An investigative grand jury will form next month in Pittsburgh, and some officials believe it might gradually shift its focus toward possible corruption in the gambling industry.

Attorney General Tom Corbett is empaneling the grand jury to focus on public corruption and organized crime, and possibly environmental crimes and insurance fraud, spokesman Kevin Harley said Friday.

He would not comment about gambling, but other officials said they believe the licensing and development of casinos in Pennsylvania will become the grand jury's focus.

A grand jury that expired and will be replaced with this one heard testimony related to casinos. When a grand jury convenes, prosecutors summarize for the jurors unfinished business from the previous jury, Harley said.

Four years ago, when Democratic candidates like Bob O'Connor, Michael Lamb, and Bill Peduto ran for office -- there were at least five televised debates and 12 joint appearances.
 
This year, voters may be lucky to see Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Carmen Robinson, and Patrick Dowd together at all -- early on, Dowd called for nine debates.

"The mayor said he wanted three, and we acquiesced, and now he's saying he wants two, that he doesn't have time in the next 30 days to reschedule a debate that was obviously rightly postponed I think," Dowd said today.

Two debates were originally scheduled while minds were still focused on the fallen police officers.

There were police officers from nearby towns and far-away cities. Combat veterans and young children. Family members and strangers, gathered in a line that seemed to grow endlessly, even as daylight slipped into darkness.

Through a chilly day and night, thousands of mourners had 20 hours to file past the bodies of three slain Pittsburgh police officers, and to try, however impossibly, to come to terms with their deaths.

"Every day when you leave for work, you lie to your family and say 'I'm going to be all right.' But you never really know," said Carmen Robinson, a former sergeant for one of the officers, Eric G. Kelly.