’s speeds won’t be affected by its neighbor’s usage.

And fiber should be good for the next 10 to 20 years, Worthen said. If Visionary needs to increase internet speeds, it won’t have to lay down more fiber. It just can use the fiber it already has.

“The beauty of it is, we can add more bandwidth on as we need it,” he said.

And customers can increase speeds by gigabytes by simply updating their modems once they are on fiber internet.

Black bear relocated from open space in Sherian

SHERIDAN (WNE) — A yearling male black bear was captured and relocated from South Park in Sheridan on Aug. 17.

At approximately 4 p.m., Game and Fish personnel responded to a report of a small bear near Creekside Apartments. The bear was found a short time later and successfully immobilized.

Game and Fish personnel had responded to another report earlier in the day about a bear near the apartments, but had been unable to locate it at that time. No other reports were received, suggesting the bear had not accessed garbage or other food rewards.

“We appreciate members of the public calling us immediately when the bear was seen, allowing us to intervene quickly before it got food rewards or created other conflicts,” said Tim Thomas, Sheridan Region wildlife management coordinator. “We also appreciate the help of the Sheridan Police Department in assisting with the bear’s capture. It was a young bear that from all indications, had only recently come into the area.”

The bear was relocated to suitable habitat in a remote area of the Bighorn Mountains on Aug. 18.

Any sightings of a bear in residential or developed areas should be reported as soon as possible to the Game and Fish Regional Office at 307-672-7418 during regular business hours or to a local law enforcement agency. Reports can also be made after-hours to the Stop Poaching hotline at 877-WGFD-TIP.

Learn about living and recreating in bear country at wgfd.wyo.gov/bear-wise-wyoming.

Cheyenne man sentenced in child pornography case

CHEYENNE (WNE) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Wyoming, has announced that a Cheyenne man has been sentenced in a child pornography case.

Brian Joseph Nielsen, age 38, was sentenced Thursday to 148 months of imprisonment for possession of child pornography, second or subsequent conviction. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl imposed the sentence, which includes 15 years of supervised release following Nielsen’s prison term.

According to court documents, Nielson was indicted in July 2010 and pleaded guilty to interstate shipment of child pornography. He was sentenced to 135 months in prison based on special concerns that Nielson was a danger to children. Nielson began his lifetime supervised release in December 2019.

On Feb. 24, 2023, Nielson’s probation officer found him in possession of two unauthorized cell phones. Nielson admitted to knowingly possessing approximately 2000 images of child pornography on one of the cell phones.