2006July - On 31 July 2006, Fidel Castro temporarily delegates power, and Raul Castro takes over provisionally as President of the Council of State and head of the Cuban Communist Party.2007May - Private taxi drivers notice that police are no longer stopping them to check to see if they are licensed.July - Raul Castro's first major speech as acting President gives a glimpse of his reform ideas, calling for 'structural changes and changes of concepts' and placing a priority on agriculture. He quotes his brother Fidel: 'Revolution is a sense of the historical moment, it is to change all that must be changed.'December - The under-the-table pay supplements that foreign companies have long provided in hard currency to Cuban workers are legalised. Companies must keep records of such payments and the workers must pay income tax on them.2008February - Raul Castro is elected as Cuba's chief executive, President of the Council of State, a post he held provisionally since 2006.March - Following Raul Castro's promise to remove 'unnecessary prohibitions' that affect citizens' lives, a series of consumer restrictions are lifted. Computers and DVD players are permitted for sale to the public, Cubans are permitted to have cell phone accounts in their own name (previously, they typically enlisted a foreign visitor to open an account in the visitor's name), and Cubans are permitted to stay in tourist hotels and to rent cars previously available to tourists only.April - Raul Castro announces that the Council of State commuted death sentences of 'a group of convicts' and leftthem with 30-year or life sentences. This action leftonly three inmates on death row, all convicted of terrorism-related charges. Two of these three, both citizens of El Salvador, had their death sentences commuted by the Supreme Court in 2010; the court changed their sentences to 30-year jail terms.July - A programme of agricultural land grants that had been under way for months was formalised in Decree-Law 259, providing for the distribution of idle state lands to individual farmers and cooperatives. Grants are made in usufruct in ten-year terms for individuals and 25-year terms for cooperatives.July - The transportation ministry announces that it will soon begin granting new licences for private taxis.August - A new labour policy removes ceilings on individual earnings in the state sector and directs state sector employers to develop sliding pay scales that reward productive workers with higher pay.2009January - Regulations are published to enable licensing of new private taxis, and their numbers double within six months.April - Following an announcement in December 2008 that the government was conducting 'experiments...to lighten the state's burden in the provision of some services', the government begins turning over small barber and beauty shops to their workers, who pay rent and utilities and otherwise run the shops as their own business.June - A new decree permits Cubans to hold more than one job, except for persons holding high-level jobs, teachers, and health sector personnel.August - Raul Castro tells the National Assembly that Cuba might have to do without some 'beneficial and even laudable activities' that generate spending that 'simply is not sustainable'. He confirms the gradual closure of public boarding schools that combine study and farm work, which generations of Cubans attended starting as early as seventh grade. The Catholic church applauds it as a 'positive step' that will keep families together.August - The Office of the Comptroller is established, headed by Gladys Bejerano, to strengthen auditing inside state entities. The office goes on to figure in several investigations of corruption involving arrests of both Cuban and foreign businessmen.September - Granma reports that as part of efforts to achieve 'economic rationality', the government will begin the process of closing 24,700 workplace cafeterias, beginning in four ministries in Havana. …