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An Illinois church and its pastor believe the Governor is treating them like second-class citizens during the coronavirus pandemic ... and they're suing to open back up.

Pastor Stephen Cassell and The Beloved Church of Lena, Illinois are going after Gov. Jay Pritzker over the state's stay-at-home orders, claiming places of worship are "no less 'essential' than its liquor stores to the health and well-being of its residents."

Cassell says that under Pritzker's current stay-at-home order, his prayer and worship services are off-limits because religious nonprofits are only essential when they provide food, shelter, and social services for needy people.

Cassell also claims Pritzker's declaration that churches are non-essential businesses "reeks of rank bigotry."

The church wants the court to step in and find the Governor's order of shutting down churches unconstitutional.

According to the docs ... the church believes this violates the constitutional rights to free exercise of religion, free speech and freedom of assembly.

Cassell adds that he and his parishioners are "fully willing to comply with proper constitutional guidelines ... but they cannot abide by an indefinite shut down of their church."

He's asking for an order to keep the Governor and government officials from interfering with church business and let them be.

The pastor adds the orders rest on "shaky legal grounds," but the Governor is trying to enforce them and extend them to the end of May and possibly beyond ... and they've had enough.

The church plans to reopen and hold a public worship service Sunday.

We knew it was coming ... now it's official -- the Little League World Series is officially canceled for the first time in the tournament's history.

Thanks a lot, coronavirus.

The LLWS -- which is always played in August -- has been running without a hitch since it began in 1947 ... but just like Cal Ripken, the streak was bound to end.

Little League president Stephen Keener broke the news Thursday ... saying league officials tried to come up with a feasible solution, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the risk.

"After a thorough assessment of the impact the devastating COVID-19 pandemic has had on 6,500 community-based Little League programs in 84 countries and based upon the direction of governmental and public health authorities, and in consultation with medical professionals and our Board of Directors, Little League International has made the difficult and disappointing decision to cancel its seven World Series tournaments and their respective regional qualifying events."

He added, "This is a heartbreaking decision for everyone at Little League International, but more so for those millions of Little Leaguers who have dreamt of one day playing in one of our seven World Series events."

Sad.

The Org. also canceled all Little League tournaments -- including softball.

LLWS officials are hopeful they can play again in 2021.

U-Haul is pissed off at the NYC funeral home that used its trucks to store dozens of dead bodies, and the rental giant says it's cutting off the funeral home ... for good.

Police say the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn rented 4 unrefrigerated U-Haul trucks to store about 50 corpses, and a passerby even called to complain about the awful smell.

Honchos at U-Haul are outraged and tell TMZ, “This is a wrongful, egregious and inhumane use of our equipment."

U-Haul also tells us ... "Our trucks are designed for household moves. Properly caring for the remains of people’s loved ones requires vehicles suited specifically for that purpose. Our trucks absolutely cannot be rented for this reason.”

Funeral homes in New York are being overwhelmed by the massive COVID-19 death toll, but U-Haul says this particular facility will have to look elsewhere for overflow storage.

President Trump finally coming around to the idea of wearing a face mask during a pandemic would be huge -- but a wax statue figured it out before he did.

The President's wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Berlin is sporting a new look amid the outbreak ... the famed wax museum has added a red mask protecting Trump's mouth and nose.

Of course, it's just wishful thinking on the part of Madame Tussauds ... while the CDC strongly recommends wearing masks and face coverings to slow the spread of the novel virus, POTUS has refused to get with the program.

There are some obvious benefits to wearing a face mask. Even though it's not a substitute for other defenses against COVID-19, like social distancing and hand washing, it's way easier than, say ... ingesting disinfectant.

There is a big update ... Trump's VP Mike Pence IS finally wearing a mask. He put one on Thursday while touring an Indiana General Motors plant.

Dr. Elvis Francois has gone from orthopedic surgeon to chart-topping recording artist during the pandemic, and while he knows which gig is more important ... he'd love to keep doing both.

The singing surgeon -- accompanied by Dr. William Robinson, his musical partner on piano -- has become famous for his inspirational solos covering songs like John Lennon's "Imagine" and Bill Withers' "Lean on Me."

This led to the duo releasing a 4-track EP, titled "Music is Medicine," with a Nashville record label ... and it's made it to Billboard's Emerging Artists chart, and it's topping some of the iTunes charts.

Dr. Elvis told us Thursday on TMZ Live ... it all "feels like a dream" and it's a win-win. Not only are people loving his music, but proceeds from the EP go toward the Center for Disaster Philanthropy's COVID-19 Response Fund.

However, his newfound fame doesn't mean Dr. Elvis is ready to leave the building ... as in, his operating room. The good doc says helping people as a surgeon is still his top priority, and singing's more like his favorite pastime.

Dr. Elvis tells us he plans to keep helping people in both capacities as much as possible, though. Talk about a talented multi-tasker.

BTW -- the doctor duo's cover of "Imagine" has gone over way better than the Gal Gadot-driven celebrity version last month ... which was widely criticized and led to Joe Rogan calling her a "f***ing idiot."

A basketball team in Taiwan just celebrated a championship like it was 2019 ... hugging and high-fiving on each other as if there was no such thing as coronavirus!!!

The surprising scene all went down after Team Beer beat the Yulon Luxgen Dinos in the 6th game of the Super Basketball League Finals in New Taipei City.

FYI -- the SBL is a semi-pro league in Taiwan ... and despite the global pandemic -- it's still playing games.

The scenes on the court Thursday were pretty surreal ... some photographers were wearing masks, but players weren't and while there were no fans, there was really no semblance of social distancing in the arena either.

And, as you can see in pics of Thursday's post-game trophy presentation ... there wasn't much concern for spreading COVID-19 at all there as well -- 'cause dudes were sweaty as hell within inches of each other with no face coverings in sight!!

Of course, Taiwan has been widely praised for its handling of the virus ... with only 429 confirmed cases and just six deaths.

In fact, other sports in Taiwan are playing games too -- with the Chinese Professional Baseball League staying busy as well.

Royal Caribbean Cruises royally screwed its employees with utter disregard for their health ... so they claim in a new lawsuit.

Mykola Molchun -- a crew member from Ukraine -- has filed a class-action lawsuit against the popular cruise line company claiming it was careless and continuously failed to protect its crew members assigned to work aboard the vessels despite RCC knowing about the dangerous conditions and explosive contagiousness associated with the deadly virus.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Molchun claims RCC failed to follow even the most basic safety precautions after getting COVID-19 notice ... like timely quarantining crew members stationed aboard the vessel. The suit also brought up a St. Patrick's Day party RCC threw for over 1,000 crew members ... saying it showed "an alarming lack of caution."

The suit claims RCC did this even after it suspended future cruise operations for passengers on March 13 and even then still allowed crew members to continue mingling in unsafe conditions ... like allowing them to eat in buffet settings.

The cruise line industry has been taking in the chin as of late. As we've reported ... Princess Cruise Lines, for example, has been sued multiple times by its guests. And, now crew members are getting in on the action. The suit comes about a week after a third Royal Caribbean crew member died after working on a vessel with a COVID-19 outbreak onboard.

LeBron James says NO NBA EXECS want the 2019-20 NBA season to be canceled -- and insists a new report stating the contrary is flat-out wrong.

Bron's issue stems from a CNBC report Thursday which cites multiple anonymous NBA execs and NBA player agents who have expressed serious concern about restarting the season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report says execs are feeling the pressure from the players (via the agents) and are "pushing for an outright cancellation of the season so everyone can focus on safely resuming play next season."

But, Bron says that's just not true.

"Saw some reports about execs and agents wanting to cancel season??? That’s absolutely not true," Bron said.

"Nobody I know saying anything like that. As soon as it’s safe we would like to finish our season. I’m ready and our team is ready. Nobody should be canceling anything."

So, what's the truth? Probably somewhere in the middle. It's impossible for Bron to know what EVERY exec and agent is thinking ... but on the other hand, he is VERY plugged in.

Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban has spoken publicly about wanting to get the season going again ... but has STRESSED that he will only support a plan in which everyone (fans, players, etc.) are safe.

Of course, the NBA was the first major pro-sports league to suspend play after superstar Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 ... and every league followed the Association's lead shortly after.

Justin Bieber riding an electric surfboard in a wetsuit just seems to scream ... B-B-B-Bieber and the jets, to us, anyway. Shout-out to Elton John.

The Biebs was spotted out Monday on a jet surfboard zipping around Puslinch Lake in Ontario, Canada, where he's hanging out during this quarantine. Witnesses tell us he surfed the perimeter of the lake and waved hello to neighbors.

We're told the wifey, Hailey, was also hanging out on the dock watching Mr. Bieber enjoy the hell out of his quarantine time while staying at a house near the lake, in isolation, during this pandemic.

In any event ... at least these pics show Justin's like the rest of us trying to enjoy some time outdoors after being holed up inside for weeks now. He's taking part in the famous All In Challenge ... with a chance for him to give one lucky fan a one-on-one concert.

Surf's up, dude.

Megan Thee Stallion got the green light for her "Savage" remix with Beyonce from the same record exec Meg's blasting in a lawsuit -- but J. Prince squashed that beef, temporarily, for the sake of charity.

Sources at Megan's label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, tell TMZ J. Prince had to sign off on the collab that brought MTS to tears -- which could have been a super awkward situation for her.

Remember, she's in the middle of a nasty lawsuit, attempting to get out of her contract. A lawsuit in which she openly accuses J. Prince of bullying her and others.

We're told J. Prince, who consults with 1501, still had to sign off because the label paid for production, and had to agree to give up profits and royalties. Our sources say Prince's approval was done "in unity" to benefit Houstonians affected by the virus.

As we reported, Bey and Megan are donating all proceeds from the remix -- which already has nearly 4 million views in less than a day -- to Bread of Life's COVID-19 relief efforts in Houston ... Meg, Bey and J. Prince's hometown.

As J. Prince put it on IG, "This is how I love to see the powers of H-Town, United, at its best! Texas Stand up!"

Of course, unity for the sake of charity only goes so far. We're told the lawsuit is still pending -- Meg still wants out of her 1501 Certified deal.