By Nathan Koppel – The Wall Street Journal Law Blog The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is holding a hearing today on an important topic for companies: Can they consider job applicants’ criminal histories in making hiring decisions? The hearing will examine the law governing background screening and consider the extent to which individuals with arrest and conviction records face barriers in getting hired. The hearing comes at a time in which an increasing number of employers are seeking criminal background checks out of security concerns, according to this item in the [Full Story at: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/07/26/are-criminal-background-checks-unfairly-discriminatory/ ]