Weird problem with iPhone and MacBook Pro

I usually leave my iPhone docked to my MacBook Pro while I am at work or at home so it is usually plugged in for long hours on end, but sometimes I need to unplug the phone and take it with me to lunch or the can and when I return to plug it back in, the MacBook does not detect the iPhone and it does not even charge at all. Now to compound the problem, when I swap USB ports, the MacBook detects the iPhone on the other USB port, but when I swap my USB stick on the working port to the port that was previously occupied by the iPhone, the USB stick does not work.

So it seems like the iPhone is "killing" my USB ports and the only way I can get back to two USB ports in a working state is to restart my Mac. Is there a problem with my Mac or iPhone? I've tried replicating this problem and its been consistent on SL, Lion and now Mountain Lion too. Does anyone here have a non-reboot type solution for me or do I need to bring it back to AppleCare?