Tax on big businesses helps plug Seattle budget shortfall | Layoffs hit Sana Biotechnology

• The city council on Tuesday approved a plan to use the extra money to plug shortfalls in its General Fund for the next two years. 

A bank in rural Washington state sought to distance itself from FTX on Tuesday following a report last week detailing its connections to the failed cryptocurrency exchange.

• Moonstone Bank, formerly known as Farmington State Bank, said in a statement that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research trading firm has less than a 10% stake in its parent company, with no board seats and no direct involvement in management.

Sana Biotechnology will reduce its workforce by 15%, becoming the latest company to trim staff amid a shaky economy. 

• The Seattle-area cell and gene therapy company said it was shutting a program focused on heart failure and outlined new priorities for other programs.

• Lost a job? Need help finding work? GeekWire’s new recruiting service, GeekWork, can help. Reach out to GeekWork managing director Jason Greer to learn more on how we connect technical talent to amazing job opportunities. Contact: jason@geekwire.com.

Amazon reported its "biggest holiday shopping weekend ever" as customers flocked to the e-commerce giant for deals.

• Despite its own moves to combat economic uncertainty, the company says it sold a record number of products between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

In his second re:Invent keynote, Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky made his pitch to businesses to double down on the company’s cloud technologies.

• Selipsky, the former Tableau Software CEO, sought to reassure AWS customers that Amazon is dedicated to helping them cut costs, preserving their bottom line in the turbulent economy.

Ongoing concerns about safety and the rise of remote work are two trends keeping tech workers from returning to downtown Seattle in anything resembling pre-pandemic numbers. 

• More than 30 months after COVID-19 emptied office towers, it’s still unclear whether employees are coming back — and if downtown Seattle should reimagine itself without them.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $75 million over the next four years to increase enrollment in post-secondary education programs in Washington state.

• Only 61% of students graduating from high school in Washington immediately enroll in a post-secondary program, below the national average of 69%, according to the foundation.

We’re a week away from the return of the GeekWire Gala, a holiday tradition for the Seattle tech community.

• Here are five good reasons to attend the annual party.