Money may not grow on trees, but it sure cost taxpayers a bundle to move a bush that was found growing in the path of the Doyle Drive rebuild.

Not just any bush - this was the Franciscan manzanita, a city native that was thought for 60 years to be extinct until the bush was spotted late last year.

With the final bills in, the cost of moving the bush in January came to $175,000 - $140,000 to dig up and move the shrub, and $35,000 for "support" services from geological, botanical and climate experts in preparation for its new home in the Presidio less than a mile away.

The discovery of the 8-inch-tall, 20-foot-wide bush was greeted with cries of joy by nature enthusiasts but quiet shock by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, which suddenly found a leafy version of the spotted owl right in the path of a billion-dollar roadway.

"We took this very seriously," said San Francisco County Transportation Authority head José Luis Moscovich.

No kidding.

Not only did the authority spend a small fortune preserving the manzanita, it moved the plant to its new secret home under cover of darkness out of fear that plant buffs might stalk it for cuttings.

It now sits in a gulch under a canopy, where the care continues.

"We think of it as an act of love," Moscovich said.

A lotta love.

Spy politics: Some of the Obama administration's biggest congressional allies from the Bay Area are in a fierce showdown with the White House over the CIA.

The fight has pitted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Anna Eshoo and other Bay Area Democrats against President Obama and former Carmel congressman and current CIA Director Leon Panetta.

The rift started last summer when Eshoo, the No. 2 Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, inserted language in the intelligence authorization bill giving Congress the power to have the Government Accountability Office review the CIA's spending and other practices.

"This issue ... goes directly to the heart of one of the most important functions of the Congress, and that is oversight," Eshoo said.

Eshoo also wanted the CIA to videotape interrogations of detainees and prisoners, as a means of checking any future allegations of torture or abuse.

Fearing the measures would compromise national security, the White House twice threatened to veto the intelligence bill. The issue came to a head on the House floor Friday when Pelosi spoke in favor of the oversight language and the measure narrowly passed, 218-210.

The war isn't over yet - the bill still has to clear the Senate.

Tourist ban: San Francisco's cash-strapped Recreation and Park Department has been looking to squeeze every dime it can get from its public attractions - but not, it seems, from Coit Tower.

Last summer, after Rec and Park bowed to neighborhood pressure and banned tourists from the parking lot, 5,120 fewer sightseers trekked up to the tower - resulting in a reduction of $20,000 in admission fees for the city, department records show.

That didn't stop the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency commission from voting Tuesday - with Rec and Park's consent - to keep the parking lot off limits to tourists for the second consecutive summer.

The idea is to reduce congestion at one of the city's favorite attractions, where cars regularly stack up, waiting for one of the 29 parking spots. Under the restricted access plan, only locals with residential parking stickers will be allowed to use the lot.

Tourists and others will have to walk or take a bus.

As for the apparent dent in tower business?

"We are stepping back and taking a look to see if there is a trend," says Rec and Park spokesman Elton Pon.

Budget backdrop: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsomlaid out the city's new, shrunken $6.4 billion budget Tuesday at the Luggage Store Art Gallery on Market Street - of all places.

Newsom spokesman Tony Winnicker says the Mid-Market nonprofit art center was chosen as the backdrop because it's part of a diverse neighborhood that's making a comeback, but like next year's budget "still has its challenges."

We liked local PR man Sam Singer's take on the Luggage Store pick even better: "Is it because he's packing for Sacramento?"

We know he'd like to.

EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.