SACRAMENTO -- As the debate over state pensions simmers in Sacramento, an appeals court Wednesday overturned part of a negotiated increase in retirement benefits for several thousand regulatory workers, saying the Legislature never approved the full increase or its estimated $40 million cost. The case involves 3,500 to 4,000 employees whose union, the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, reached an agreement with then-Gov. Gray Davis' administration in 2002 to reclassify them as "safety members" of the state's retirement system in July 2004. That entitled them to higher pensions - 2.5 percent of their pay, instead of 2 percent, for each...