diff --git a/pyasana.py b/pyasana.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/pyasana.py
+++ b/pyasana.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ __version__ = '0.0.1-devel'
 import urllib2
 import urlparse
 import json
+import base64
 
 from urllib import urlencode
 
@@ -338,7 +339,7 @@ class Task(object):
             task.name = data["name"]
         if "created_at" in data:
             task.created_at = data["created_at"]
-        if "assignee" in data:
+        if "assignee" in data and data["assignee"] != None:
             task.assignee = User.new_from_json(data["assignee"])
         if "completed" in data:
             task.completed = data["completed"]
@@ -574,7 +575,8 @@ class Api(object):
 
     def _add_authorization_header(self, apikey=None):
         if apikey:
-            self._request_headers["Authorization"] = "Bearer %s" % apikey
+            authorization = "%s:" % apikey
+            self._request_headers["Authorization"] = "Basic %s" % base64.b64encode(authorization)
 
     def _get_opener(self, url, apikey=None):
         if not apikey:
Added base<I> encoding for authentication