Live from the GeekWire Summit: Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell says city still has its mojo

Seattle mayor at GeekWire Summit: Seattle has hit a rough patch, but fear not, said Mayor Bruce Harrell, who said the city still has its mojo despite several ongoing challenges. Harrell, who took office in January, asked tech leaders to get more engaged and commented on his relationship with Amazon during the opening session this morning at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle. Read more. 

Microsoft cybersecurity chief on fighting a ‘growing’ threat: Charlie Bell, the former top executive for Amazon Web Services who joined Microsoft last year, acknowledged that the threat posed by “bad actors” online — including nation states and crime syndicates with their own HR departments — is rapidly rising. Read more of his comments from the GeekWire Summit. 

Tune into the GeekWire Summit: The event is streaming live Thursday and Friday — access it here. 

Amazon hiring 150K for holiday rush: The move, which matches what the company planned for in 2021, comes shortly after Amazon announced that it will spend an additional $1 billion over the next year to increase average starting pay for front-line workers to $19 per hour. Read more. 

Microsoft plants seeds for data-driven sustainable agriculture: Microsoft Research is releasing the underlying code for a series of agricultural technologies under open-source licenses, encouraging soil specialists, plant scientists and other experts to build tech solutions for sustainable farms. 

Nordstrom CTO to step down: Edmond Mesrobian, who arrived at the Seattle retail giant in 2018 after stints with Tesco, Expedia Group, and RealNetworks, is departing Oct. 14.

Ex-Zillow Group recruiting VP joins Discord: Annie Rihn, one of the first ten employees at the Seattle real estate company, is now vice president of talent acquisition at Discord, a communication platform popular with gamers.

Amazon and healthcare: As the tech company makes bigger moves into healthcare and turns its efficiency machine on medicine, some experts say the industry could change in big ways.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com.