Read the papers here, and you might think little has changed from the days when Chicago politicians got money from Al Capone.

New details keep emerging in the case against James Duff, a politically connected businessman who won city contracts by fudging facts on company ownership and recently pleaded guilty to 33 counts, including racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, and fraud.

Last week, the federal government charged the 16th person in its "Hired Truck" corruption probe - a scandal in which officials allegedly forced companies that wanted lucrative city contracts to pay bribes, make campaign donations, or do free work on their homes.

And earlier this month, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D) came out so forcefully against corruption at City Hall - which has included a towing scandal and questions over O'Hare contracts in addition to the trucking and minority-owned firm scams - that pundits are speculating about a future challenge to longtime mayor and icon Richard M. Daley.

The scandals are a far cry from Chicago's rampant corruption of a few decades ago; many of the charges involve the sort of back-scratching and ethical slides that occur beneath the surface in many cities.

But in Chicago, history and reputation mean that even run-of-the-mill scandals can raise questions about just how far behind the city has left its crooked practices, and create problems for a mayor trying to change Chicago's image from mobsters and dirty politicians to soaring skylines and lakefront parks.

One reason the electorate has been so blasé is that the scandals are "a reinforcement, not a revelation," says Don Rose, a Chicago political consultant. "The current mayor is always making a pretense that he's cleaned things up, and that this doesn't go on, but obviously it does, and he's embarrassed."

Most of the scandals, too, require an accounting degree to follow: They involve the arcane world of city contracts. But they have their share of colorful characters - like Angelo Torres, a former gang member who became director of the city's Hired Truck program, or John "Quarters" Boyle, who earned his nickname stealing millions of dollars' worth of quarters from state tollways before going to work for the city - and shady dealings.

The heart of the Hired Truck charges is that the city ran a "pay to play" system for its trucking contracts. The federal government has brought charges of fraud, extortion, and bribery, and said the city's Water Department ran a "racketeering enterprise."

The trials of Mr. Duff and his associates, meanwhile, have to do with falsely representing company ownership to grab $100 million in contracts reserved for minority- and women-owned businesses.

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