i think i got it

requirements-to-freeze.txt

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ html2text
 mistune
 psycopg2
 pyquery
-python-dateutil==1.5
+dateparser
 raven
 requests
 pytz

requirements.txt

@@ -2,23 +2,28 @@ BeautifulSoup==3.2.1
 blinker==1.4
 contextlib2==0.5.1
 cssselect==0.9.1
+dateparser==0.3.2
 Flask==0.10.1
 Flask-Script==2.0.5
 Flask-SQLAlchemy==2.1
 gunicorn==19.4.5
 html2text==2016.1.8
 itsdangerous==0.24
+jdatetime==1.7.2
 Jinja2==2.8
 lxml==3.5.0
 MarkupSafe==0.23
 mistune==0.7.1
 psycopg2==2.6.1
 pyquery==1.2.11
-python-dateutil==1.5
+python-dateutil==2.4.2
 pytz==2015.7
+PyYAML==3.11
 raven==5.10.2
 requests==2.9.1
 rfc3339==5
+six==1.10.0
 SQLAlchemy==1.0.12
+umalqurra==0.2
 Werkzeug==0.11.4
 wheel==0.24.0

star/utils.py

@@ -8,22 +8,13 @@
 """
 
 import datetime
-import dateutil.parser
-import pytz
+
+import dateparser
 
 
 def date(date):
     """Convert string dates (for the lazy)."""
-    if isinstance(date, basestring):
-        date = dateutil.parser.parse(unicode(date))
-
-    # Provided dates are in EST.
-    date = pytz.est.localize(date)
-
-    # Dates only, please.
-    assert isinstance(date, datetime.datetime)
-
-    return date
+    return datetparser.parse(date, settings={'TIMEZONE': 'US/Eastern'})
 
 
 def date_range(start, end):