Quinton Chandler, KTOO

“Greet your customer.”

That’s the most important piece of advice Juneau police Officer Ken Colon wanted his audience to remember at the end of his presentation on Friday. He was meeting with nearly 20 people in the backroom of Alaskan Dames, a consignment shop in the Mendenhall Valley.

“Shoplifters, they do not like being greeted. It hinders their ability, it takes away the opportunity and it reduces the desire to commit the crime,” Colon said.

Juneau police have reported burglary and theft rates significantly higher last year than in previous years, and they’re stepping up efforts to help residents discourage thieves before a crime is committed.

Colon has been on the Juneau police force for almost 11 years. He’s experienced the increase in property crime firsthand. He said when he responds to a theft, he looks for holes in the victim’s security so he can explain ways they can prevent the same thing from happening again. Now he’s taking the next step.

“That’s why I’m called to do these things. If I point out some of the things they are not doing, a lot of these petty thefts, when it comes to shoplifting, could’ve been prevented.”

He wasn’t sure who his audience would be at first. If a majority of the people had been business owners, he would’ve spoken about physical changes they could make to their business to deter thieves.

“We had a lot of employees here so we started talking about loss prevention more than anything else,” Colon explained.

In other words, ways employees can make a difference. Some of those employees said they wanted to learn how to protect their stores and themselves from shoplifters.

Nathan Buendia and his coworkers often work alone at Lilette, an Alaskan Dames boutique. He said Colon’s talk was educational. He even took notes.

“Yeah, I learned a lot tonight. I think that the crime prevention triangle is really effective and I’m glad that I learned it today,” said Buendia.

He explained the concepts behind the crime prevention triangle.

“So it’s desire, ability and opportunity. These criminals, they have all these three things, and if you block one of those things they will most likely not steal, which is really, really cool to learn,” he said.

That’s where greeting the customer can go a long way.

“If you’re just an employee, make sure you say hello to your customer and the store will most likely be protected,” Buendia said.

Buendia has only worked at Lilette for a couple of months and said he hasn’t had to deal with shoplifters, but his coworkers have.

Madison Massey is a manager at Alaskan Dames who sometimes fills in at Lilette. She said shoplifting is a frequent occurrence.

“Weekly, I mean daily, we’re aware of when people are coming in specifically looking to hit us without paying whatsoever,” Massey said. “We’re looking at security footage weekly, so we’re aware of the regulars who are coming in and taking things without paying.”

Massey said theft is such a big problem that it might be a good idea for retailers to have talks on crime prevention on a regular basis.

Colon said there’s no doubt that if businesses adopted the tactics he recommends, Juneau would see fewer thefts.

Louisiana is entering recovery mode after devastating flooding killed 13 people and damaged at least 60,000 homes across 20 parishes.

But as Louisana Gov. John Bel Edwards told CNN, that process is “going to take many months.” He added that even though this flooding was “unprecedented and historic,” many are “just now realizing how significant it was.”

The Red Cross said the Louisiana flooding “is likely the worst natural disaster in the United States since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy,” and response efforts are “expected to cost at least $30 million.”

Edwards emphasizes that the state “really needs help.” Here’s more:

“Typically by this point in a storm, I think Red Cross would be receiving a lot more donations, I think there would be more volunteers signing up. Although we have some of that in place now, it would be very helpful if people would donate to the Red Cross, to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, and also to come volunteer to help people get back in their homes as quickly as possible.”

The governor’s office said “102,000 have registered for federal help,” as the Associated Press reports. FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said “more than 25,000 have filed flood claims.”

State officials estimate that 60,000 homes were damaged. But a report from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, a local economic development group, put the number at 110,000. From member station WWNO, reporter Ryan Kailath explained the discrepancy to our Newscast unit:

“The higher local estimate is actually the total number of homes in the floodplain area, whether or not they’re damaged. The much smaller number that officials keep repeating is the number of homes that have been reported damaged.

“Because payouts can be tied to damages, each side has an interest in setting the number. After Hurricane Katrina, the numbers were still being debated long after the storm, with state estimates much higher than federal ones.”

Regardless of the number of structures, The Advocate said residents are beginning to dig out their waterlogged homes, creating “massive debris piles” on the streets of Baton Rouge.

“Clothing and children’s toys, along with water-soaked carpeting and sofas and damaged refrigerators and stoves and the bric-a-brac of daily life were stacked outside houses” in the Baton Rouge area, as the newspaper reported.

Mike Johnson told The Advocate that his family home was flooded and “just about everything” was lost. “The hardest part of it is a lifetime of accumulation gone in a couple of hours,” he said. “Now it’s back to the drawing board.”

As Kailath reported on Weekend Edition Sunday, tens of thousands of South Louisiana residents were taken by surprise at the rising floodwaters, despite warnings.

He said “family after family” told him the same tale: “They heard the warnings, and thought — it won’t happen to me.”

That may be because many of areas hit are inland, and not ones that typically experience flooding. “People have a hard time grasping things they haven’t experienced,” Marshall Shepherd, the former president of the American Meteorological Society, told Kailath.

According to Shepherd, “people around the world are going to see more and more weather for which they have no reference point.”

Meanwhile, multiple counties in south and central Texas are threatened with flash flooding, with reports of water rescues.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

There are four candidates for two school board seats this year.

Juneau School Board members Lisa Worl and Barbara Thurston chose not to seek re-election. The two candidates who receive the most votes Oct. 4 will win three-year terms.

The Juneau School Board oversees the school district’s $80-plus million annual operating budget and more than 600 employees.

This year’s candidates are Kevin Allen, Dan DeBartolo, Jason Hart and Steve Whitney.

Kevin Allen graduated from Thunder Mountain High School in May. He already sat on the school board as a student representative; he was a member of the Alaska Association of Student Governments and Model United Nations. He believes the school board needs the perspective of a recent student and he wants the Juneau School District to continue efforts to bring Alaska Native culture into education. He’s Tlingit and Athabascan.

Dan DeBartolo is the administrative services director for the Alaska Department of Revenue. In a written statement, he touted his experience building efficiencies inside the state agency as an example of how he would support the school district’s mission at a time of budget uncertainty

Jason Hart lost the 2015 race for school board. Hart is also worried about the State of Alaska’s fiscal dilemma. He stresses that he will take a “common sense approach” to budget questions.

Hart is a contract administrator for Hecla Mining Co. He has a son starting fifth grade this year. DeBartolo also has a daughter starting first grade.

Steve Whitney could not be reached for comment on his campaign.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified one of the candidates. Dan DeBartolo is running for school board, not David DeBartolo.

The Coast Guard stopped looking for Arnold Skeek, the missing 27-year-old fisherman from Kake, early Monday afternoon. Authorities believe he fell from the Beaufort Sea, 60-foot fishing tender, into Auke Bay on Sunday.

Skeek’s family presumes he is dead. His sister, Amy Meats described how the news of her brother’s disappearance reached the family.

“His captain had called my dad, who I was visiting, and he was crying, very distraught, saying ‘I can’t find Arnold anywhere,’” said Meats. “He said, ‘at 6 o’clock he saw Arnold sleeping in the galley and at 10 o’clock in the morning, when everyone woke up he was gone.’”

On Sunday, the Coast Guard reported that Skeek was sleeping on deck. Monday, a spokesperson could not be reached to address the discrepancy.

The Coast Guard said they started searching around 11 a.m. Authorities believe Skeek most likely fell overboard. They said the ship was likely anchored too far from shore for him to get back on his own. Meats agreed, all the signs suggest he’d gone over.

“I know for a fact that if he was anywhere, he would’ve taken his phone if nothing else, but absolutely everything was left onboard and right then and there, I knew he was gone,” Meats said.

She said her brother loved being a fisherman, and he was happy he was following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. She said he was a generous person, never unwilling to help his family, and his disappearance is one more tragedy to add to the list.

“No, our mother passed away last year, and my grandmother passed away this year,” she said. “It’s been a rough year for us. We lost our mom, grandma, my brother was put in jail and now Arnold’s gone.”

Meats said her brother was also her father’s caretaker. Her father is disabled and has very fragile health. Meats said he is taking the news especially hard.

“He was hyperventilating. He went into my brother’s room and after that he fell to his knees. He couldn’t stop crying and it was hard for him to breathe,” Meats said.

The Coast Guard searched for Skeek for more than 26 hours. Meats said her family is grateful for everyone who helped look for her brother, including a number of local good Samaritans. Skeek is leaving behind five siblings, his father and an 8-year-old son who Meats said is waiting for closure.

The Juneau School District’s superintendent got high praise on his annual performance review by the Juneau School Board.

Superintendent Mark Miller is under contract to oversee the district and its 4,600 students until the end of June 2018. He joined the district two years ago.

Miller met with the school board for his annual evaluation last month.

Board President Brian Holst complimented Miller, his management team and staff for the district’s “significant progress building an effective education system in Juneau.”

According to a press release, in the past year the district has negotiated multiple labor agreements with its 664 employees, continued updating its core curriculum, and implemented a new system to help students who struggle to meet curriculum standards.

During a school board meeting Tuesday, Miller gave credit for the district’s recent accomplishments to his staff.

Updated 9:29 p.m. Aug. 15, 2016: The Coast Guard stopped looking for Arnold Skeek, the missing 27-year-old fisherman from Kake, early Monday afternoon. Authorities believe he fell from the Beaufort Sea, 60-foot fishing tender, into Auke Bay on Sunday. Skeek’s family presumes he is dead.

Posted 1:02 p.m. Aug. 14, 2016: The Coast Guard is searching the Auke Bay area for a 27-year-old mariner who fell overboard from 60-foot fishing tender, the Beaufort Sea, on Sunday. Operations Specialist 2nd Class Brandon Daves said the report came in at 11 a.m. Sunday.

“They’d seen one of their crewmembers who was on deck sleeping at approximately 6 o’clock in the morning; (it) was the last time he was seen,” Daves said. “They awoke at about 11 o’clock to find him missing and not aboard the vessel, and the next logical assumption was that he had fallen overboard.”

Authorities have not named the crewman. Daves said the Coast Guard dispatched three cutters, a helicopter from Sitka, and a 25-foot vessel from station Juneau. Alaska State Troopers have also joined the search as well as local mariners fishing in Juneau’s 70th annual Golden North Salmon Derby.

No one reported seeing the crewman fall overboard, but Daves said that is the most likely scenario.

“They were anchored out far enough away from shore that suspecting that he had gone to shore was not a likely scenario,” Daves said. “At first, we were kind of thinking that might have been a possibility, however just based on the (crew’s) reaction to this person being gone — they were very shaken.”

Daves said the missing man’s condition will determine how long they search.

“We’re looking as best we can and we’re going to do so as long as it is apparent that we may be still searching for someone who is still alive,” he said.

When he was last seen, the missing man was wearing a dark-colored sweater and dark jeans. Daves said it doesn’t look like he was wearing a life jacket.