MAHONING COUNTY Kerry's wife to meet with military families

Among those invited is the wife of a state legislator called to active duty.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- The wife of U.S. Sen. John Kerry will meet Tuesday with the families of five to six local members of the military.
Teresa Heinz Kerry will meet with the families at noon at the Austintown public library, which is off Raccoon Road. The event is closed to the public.
Among the people invited to meet with Heinz Kerry, the wife of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is Stacey Boccieri, the wife of state Rep. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-61st.
John Boccieri, a reserve Air Force pilot, is returning to active military duty today. He served in the Middle East for about 60 days earlier this year.
Boccieri's new tour of duty should last between 60 and 90 days. As a C-130 pilot, Boccieri flew 89 sorties with troops and cargo to Baghdad from other parts of Iraq and nearby nations earlier this year.
Heinz Kerry will have a round-table discussion on the military with the invited families as well as U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, at the library.
She was originally scheduled to have the discussion at a person's home, but Kerry campaign officials changed the location to the library. It is quite common for campaign locations to change.
Private reception
After the library event, Heinz Kerry will attend a private reception with Democratic activists and union leaders at a location yet to be determined, but it will probably be at a person's home, national Democratic officials say.
National Democratic officials didn't know if Heinz Kerry would fly into the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna or be driven to the event in Austintown, saying it depended on her location before coming here.
Heinz Kerry was married for 25 years to former U.S. Sen. John Heinz of Pittsburgh, who was killed in a 1991 plane crash. She met Kerry a year later, and they were married in 1995.
This will be Heinz Kerry's second visit to the Mahoning Valley.
She visited Youngstown's Oakhill Renaissance Place on Feb. 20 and discussed her husband's goal to create new jobs in the science and technology fields, and increasing funding for childhood intervention.
Her husband, the junior senator from Massachusetts, has visited the Valley twice.
President Bush discussed community health-care programs Tuesday at an invitation-only event at Youngstown State University, which was billed as an official presidential visit and not a campaign stop.
Ohio is considered a key battleground state in the November general election.
skolnick@vindy.com