diff --git a/scala/qscript/playground/BatchMerge.q b/scala/qscript/playground/BatchMerge.q
index 56867b0ed..2804e2df0 100755
--- a/scala/qscript/playground/BatchMerge.q
+++ b/scala/qscript/playground/BatchMerge.q
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import java.io.{FileReader, BufferedReader}
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.commandline.Hidden
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.datasources.pipeline.Pipeline
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.walkers.genotyper.{GenotypeLikelihoodsCalculationModel, UnifiedGenotyperEngine}
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.queue.extensions.gatk._
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.queue.library.ipf.vcf.{VCFSimpleMerge, VCFExtractSites,VCFExtractIntervals}
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.queue.pipeline.{ProjectManagement, BamProcessing, VariantCalling}
@@ -30,7 +31,7 @@ class batchMergePipeline extends QScript {
     var bams : List[File] = extractFileEntries(bamList)
 
     trait ExtractArgs extends VCFExtractSites {
-      this.keepFilters = true
+      this.keepFilters = false
       this.keepInfo = false
       this.keepQual = false
     }
@@ -55,10 +56,11 @@ class batchMergePipeline extends QScript {
       }
       this.intervals :+= extractIntervals.listOut
       this.alleleVCF = combineVCFs.outVCF
-      this.output_all_callable_bases = true
       this.jarFile = new File(stingDir+"/dist/GenomeAnalysisTK.jar")
       this.memoryLimit = Some(4)
       this.scatterCount = 60
+      this.output_mode = Some(UnifiedGenotyperEngine.OUTPUT_MODE.EMIT_ALL_SITES)
+      this.genotyping_mode = Some(GenotypeLikelihoodsCalculationModel.GENOTYPING_MODE.GENOTYPE_GIVEN_ALLELES)
     }
 
     def newUGCL( bams: (List[File],Int) ) : UGCalcLikelihoods = {
@@ -72,18 +74,33 @@ class batchMergePipeline extends QScript {
     addAll(calcs)
 
     trait CallVariantsArgs extends UGCallVariants {
-      this.output_all_callable_bases = true
       this.reference_sequence = batchMerge.ref
       this.intervals :+= extractIntervals.listOut
       this.jarFile = new File(stingDir+"/dist/GenomeAnalysisTK.jar")
       this.scatterCount = 30
       this.memoryLimit = Some(8)
+      this.output_mode = Some(UnifiedGenotyperEngine.OUTPUT_MODE.EMIT_ALL_SITES)
+      this.genotyping_mode = Some(GenotypeLikelihoodsCalculationModel.GENOTYPING_MODE.GENOTYPE_GIVEN_ALLELES)
     }
 
     var cVars : UGCallVariants = new UGCallVariants with CallVariantsArgs
     cVars.rodBind ++= calcs.map( a => new RodBind("variant"+a.out.getName.replace(".vcf",""),"vcf",a.out) )
     cVars.out = batchOut
     add(cVars)
+
+    trait CombineVariantsArgs extends CombineVariants {
+      this.reference_sequence = batchMerge.ref
+      this.intervals :+= extractIntervals.listOut
+      this.jarFile = new File(batchMerge.stingDir+"/dist/GenomeAnalysisTK.jar")
+      this.scatterCount = 10
+      this.memoryLimit=Some(4)
+    }
+
+    var combine : CombineVariants = new CombineVariants with CombineVariantsArgs
+    combine.out = swapExt(batchOut,".vcf",".variant.combined.vcf")
+    combine.rodBind ++= vcfs.map( u => new RodBind(u.getName,"vcf",u) )
+
+    add(combine)
   }
 
   def extractFileEntries(in: File): List[File] = {
diff --git a/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/intervals/ExpandIntervals.scala b/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/intervals/ExpandIntervals.scala
index 57b84e552..8fd0cb62f 100755
--- a/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/intervals/ExpandIntervals.scala
+++ b/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/intervals/ExpandIntervals.scala
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ class ExpandIntervals(in : File, start: Int, size: Int, out: File, ref: File, ip
 
   def ok( loc : GenomeLoc, prev: GenomeLoc, next: GenomeLoc  ) : Boolean = {
     //System.out.println("%s - %s - %s".format(repr(next),repr(loc),repr(previous)))
-    ( next == null || loc.distance(next) >= start) && (prev == null || loc.distance(prev) >= start)
+    ( next == null || loc.distance(next) >= start) && (prev == null || loc.distance(prev) >= start) && (!loc.equals(prev) && !loc.equals(next))
   }
 
   def repr(loc : GenomeLoc) : String = {
diff --git a/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/vcf/VCFExtractIntervals.scala b/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/vcf/VCFExtractIntervals.scala
index 398fc37fb..3935c2138 100755
--- a/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/vcf/VCFExtractIntervals.scala
+++ b/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/library/ipf/vcf/VCFExtractIntervals.scala
@@ -18,14 +18,42 @@ class VCFExtractIntervals(inVCF: File, outList: File, useFilterSites: Boolean) e
 
   def run = {
     out = new PrintWriter(new PrintStream(listOut))
-    asScalaIterator(new XReadLines(vcfIn)).foreach(vcf2int)
+    var elems = asScalaIterator(new XReadLines(vcfIn)).map(vcf2int).filter(p => !p.equals(""))
+    var prev : String = null
+    if ( elems.hasNext ) {
+      prev = elems.next
+    }
+    var cur : String = null
+    if ( elems.hasNext ) {
+      cur = elems.next
+    } else {
+      out.printf("%s%n",prev)
+    }
+    while ( elems.hasNext ) {
+      out.printf("%s%n",prev)
+      while ( cur.equals(prev) && elems.hasNext && !cur.equals("") ) {
+        cur = elems.next
+      }
+      
+      if ( ! cur.equals(prev) ) {
+        if ( elems.hasNext ) {
+          prev = cur
+          cur = elems.next
+        } else {
+          out.printf("%s%n",cur)
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
     out.close
   }
 
-  def vcf2int( vcfLine: String ) : Unit = {
+  def vcf2int( vcfLine: String ) : String = {
     var spline = vcfLine.split("\t")
     if ( ! vcfLine.startsWith("#") && (spline(6).equals("PASS") || spline(6).equals(".") || keepFilters) ) {
-      out.print("%s:%s%n".format(spline(0),spline(1)))
+      return("%s:%s".format(spline(0),spline(1)))
+    } else {
+      return ""
     }
   }