diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 4410546fc8..e5436800a4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ editing capability for a course's list of tabs.
 Studio and LMS: add ability to lock assets (cannot be viewed unless registered
 for class).
 
+Studio: add restful interface for paging assets (no UX yet, but just add /start/45/max/50 to end of url to get
+items 45-95, e.g.)
+
 LMS: First round of improvements to New (beta) Instructor Dash:
 improvements, fixes, and internationalization to the Student Info section.
 
@@ -358,6 +361,22 @@ Studio: Add feedback to end user if there is a problem exporting a course
 
 Studio: Improve link re-writing on imports into a different course-id
 
+---------- split mongo backend refactoring changelog section ------------
+
+Studio: course catalog and course outline pages new use course id syntax w/ restful api style
+
+Common: 
+  separate the non-sql db connection configuration from the modulestore (xblock modeling) configuration.
+  in split, separate the the db connection and atomic crud ops into a distinct module & class from modulestore
+  
+Common: location mapper: % encode periods and dollar signs when used as key in the mapping dict
+
+Common: location mapper: added a bunch of new helper functions for generating old location style info from a CourseLocator
+
+Common: locators: allow - ~ and . in course, branch, and block ids.
+
+---------- end split mongo backend section ---------
+
 XQueue: Fixed (hopefully) worker crash when the connection to RabbitMQ is
 dropped suddenly.
 
diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/auth/authz.py b/cms/djangoapps/auth/authz.py
index 7ecddae274..42b427605d 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/auth/authz.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/auth/authz.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ from django.conf import settings
 
 from xmodule.modulestore import Location
 from xmodule.modulestore.locator import CourseLocator, Locator
+from xmodule.modulestore.django import loc_mapper
 
 
 # define a couple of simple roles, we just need ADMIN and EDITOR now for our purposes
@@ -35,7 +36,11 @@ def get_course_groupname_for_role(location, role):
     if isinstance(location, Location):
         groupnames.append('{0}_{1}'.format(role, location.course))
     elif isinstance(location, CourseLocator):
-        groupnames.append('{0}_{1}'.format(role, location.as_old_location_course_id))
+        old_location = loc_mapper().translate_locator_to_location(location)
+        if old_location is None:
+            groupnames.append('{0}_{1}'.format(role, location.as_old_location_course_id))
+        else:
+            groupnames.append('{0}_{1}'.format(role, old_location.course_id))
 
     for groupname in groupnames:
         if Group.objects.filter(name=groupname).exists():
diff --git a/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_complete.html b/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_complete.html
index bc82938127..d8a9f0eedb 100644
--- a/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_complete.html
+++ b/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_complete.html
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 <header class="global">
   <nav>
     <h1 class="logo">
-      <a href="{{MKTG_URL_ROOT}}"><img src="${static.url('images/header-logo.png')}"></a>
+      <a href="{{MKTG_URL_ROOT}}"><img src="{% static 'images/header-logo.png' %}"></a>
     </h1>
   </nav>
 </header>
diff --git a/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_confirm.html b/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_confirm.html
index 557f4d9d90..a7b3512034 100644
--- a/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_confirm.html
+++ b/lms/templates/registration/password_reset_confirm.html
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
 <header class="global">
   <nav>
     <h1 class="logo">
-      <a href="{{MKTG_URL_ROOT}}"><img src="${static.url('images/header-logo.png')}"></a>
+      <a href="{{MKTG_URL_ROOT}}"><img src="{% static 'images/header-logo.png' %}"></a>
     </h1>
   </nav>
 </header>
diff --git a/scripts/release-email-list.sh b/scripts/release-email-list.sh
index 2d875e139c..d677fcb8ed 100755
--- a/scripts/release-email-list.sh
+++ b/scripts/release-email-list.sh
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ for EMAIL in $RESPONSIBLE; do
 
     EMAIL_COL="$EMAIL"
     for HASH in $ALL_COMMITS; do
-        git log --format="tformat:|$EMAIL_COL|%s|[commit|https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/commit/%h]| |" -n 1 $HASH
+        git --no-pager log --format="tformat:|$EMAIL_COL|%s|[commit|https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/commit/%h]| |" -n 1 $HASH
         EMAIL_COL=" "
     done
-done
\ No newline at end of file
+done