Ruby 1.9 encoding issue

encoding.rb

# in searchterm.rb google_cache_refer method
query_value = @params['q'].to_s unless @params.nil? or @params['q'].nil?  

# Ruby 1.8, result, successful:
# query_value
Equifax Credit Watch� Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring with FICO� Score promotional code
cache:mL7CWXTyDjAJ:www.archive.org/stream/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc_djvu.txt duc qiu

# Ruby 1.9, result:
# query_value
["Equifax Credit Watch\x99 Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring with FICO\xAE Score promotional code"]
["cache:mL7CWXTyDjAJ:www.archive.org/stream/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc_djvu.txt duc qiu"]

Failures:

  1) Searchterm processing should find searchterm in google cache referer
     Failure/Error: @st.get_searchterm(referer).should == 'duc qiu'
       expected: "duc qiu"
            got: "duc qiu\"]" (using ==)
     # ./ssss_spec.rb:32:in `Tracking'


query_value = @params['q'].join unless @params.nil? or @params['q'].nil? 

# Ruby 1.8, result, successful:
# query_value
Equifax Credit Watch� Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring with FICO� Score promotional code
cache:mL7CWXTyDjAJ:www.archive.org/stream/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc_djvu.txt duc qiu

# Ruby 1.9, result:
# query_value
Equifax Credit Watch� Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring with FICO� Score promotional code
Fcache:mL7CWXTyDjAJ:www.archive.org/stream/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc/lenovveavcyneeov00cruc_djvu.txt duc qiu

Failures:

  1) Searchterm processing should find searchterms in google referer
     Failure/Error: @st.get_searchterm(referer).should == 'Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring with FICO Score promotional code'
     ArgumentError:
       invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII
     # /home/winfield/Developer/work/vulcan/vulcan-common/lib/vulcan-common/searchterm.rb:106:in `google_cache_refer'
     # /home/winfield/Developer/work/vulcan/vulcan-common/lib/vulcan-common/searchterm.rb:114:in `special_cases'
     # /home/winfield/Developer/work/vulcan/vulcan-common/lib/vulcan-common/searchterm.rb:59:in `get_searchterm'
     # ./ssss_spec.rb:27:in `Tracking'