Supreme Court nominee’s remarks appeared aimed at Republicans who have questioned her commitment to impartiality in light of a 2001 remark that experience as a “wise Latina” might give her an advantage.

Milciades M. Cedano Jr. recalls his father once asking him why he was washing dishes when there was a woman in the house to do it. Cedano, who is of Dominican heritage, said machismo - an attitude of male superiority - makes some men in his culture feel they must dominate women. That attitude sometimes fuels domestic violence, said Cedano, speaking Wednesday at a community forum in Henrico County on domestic violence in the Latino community.

Virginia’s illegal immigrant population doubled since 2000 to an estimated 300,000 in 2008, according to a new study released today by the Pew Hispanic Center. The study also says the rapid growth of illegal immigrants has slowed. The center estimates that the state’s labor force includes about 210,000 illegal immigrants, or about 5.1 percent of workers. About 4 percent of the state’s total population of 7.7 million is made up of illegal immigrants, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group that reports on Latinos’ growing impact on the nation.

Even in this economy, people launch businesses. For instance, Jack Nasser of Henrico County dipped into his savings and opened a used-auto dealership in Ashland last year. If past experiences hold true, many of those fledging businesses in Virginia and the nation will be started by immigrant entrepreneurs such as Nasser, who moved to the U.S. from Singapore in 2005 with his wife, a native of the Richmond area.

Juan Tejeda had wanted to be a police officer ever since he moved to the United States 20 years ago. Last February, he graduated from the Richmond Police Training Academy and became a city officer.

With a mother from El Salvador and an Irish-American father from Minnesota, Erik Giblin learned early how to walk between cultures. That knowledge has served him well in his first few months as director of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond’s Office for the Hispanic Apostolate.

The Petersburg school system is reaching out to the city’s Hispanic parents. The school system’s English as a Second Language program is having its first Hispanic Night tonight, said Jannette DuHart, who is an ESL teacher at J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School and Peabody Middle School. The event at Petersburg High School at 5:30 p.m. will include Spanish-speaking guest speakers followed by a question-and-answer session for the parents.