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On Monday, my colleague Tim Arango published an exclusive piece that illustrates the complexity of policing gangs in Los Angeles. He explained what he found:

When the rapper Nipsey Hussle was gunned down in the parking lot of the South Los Angeles strip mall he owned in late March, city leaders called on the community to come together and honor his legacy by pushing for peace in the neighborhood.

Months later, his legacy lives on — in the countless murals of his image that are all over the city, and in the hearts of the residents of South L.A. he inspired, with his music, his investments in the community and his commitment to protecting it from gentrification.

[Read about Nipsey Hussle’s legacy as an artist who never left his hometown behind.]

But even as city leaders, including the mayor and police commissioner, embraced Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, as a pillar of the community and a peacemaker among gang members, Hussle was also the subject of a long-running investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and city attorney’s office into whether his property at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue was a hub of gang activity.

The investigation, which hadn’t been publicized by the city until now, has gathered steam in the wake of the killing, as investigators had worried that the strip mall could become a scene of violence.

But investigators are now in a bind: With the narrative of Hussle as a hero now solidified, there will most likely be enormous political pressure to back away from the investigation because of the risk of damaging relations between the city and the community of South L.A.

The investigation reflects deep divisions within the city about how to deal with street gangs. Hussle had openly acknowledged his past involvement with the Rollin 60s Crips, which has roots in 1970s Los Angeles, but had tried to use his music and growing fame to transcend that past.

Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a City Council member who represents South Los Angeles, said his office had been trying to get answers about the investigation for years, on behalf of Hussle and his business partners. “We have not received complaints about this address, and conversely there are dozens of other addresses that we have received complaints about but haven’t been able to get any action,” he said.

Now that Hussle is gone, the investigation threatens to jeopardize the future of his businesses in the neighborhood, especially if the Police Department and city attorney take action against his remaining business partners, and his plans to invest in residential and retail outlets.

“I think everybody in the community will do everything we can to make sure the ventures he started will continue,” Mr. Harris-Dawson said. “And this is a very confusing hiccup in this process.”

[Read Tim’s full story here.]

Here’s what else we’re following

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• A gas explosion in Murrieta killed one SoCalGas employee, injured 15 others and destroyed a house on Monday afternoon. The employee had gotten to the house after a contractor had severed a gas line. Nearby residents said they thought it was an earthquake. [The Press-Enterprise]

• In the nation’s most diverse state, Republican leaders have been silent on the president’s tweets about four Democratic congresswoman of color. Their lack of condemnation has angered a vocal minority within the California G.O.P. who say that President Trump is dragging their party down. [Politico]

• David Valadao, who was the last in a wave of Republican representatives to be ousted by Democratic challengers, is considering running again. He’d be taking on Representative T.J. Cox, who narrowly edged Mr. Valadao out of his Central Valley seat. [GVWire]

• Heat, experts say, is not just an inconvenience. It can be life-threatening for agricultural workers and others whose jobs require them to be outside. Although California has heat-related labor standards, Representative Judy Chu and her colleague Representative Raúl Grijalva of Arizona are trying to create federal rules. [CaliforniaHealthline]

• Lots of snow in the winter means big snow melts in the summer. So this year, Lake Tahoe is reaching its limit. [The Mercury News]

• Peter Thiel, one of President Trump’s top supporters in Silicon Valley, called for an investigation of Google for agreeing to work closely with China. [Bloomberg]

• A feisty Google competitor, DuckDuckGo, is testing whether people will eschew the search giant — and everything it does — in order to recover their privacy. [The New York Times]

California science

• As The Times marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s mission to the moon, here’s how thousands of aerospace workers in offices, factories and test facilities on a 160-acre swath of Downey helped get it there. And now, almost all of it’s gone. [The New York Times]

• Five new strawberry varieties developed by U.C. Davis scientists are set to hit the market this fall. They’ll be more environmentally friendly to grow and, they hope, will taste better. [The Sacramento Bee]

• The desert town of Borrego Springs is set to celebrate its 10th year as a Dark Sky Community. It’s the only one in the state that’s been designated by the International Dark Sky Association. Here’s how residents have done it. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

If you missed it, Borrego Springs was also a great place to see this year’s “super bloom.” [The New York Times]

• “On land I’m very C-minus, but underwater, I’m Mensa.” Rog Hanson, a retired schoolteacher who is not a scientist, has probably spent more time with Pacific seahorses than anyone on earth. [The Los Angeles Times]

And Finally …

Today, we’re adding a couple of Nipsey Hussle tracks to our California playlist. First,“Dedication,” which features Kendrick Lamar, from his Grammy-nominated album “Victory Lap.” And an older one: “Keys 2 the City.”

Not long after Hussle was killed, my colleague Walter Thompson-Hernández wrote a tribute; the two were briefly classmates at Hamilton High School.

Those were two of the songs that, for Walter, stood out as documents of a singular life — but one that was still part of something larger.

They were “testimonies told through the lens of someone fighting both to preserve a memory and redefine the negative image of his life and community,” Walter wrote. “Nobody could tell it better than he could; he was the expert in his own story.”

Click here to listen to the California Soundtrack on Spotify.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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