diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index caae28b34747f1bbf4016f989e0f4e2acc612ef6..01a70f53f350749a965efbd730eca22a0763b6fc 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+ligo-gracedb (1.8-1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Incorporated Leo's patch for fixing import problem
+
+ -- Brian Moe <brian.moe@ligo.org>  Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:01:58 -0500
+
 ligo-gracedb (1.7-1) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * Workaround for Python bug http://bugs.python.org/issue11898
diff --git a/etc/gracedb.spec b/etc/gracedb.spec
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e9c9a1b1619332c53cfa62928d2f3d915a37f0e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/etc/gracedb.spec
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+%define name              ligo-gracedb
+%define version           1.7
+%define unmangled_version 1.7
+%define release           1
+ 
+Summary:   Gravity Wave Candidate Event Database
+Name:      %{name}
+Version:   %{version}
+Release:   %{release}
+Source0:   %{name}-%{unmangled_version}.tar.gz
+License:   GPL
+Group:     Development/Libraries
+BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-buildroot
+Prefix:    %{_prefix}
+BuildArch: noarch
+Vendor:    Brian Moe <brian.moe@ligo.org>
+Requires:  ligo-common m2crypto
+Url:       http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/daswg/gracedb.html
+ 
+%description
+The gravitational-wave candidate event database (GraCEDb) is a prototype 
+system to organize candidate events from gravitational-wave searches and 
+to provide an environment to record information about follow-ups. A simple 
+client tool is provided to submit a candidate event to the database.
+ 
+%prep
+%setup -n %{name}-%{unmangled_version}
+ 
+%build
+python setup.py build
+ 
+%install
+python setup.py install --root=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT --record=INSTALLED_FILES
+ 
+%clean
+rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT
+ 
+%files -f INSTALLED_FILES
+%defattr(-,root,root)
+%exclude %{python_sitelib}/ligo/gracedb/*pyo
+%exclude %{python_sitelib}/ligo/gracedb/test/*pyo
diff --git a/ligo/gracedb/__init__.py b/ligo/gracedb/__init__.py
index b557bef4d8c5bbafcbbe9e0da8d7ee4226def7e8..c32b76b54b75cccfab8615d989a27e0fd39f45b6 100644
--- a/ligo/gracedb/__init__.py
+++ b/ligo/gracedb/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
 __all__ = ["cli", "rest"]
 
-GIT_TAG = 'gracedb-1.7-1'
+GIT_TAG = 'gracedb-1.8-1'
 
diff --git a/ligo/gracedb/cli.py b/ligo/gracedb/cli.py
index 3098d76b0903606322be106f934cb3cf2c6dec46..3ebedbb1a778d7fc38a6c8968a97413c2e9f8107 100644
--- a/ligo/gracedb/cli.py
+++ b/ligo/gracedb/cli.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ import json
 
 DEFAULT_SERVICE_URL = "https://gracedb.ligo.org/gracedb/cli"
 
-GIT_TAG = 'gracedb-1.7-1'
+GIT_TAG = 'gracedb-1.8-1'
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------
 # Util routines
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ class Client:
                     host, port, key_file=key, cert_file=cert)
         self.url = url
         # XXX sad sad hack for transition from our somewhat ad hoc to rest api.
-        if url.endswith('cli'):
+        if url.endswith('cli') or url.endswith('cli/'):
             self.rest_url = url[:url.rindex('cli')]+"api"
         else:
             self.rest_url = url
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 17681495ffb93c0d29741ca8d48daa9787552b0d..d100da180505a4a1de63119b52647ef4d0346b06 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import os
 
 from distutils.core import setup
 
-version = "1.7"
+version = "1.8"
 
 setup(
   name = "ligo-gracedb",
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ setup(
   packages = [ 'ligo.gracedb', 'ligo.gracedb.test'],
   package_data = { 'ligo.gracedb.test' : ['data/*', 'test.sh'] },
 
-  requires = ['ligo', 'M2Crypto', 'cjson'],
+  requires = ['ligo', 'M2Crypto'],
 
   scripts = [
     os.path.join('bin','gracedb'),