Apple computer advertised its iPhone 3G model as "twice as fast for half the price" of the previous model, but the phone's Internet connection is slower than advertised and is plagued with dropped calls, a class action claims in Federal Court.

Jessica Smith says that "immediately after purchase Plaintiff soon noticed that her Internet connection, receipt and sending of email, text messages and other data transfers through the device were slower than expected and advertised. Plaintiff was familiar with the speeds at which the previous iPhone operated. The defective iPhone 3G appeared to connect to the 3G standard and protocol less than 25% of the time. Additionally, plaintiff experienced an inordinate amount of dropped calls."

Plaintiffs are represented by Haydn Trechsel.

The AFL-CIO and three other labor groups filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, alleging that Wal-mart Inc., the largest employer in the US, violated federal election laws by forcing employees to attend meetings where political and presidential campaign issues were discussed. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal , the labor groups Change to Win, WakeUpWalMart.com, Americans Rights at Work, and the AFL-CIO filed the complaint based on Wal-Mart meetings which were intended to convince lower-level department heads that electing a Democratic president would make it easier for workers to unionize, which in turn could lead to lower salaries and violations of privacy. According to the labor organizations, federal regulations allow companies to promote voting for a presidential candidate to high-level managers but not to lower-level managers and department heads.

At issue is the Employee Free Choice Act, which would require a company to recognize a union as soon as a majority of a company's employees signed cards saying they want to organize a union. Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama supports the legislation, while Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain does not. In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that a 2000 California law that prohibits employers from using certain funds they receive from the state to influence union elections is unconstitutional. Previously in 2006, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the California law, ruling that it was neither preempted by the National Labor Relations Act nor rendered unenforceable by the US Constitution's Supremacy Clause.