NIS 2011 & Outlook 2010 on Win7 - Strange half-integration

I am experiencing a strange issue with the integration between NIS 2011 and Outlook 2010 that no other post seems to be covering.

 

Problem: sometimes (apparently at random) the "this is spam" button doesn't work. This is NOT the "grayed out button" issue mentioned in other posts, but a strange and frequent occurrence where Norton Antispam just doesn't want to get rid of a specific email message. Please note that everything is correctly installed, updated, etc. and otherwise ok.

 

Peeve: while we're at it, can anybody tell me how to create an Outlook 2010 "quick action" button for flagging messages as spam without having to move to the Norton ribbon tab every time?

 

Thank you in advance for your help!